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Demolitions: Centre to set up high level committee
HC refuses to stay demolition drive
BJP activists try to gherao CM’s residence
HC orders probe into ‘non-existent’ hospitals |
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Scheme to aid upgradation of SSI units
DMRC claims exemption from property tax
SC for speedy relocation of slums from Southern Ridge
Admn to introduce community policing soon
Poor civic amenities under the scanner
Delhi College of Engineering holds convocation
MDI honours media entrepreneur
Panel to study safe transport of children
Hotel owners jailed in power theft case
Three rape cases reported
Showroom ransacked by burglars
CGHS scam: Custody of three extended
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Demolitions: Centre to set up high level committee
New Delhi, February 7 The committee is being set up at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who held a meeting with Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Ms Dikshit had sent a letter to the Prime Minister last week expressing concern over the demolitions. The Committee, to be set up in two-three days, would also have representatives from the two major political parties — Congress and BJP — and submit its report within three months. Addressing newspersons, Mr Reddy said the MCD would submit a plan of action and obtain instructions from Delhi High Court which had ordered the demolition of all unauthorised structures in the capital. The MCD, however, would concentrate on only serious violations like encroachment on public land and ongoing illegal construction. “The Prime Minister has desired that the current uncertainty in Delhi over the ongoing demolition drive should be brought to an end,” Mr Reddy said. Therefore, taking various factors into consideration, it has been decided to appoint a high-powered committee of eminent citizens, experts and representatives of the Congress and BJP as its members to look into the various kinds of violations in Delhi and suggest “practicable solution”, he said. While clarifying that the demolition drive against illegal constructions would continue as long as the High Court did not give an order to stop it, Mr Reddy, however, maintained that the government wanted to take a lenient view towards minor offenders of building laws. He said all violations that had taken place in Delhi could not be clubbed
together. Indiscriminate encroachment on public land was more serious than in private apartments, he said. While the MCD would concentrate on two kinds of violations — encroachment on public land and ongoing illegal construction — the committee would look into violations in private land and in Lal Dora areas in terms of land misuse. Mr Reddy had broadly indicated the government’s intention to take a lenient view towards minor violations of building laws in Delhi yesterday.
He had, however, made it clear that the government would be harsh on “big offenders” of building laws and also officials and builders responsible for allowing illegal constructions. In reply to a question, the Urban Development Minister reiterated that since Parliament’s Budget Session had already been convened, his ministry could not come out with an ordinance, as desired by the Delhi Chief Minister, to halt demolition against minor violations of building laws. But there were other ways to deal with the situation, he added.
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HC refuses to stay demolition drive
New Delhi, February 7 A Division Bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma, however, asked the MCD to furnish all the relevant documents and notifications purported to have granted exemption with regards to the construction of commercial properties in the area. The Bench passed the order after Senior Counsel KTS Tulsi, appearing for prominent fashion designer Rohit Bal and others, claimed such exemptions by citing notifications which were said to have been issued by the MCD and revenue officials. Tulsi complained that the demolitions were illegal as they were being carried out without any prior notice to the occupiers who were now on the verge of incurring heavy losses worth crores of rupees. However, the Bench was not convinced with the counsel’s arguments and questioned the locus standi of the petitioners who were neither the builders nor the owners of the illegal structures but were only occupiers on rent. The matter has been posted for further hearing to February 14.
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BJP activists try to gherao CM’s residence
New Delhi, February 7 The BJP activists gathered at Jantar Mantar in the morning to march towards Chief Minister’s house. When they reached Patel Chowk, the police installed barriers to stop the marchers. When they grew restive, they were taken to Parliament Street Police Station and later released. The BJP activists who were led by the Delhi BJP chief, Dr Harsh Vardhan, accused the Chief Minister of ‘inaction’ in stopping the demolitions. “We want the Delhi government to take immediate steps to stop this demolition and implement the Malhotra Committee report,” senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who also participated in the demonstration, said. Vardhan, who was also detained along with the party activists pledged to step up the anti-demolition agitation against the Delhi government. “Today we are entering the second phase of our agitation, and from now onwards, we will launch a series of protests and pressurise the Sheila Dikshit government to take a decision in favour of the people,” he said. The BJP leader also warned that the activists would again attempt to picket the Chief Minister if the Delhi government did not take immediate steps to stop demolitions. Former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma also attacked the Dikshit government, accusing it of ‘deliberately delaying’ action to rein in MCD bulldozers.
