New Delhi, January 30
Agitated over the recent demolitions on the directions of the Delhi High Court, members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi today created a ruckus at a meeting of the House and stalled proceedings, forcing the Mayor to adjourn the House.

Opposition members led by Mr Subhash Arya today gheraoed Mayor Satbir Singh and the Municipal Commissioner for not tabling the action taken report of the demolition drive of the MCD launched following the Delhi High Court order. They demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the Mayor, saying that they were unable to safeguard the citizens of the national Capital.

The opposition members agitated just after Municipal Commissioner A. K. Nigam tabled the ATR before the Mayor to make it public.

But the mayor refused to make the report public, saying that being a sub judice case, it could not be made public.

Just after the refusal of the Mayor, the opposition leaders stepped on the ramp and gheroed the Mayor
and the Municipal Commissioner for at least 10 minutes.

This was a special meeting of the House called by the Mayor to make the ATR public.

Mr Subhash Arya and BJP councillor Vijender Gupta said that the House members were misguided by the Mayor who assured them that the ATR would be tabled after discussion of “Lal dora” land and encroachment issues. The Leader of the Opposition said the Opposition would boycott the Budget session to be held tomorrow.

Deputy Leader of Opposition Onkar Singh Thapar demanded that the Delhi Government should pass an ordinance to approve the unauthorised constructions on the line of Ulhas Nagar in Mumbai.

If they cannot pass the ordinance, they should implement the Malhotra Committee report which has recommended to approve such constructions because 80 per cent of the Delhi area is unauthorised. It is the duty of the government to protect the citizens. If the Congress-led government cannot safeguard the citizens it should resign, he demanded.

Other leaders who spoke in the house were Mr Jaikishan Sharma, Mr Meer Singh, Ms Sarita Chaudhary, Mr Mohammad Asif, Mr Prem Chand Goel, Mr Brijmohgam Sharma and Mr Rakesh Joshi. 

New Delhi, January 30
A year’s delay to refund Rs 445 to a woman for an unused ticket proved costly for the Railways with a consumer court ordering it to pay 18 times the amount as compensation.

“When the rules of the Railways provide for refund of the ticket within 90 days, it failed to give any satisfactory explanation as to why there was inordinate delay much to the inconvenience to the complainant... this amounts to deficiency of service,” Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (North) headed by President K K Chopra said.

Ms Shalini Kapoor, who had to make an urgent journey from the Capital to Kanpur on May 15, 2004, purchased an AC Chair car ticket for the Gomti Express by paying Rs 445. With the train late by six hours, she took another ticket and went by Rajdhani Express the same day. As it left immediately, she could not return the ticket to get reimbursement.

However, on surrendering the ticket on completion of the journey the next day, the woman was assured that she would be refunded the amount within 90 days as per the rules. But the Railways failed to reimburse the amount even after a year despite repeated reminders.

They relented after she filed a complaint against the Northern Railway General Manager and the Chief Commercial Manager (Refund).

Ms Kapoor finally got back the money. But she was not in a mood to spare the Railway for the delay and moved the consumer court, claiming compensation for the harassment, mental agony and inconvenience. The Forum awarded her Rs 7,000 as compensation and Rs 1,000 as the cost of litigation. 

New Delhi, January 30
As part of its “zero tolerance” policy on power theft, the BSES is continuing with its enforcement raids to detect and control the menace of rampant power theft in the national Capital.

During December 2005 and January 2006, BRPL enforcement teams have detected over 70 cases of power theft in many blocks of the upmarket South Delhi residential area of Malviya Nagar, including Blocks A, B, G, L, M, N, R, 80 and Shivalik. Of the 71 case of power theft, 62 were by way of meter tampering. In rest of the cases, the accused were directly getting electricity from the nearby BSES.

The total connected load of these offenders was assessed for over 650 KW, much beyond their sanctioned load. “Such large-scale deliberate tampering of electronic meters clearly points to a disturbing trend: educated and well-to-do consumers are paying local electricians to tamper with their meters. They must understand that stealing electricity is a crime punishable by law,” said a BSES spokesperson.

All meters at Malviya Nagar were found to be deliberately slowed down by more than 88 per cent and most had the seals either broken or re-fixed. This is in sharp contrast to the recent raids in Neelkanth Apartments in I P Extension, where all 17 meters were found tampered with in 17 different ways, said a BSES official.

Seven cases of meter tampering were detected by BSES enforcement teams in a raid on January 27 alone in Malviya Nagar in Block 80 and Block G. The raids would continue in Malviya Nagar and adjoining areas, added a BSES official.

According to a BSES spokesperson, “Frequent reports of power failure in the Malviya Nagar area led the enforcement team to conduct random meter checks. The meter checks revealed how residents in the area were drawing up to 20 times more than their sanctioned load and thereby paying much less by deliberately tampering their meters to record less consumption”.