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HC orders probe into ‘non-existent’ hospitals
New Delhi, February 7 A division bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma asked the committee, constituted by the High Court to look into the compliance of the provision of free treatment to poor patients in the private hospitals, to investigate the matter and file a status report. The court directed the private hospitals including Escorts Heart Institute and Apollo Hospital to provide free treatment to 25 per cent patients in case of land allotted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and 70 per cent in case of the land given by the Land and Development Office to people having an income of less than Rs 2000 income per month. Even a poor man who could not produce below poverty line (BPL) card should also be provided free treatment in these private hospitals which have been allotted government land at a concessional rate, the court observed. All the hospitals were directed to place a notice board at the hospital displaying the provision of free treatment with the name and telephone numbers of the MCD officials for receiving calls from the complainants. Counsel and member of the committee Ashok Agarwal submitted that about 70 trusts and Institutes were allotted land by the DDA and L & D Office for setting up hospitals in the Capital. Twenty-nine hospitals have been set up on DDA land and six on L & DO land. Out of these, 24 and two on the DDA land and L & DO Land respectively are bound by the condition to provide free treatment. Mr Agarwal alleged that three plots are lying vacant and the rest have been used for commercial purposes. Filing a status report, Committee Convener Maninder Acharya said most of the hospitals did not comply with the provision of providing free treatment to the poor. 26 hospitals did not respond to the letter issued to them asking for information about the free treatment to the poor both at out door and in-house wards. Talking about the Escorts Heart Institute, the Committee said the hospital did not have the notice board informing free treatment to the poor. The Court was dealing with a PIL filed by ‘Social Jurist’ seeking enforcement of the land lease condition by the hospitals, which provided for free treatment to 25 per cent of the poor. The High Court had earlier directed the Centre to decide on the representations from some prominent hospitals in the Capital saying they wanted to pay their way out of the obligation to treat poor patients free. Escorts Heart Institute had earlier offered to pay Rs 51 crore to get out of the land lease condition. The Dharamshila Cancer Hospital and Research Centre also approached the Delhi Development Authority recently with the idea to pay to reduce its ‘burden’ to treat poor patients from 25 to 10 per cent. The Judges had observed that the land lease agreement was essential for the benefit of the downtrodden and the demand was so made to the government to allot land for hospitals to serve the poor. It was, however, found over the years that such benefits had not reached them even though large pieces of lands had been given to the hospitals.
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Scheme to aid upgradation of SSI units
Faridabad, February 7 This was stated at a workshop-cum-awareness programme on the subject organised by the Faridabad Small Industries Association (FSIA) and the Small Industries Services Institute (SISI), Delhi, here recently. According to Mr Kamal Singh, Deputy Director, SISI, the aim of the CLCS was to facilitate technology upgradation of the small units in the specified product or sub-sectors by providing capital subsidy for induction of well- established and improved technologies. The Capital subsidy was available under the scheme where eligible primary lending institutions had sanctioned term loans. While the SIDBI, NSIC and the NABARD were the nodal agencies for such a project, the maximum ceiling on the loan for CLCS support was earlier Rs 40 lakh with the provision of about 12 per cent as fixed subsidy. The president of the FSIA said the SSI’s need to build up their competency with proper and timely upgradation of the technology in order to keep the pace with the changing scenario of the markets and the demand. He said the aim of any unit now should be the productivity and quality with the safe environment. Stating that as many as 44 sectors and sub-sectors were covered under the scheme and the list may be revised very soon, he said there was an urgent need for proper awareness among the entrepreneurs, as the subsidy part could be very instrumental for many of the units.
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DMRC claims exemption from property tax
New Delhi, February 7 The civic body, which has initiated a drive to collect property tax arrears, issued demand notices to DMRC after directions in this regard were given to the Commissioner by the MCD Standing Committee which met here yesterday, an official spokesman said. According to MCD, DMRC owes Rs 412 crore in property tax arrears, while the futuristic rail network claims that it is covered under the Indian Railways Act, which provides that Railway administration need not pay any tax in aid of funds to any local authority. According to DMRC, it was not required to pay property tax to the MCD as per an Act of Parliament.
DMRC clarified that a meeting held on July 14 last year, under the Chairmanship of the Delhi Chief Secretary, decided that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is not required to pay property tax to the MCD as per Section 2 (1) of the Delhi Metro Railways (Operation & Maintenance) Act 2002 enacted by the Parliament as per which it is defined as a non Government Railway.