The BSES has charged these offenders for Dishonest Abstraction of Energy (DAE) and Direct Theft (DT), depending on the nature of power theft.

New Delhi, January 30
Mr N. D. Rajpal, Resident Director, Alembic Ltd, has been awarded “Top Public Affairs Director” Award at the 33rd World Marketing Congress organised by the Institute of Marketing and Management (IMM). The 2006 IMM Awards for Excellence in various categories were presented by Dr A. R. Kidwai, Governor of Haryana. Mr Rajpal was also Co-Chairman of the conference.

The other eminent personalities to have received the awards include Mr A. K. Shukla, Chairman, LIC, Mr Peter Mukherjee, Chief Executive Officer, Star TV, Mr Ravi Uppal, Vice President and Managing Director, ABB India, and media personality Karan Thapar.

Noida, January 30
Noida police have registered a case of cheating against four persons in connection with the Kesar Cooperative Housing fraud that came to light in the society’s meeting yesterday.

All the four were ex-members of the Mandeshwari Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. The Sector-49 police registered a case of fraud and cheating on the complaint of a Kesar Garden resident, Harsh Vardhan.

Some people had been collecting money from the members under the cover of a housing society for depositing it in Noida authority, but actually they had defrauded the residents as well as the Noida authority. The accused include UD Kaserwani, a resident of Sarita Vihar, Delhi; Rajesh Jain of Hari Nagar, Delhi; AK Singh of Gulmohar Garden, Sector-44 Noida; and SK Mishra of Inland Waterway Authority of India in Sector-1, Noida.

Harish Vardhan alleged that these office-bearers of the society had collected the flat price from them. But neither the registries of the flats nor other documents have been given to the buyers.

When Harsh Vardhan probed the matter, he found that the society owned cores of rupees to the Noida authority whereas most of the 155 flats have been sold out and the owners have paid full price to the cooperative society.

In spite of this, the society office-bearers had not deposited the full amount with the Noida authority which has already issued a notice to the society.

The society, it is learnt, owes Noida authority Rs 4.18 crore which has become about Rs 6 crore by adding the accrued interest component. In the event of non-receipt of the due amount, Noida authority can recover the amount from flat owners or take back the possession of the flats.

So, flat owners in Kesar Garden feel that they have been cheated out of Rs 15 to 25 lakhs each. Some other financial institutions have alleged that the officer-bearers of the Mandeshwari Cooperative Housing Society had also misled them.

However, the people of the cooperative housing society have decided to stand united in their fight against the cheats.

According to a resident Ajay Jain, one Kersarwani was the mastermind of this fraud. Jain said Kesarwani was office-bearer of another five housing societies in Noida and Greater Noida who have duped residents and government institutions of crores of rupees.

New Delhi, January 30
Three persons, including a three-year-old child, were killed and two others injured in a landslide in a West Delhi locality today, Fire Department officials said.

The landslide took place at around 10:30 am at Najafgarh Chowk in Moti Nagar where a mall was under construction, they said.

The dead included two labourers who were working in an under-construction mall, Gore Lal and Lalit, both 18 years old, as well as a three-year-old girl Lakshmi.

Genda (35) and Tapan (10) were injured in the accident. They have been admitted to a nursing home nearby. Rescue operation were on and there was a possibility of certain more workers being trapped in the debris, the officials said.

Gurgaon, January 30
The police here are under the scanner for their inability to track down a gang of highway robbers operating with impunity in the area.

A gang of four persons is alleged to be driving a white numberless vehicle which is operated on Gurgaon-Jaipur highway and the areas falling along its wayside like Manesar industrial zone, Udyog Vihar industrial and the posh DLF areas. The police seem to have no clue to the anti-social elements who ply this vehicle. On a couple of occasions, the police did close up on it, but the criminals just gave the slip to the cops.

A few days ago, the police received a message about the movement of the vehicle near Golf Club in DLF area. Two policemen gave it a chase on their motorcycle, but the gangsters in the Maxi hit their bike. Consequently, a policeman riding on the pillion, Mukesh, died on the spot while his companion received injuries.

In a similar case earlier, the mysterious vehicle rammed the official jeep of an SHO.

The anti-social elements are alleged to rob the unsuspecting public who get into their Maxi, assuming it to be just another commercial vehicle.

According to police sources, the criminals have been involved in about a dozen crimes. The Maxi has brought back the nasty memories of a Sumo vehicle used in the same manner last year.

Four persons were eventually arrested, but not before they had committed about 35 robberies and other criminal acts. Such crimes along the highway could rise further as the anti-social elements find it easy to strike here and escape.

The industrial clusters along the highway employ a large number of workers and as the intra-city public transport is negligible, the anti-social elements use the opportunity to strike at will.

Besides, posh colonies and HUDA’s sectors are well connected with the highway. Some of them like Sushant Lok and DLF City literally skirt the highway.

Only recently the police nabbed a number of sex workers coming from Delhi to do business on the highway during the past few months.

A general perception is that such crimes would take place despite the best intentions of the police. As it is, the police strength in the district is low considering the present residential population and the work force.

To add to the problem is the ever-growing geographical expanse of the city and a large number of villagers becoming part of the Urban Estate of Gurgaon.

To compound the problem is the wobbly public transport system.

New Delhi, January 30
The ongoing World Book Fair in Pragati Maidan has been a mixed bag for publishers who have displayed their publications.

Whether it is a coincidence or not, on Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom day today, books on the Father of the Nation have posted good sales despite overall poor response to the book fair this year.

While a majority of the publishers of technical and scientific books, especially on information technology, are unhappy over the response to the fair one of the prominent publishers of books on Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi Smriti, are happy with their sales.

“Books on Mahatma Gandhi are selling very well and especially many youngsters and foreigners have bought our books. My Experiments with Truth, which had been our bestseller for years, has again posted good sales at this book fair, especially today,” Dr Kripal Singh, Literature Propagation In-charge, Gandhi Smriti, told The Tribune.

Significantly, hitherto unknown and first time participant at the fair, Vitasta Publishing Private Ltd, have got a good response to their first book on the Father of the Nation, Brahmacharya, Gandhi and His Women Associates, written by Mr Girja Kumar, a veteran research scholar.

“We were very nervous and skeptical about launching this book as it is our first presence in any book fair but, fortunately, we have got a good response and we hope it will pick up further in the remaining five days,” Vitasta’s Director Renu Verma told The Tribune.

“The book tries to study Gandhiji’s relations with his various women associates and especially focuses on how the Mahatma practised brahmacharya in letter and spirit after he took a vow of life-long celibacy in 1906...I am happy to note that apart from institutions, many youngsters have shown interest in the book,” she says with a smile.

However, well-known publishers like Tata McGraw-Hill are not happy with the public’s response to the book fair this time.

“This time round there has been very poor response. Even on Saturday and Sunday the response was disappointing,” Tata Macraw-Hill’s Regional Sales Manager (North India and Pakistan) S. Balasubramanyam said.

“I strongly believe that levy of entry fee to the fair and lack of adequate publicity to the event is responsible for the poor response,” he said.

Reflecting the same views, Mr Sanjay Verma, Branch Manager of Prakash Books, says, “More than the spot sales, we are here to popularise our products and develop links with prospective buyers. But if the fair itself has poor response then how can we expect to meet our target,” he said.

Ghaziabad, January 30
Precious idols of gods stolen from Nepal have been recovered by the Link Road police in Sahibabad.

Three persons have been arrested within 24 hours. The idols of Sri Kirshna alone are reported to be worth one crore rupees. Lord Sri Krishna’s idol was stolen from a temple in Nepal.

The idols confiscated in Gorakhpur were brought here. Lord Rama’s idol is reported to be worth Rs 65 lakh, the police said.

SP City, Ramchander Yadav said SO Link Road, Alok Singh had nabbed a man near a multiplex with an 18-inch-high idol of Lord Krishna made of ‘usht dhatoo’.

The person identified himself as Lokesh Kumar, son of Sharda Prashad, resident of Gali No.10, Bhajan Pura, Delhi.

Lokesh told the police that the idol had been stolen from a temple in Nepal which had been bought by someone in Delhi.

SP City said Lokesh was taking the idol for selling it to a Ghaziabad trader. The police are trying to trace that businessman on the basis of information provided by Lokesh, SP City said. Delhi and Nepal police are being kept posted on the developments.

Noida, January 30
On the instance of the accused of murder of SP leader’s brother in Sarfabad, police were able to recover the blood-soaked clothes of the deceased who was also a Samajwadi Party worker.

According to SO Vikramjit, Rakesh and Dholu, after killing the brother of SP leader in Sector-50 on January 15, fled away.—OC

New Delhi, January 30
Visually impaired students enrolled in universities who wish to write their answer scripts on computer may comprise a small number, but this modest group’s endevaour to seek empowerment has hit a roadblock. Not many can get the universities to agree to make the switch from a scribe to a computer.

While a student enrolled with Anna Malai Open University who sought permission to use her laptop was lucky, her counterpart in the University of Delhi had to pay a price. A scribe who didn’t understand English, “messed up her examination”.

“When the scribe messed up my NET (National Eligibility Test) examination, I requested the UGC to allow me to use a computer, but it was turned down,” said Amita, an M Phil student of Delhi University.

Following the intervention of the Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the University Grants Commission has asked universities to take a lenient view of such requests. But the UGC clarifies that the letter is “a request” and that it cannot mandate universities to allow the use of computers. A senior official of the UGC said, “We are not authorised to direct universities to allow students to use computers. We have made a request on humanitarian grounds. It is up to the universities and their affiliate colleges to do the needful”.

Acknowledging that there was a need to empower disabled students, Dr Meera Ramachandran, Principal, Gargi College, however, pointed out that colleges with their limited resources would need the government’s support.

“There is the question of who will provide the computers, the required software, pay for the trainers and so on…if the government were to go the whole hog, we will be able to empower more such people,” she said.

Incidentally, while the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has made provisions for visually challenged students in the National Capital to use typewriters or computers for answering their scripts, the universities are still relying on scribes.

“Universities could perhaps ensure that the pool of scribes that they have are all good. This way the complaints about the scribe’s competence will come down. As for the grants from the government for computers that can be chalked out once the UGC gives an estimate,” said Mr T. D. Dhariyal, Deputy Chief Commissioner, Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disability. He went on to add, “If a student can manage to get his or her own computer for writing the examination then the university should give them the permission to use it”.

While colleges and the UGC both maintain that it is a request worth considering, they also incidentally lay the onus of making the switch on each other.

New Delhi, January 30
The East district area of the National Capital Territory of Delhi is the most affected by tuberculosis (TB) and the government has now started a number of treatment centres.

According to a survey report prepared by the department concerned, a total of 35,000 TB patients are under treatment. Of them, a majority of the patients are from East Delhi. The ratio of tuberculosis patients in Delhi is 218 persons in per lakh population. One of the major factors for the disease is poverty.

This is a socio-economic disease. Being not well-off, residents of slums and unauthorised colonies cannot have a rich diet, which results in contracting various kinds of diseases, particularly TB.

In slums and unauthorised colonies, generally people have small houses where infections spread rapidly from one person to other among the family.

The Medical Superintendent of Rajan Babu TB Hospital, Dr S. Banavaliker, said earlier this disease was only among the poor people. Now, it had spread all over due to infection. The detection rate of the disease is 70 per cent and the cure rate is 88 per cent. The government has opened 400 treatment centres and 21 chest clinics in various areas of the Capital so that patients can get treatment near their homes.

A patient is required to undergo treatment from six to eight months which is provided free of charge in government hospitals.

According to experts, in order to control the disease the government should try to improve the socio-economic standard of the citizens so that they can take a rich diet. If a man is physically fit, he will have the resistance power to fight off any disease. This disease is generally seen in the age group of 16-56 and among the people who are drug addicts, alcoholics and homeless. 

Greater Noida, January 30
Two persons riding a motorcycle were run over by a dumper after it rammed into them at Amritpur crossing in Greater Noida.

The victims, identified as Mohinder, and Satinder, were brothers going for shopping in connection with the marriage of their sister. However, the driver sped away with the dumper after the accident. The Kasna police have registered a case and sent the bodies for the postmortem examinations.

Accidents at the Amritpur crossing have claimed the lives of five people, including three students, in the past one year. 

Gurgaon, January 30
The police have nabbed a resident of Nuh for manufacturing and selling spurious ‘khoya’.

Balbir was caught red-handed while he was manufacturing the product. According to the district police chief, Mr Hanif Qureshi, about one and a half quintal of the item was seized on the spot.

The illegal manufacturing was done at Jacompura in old city area. The product was sold to the owners of sweetmeat shops in the city.

According to police sources, he had been running the illegal trade for the past three years.

The police are now targeting those shopkeepers who have been doing business with the accused.

The accused used milk powder and ‘Dalda’ for making ‘khoya’.

With the burgeoning population of the city and the growth of fast food joints, spurious eatable products have increased manifold. Large-scale urbanisation of the city and the villages near it have also pushed this illegal trade.

Not only spurious milk products are available on the market, even milk made of dangerous chemicals are foisted on the residents by the dairy owners. It is mainly the job of the District Health office to keep a tab on such underhand activities. Although the police also cannot be absolved of its responsibility.

It is an open secret that officials lobby hard to get the post of District Health Officer in Gurgaon and other industrialised cities of the state.

The question that crosses the mind of a common man here is whether the lobbying for the post is done to improve their own health or to accept the challenge and deliver the goods.

Although Gurgaon is projected as an international city by the government, realtors and private colonisers, the basic infrastructure is grossly missing. To cap it, the officials are found wanting when it comes to ethical standards.

The open sale of juice, cut fruit and others eatables without proper health specifications is ample testimony of the lackadaisical approach of the District Health Office.