“Therefore it is covered under Section 184 of the Indian Railways Act, 1989 which provides that Railway administration shall not pay any tax in aid of funds to any local authority. This view was endorsed by the MCD Commissioner and Secretary, Law department of the Delhi Government, who were present at the meeting,” a spokesperson of the DMRC said. It had been recorded in the meeting that the legal position in this regard was very clear, the DMRC spokesperson said and defended the Metro’s action of contesting the claim of MCD imposing property tax upon it. Continuing its drive to recover property tax arrears, the MCD had yesterday decided to issue notices DMRC, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and other Government agencies for not paying tax dues which runs into crores.
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SC for speedy relocation of slums from Southern Ridge
New Delhi, February 7 Thousands of slum dwellers, who had encroached upon the government land in Sanjay Nagar, Balbir Nagar and Indira Nagar, falling within the Southern Ridge zone, popularly known as ‘Bhatti Mines’, were to be shifted to the area earmarked to settle them. The government has established new colonies in Bawana, Holambi Kalan and Dera Mandi in the north of the city to provide permanent settlement to the slum dwellers with minimum basic facilities. The direction regarding completion of the relocation job was issued by a Bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Mr Justice C K Thakker and Mr Justice P K Balasubramanyan after the MCD informed the court that the process of relocation is expected to be completed by May. The MCD counsel said the shifting of 1,112 families of slum dwellers to Bawana would be completed in four weeks while 509 families would be shifted to Holambi Kalan in eight weeks. The remaining families would be shifted to Dera Mandi latest by the end of May, the corporation counsel said. The court asked the MCD to ensure that people from a particular cluster were shifted en masse to a
particular area so that the families and neighbours might not be separated and their social bonding remained intact. The court was hearing a PIL seeking directions
to the authorities to relocate slum clusters from the Bhatti mines areas as they were an impediment in checking illegal mining and were contributing to pollution.
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Admn to introduce community policing soon
Gurgaon, February 7 The district police chief, Mr Hanif Qureshi, said he was keen to introduce community policing in Gurgaon soon. In order to make the implementation of the new concept a success, the personnel will be trained and oriented to it, said Mr Qureshi. Mr Qureshi highlighted the changing nature of the force, which is now expected to provide service apart from traditional policing. The reason behind this is rooted in the challenge to tackle the increasing crimes in the area, many of them peculiar to an industrialised and modernising city. Moreover, there is a shortage of manpower in the force. Also, community policing would orient the personnel in the field to remain closer to the public. In these circumstances, the authorities hope to make optimal use of the available force and logistics. In the past, the police toyed with the idea of beat policing. The authorities later became cold to this idea, as it required enhanced logistics and manpower. The police will try to categorise the residents and areas in Gurgaon city, so as to provide better focus on community policing. Recently, for the first time a pledge swearing service to the people has been put up in the reception office of the district police headquarters. Many see this as a necessary preparatory ground for introducing the concept of community policing.
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Poor civic amenities under the scanner
Faridabad, February 7 According to the details of the survey, many of the newly-built roads in the NIT area here have suffered damages within a month of being laid, leading to resentment among the commuters. Now, a social activist has decided to file a PIL in the court in this connection. He has even photographed some of the patches on these roads and shown them to senior officials of the civic administration. However, it has ‘failed’ to get any satisfactory response regarding the action taken against the contractors and the authorities responsible. Now, the matter would be taken to the court for redressal. Earlier, the court had issued a direction to the concerned authorities, including the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) to file an affidavit regarding the status of the roads and other basic amenities. It was alleged in the PIL that several crores had been collected as Local Area Development Tax in the city, but no maintenance work had been carried out. Meanwhile, the Resident Welfare Association of sector- 15-A here has lodged a complaint with the MCF and the police regarding the damage of roads by the various telephone companies in the area and has demanded action against the culprits.
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Delhi College of Engineering holds convocation
New Delhi, February 7 The Lt-Governor’s gold medal was awarded to Shurbi Agarwal and Bhawna Bakshi for outstanding performance in academics, professional activities and extra-curricular activities. The Chief Minister’s gold medal was awarded to Rajat Malhotra and Neha Gidwani for best academic performance. The Principal’s gold medal was awarded to Abhay Kumar and Aarti Jain for outstanding performance among the graduating class of B-Tech. In addition, the Prof. Moudigill gold medal, Prof. S.P. Luthra’s gold medal, Prof.
J.B.P. Tripathi’s memorial scholarship, the IEEE Prof. P. Kundu medal and the Pt. Chunni Lal Shukla gold medal were awarded to meritorious graduates by Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit. The Chief Minister addressed the graduates and commended the efforts of the Delhi College of Engineering in turning out high quality graduates year after year. She lauded the achievements of the students and faculty in technological innovations such as super-mileage vehicle, formula-student car, development of liquid nitrogen engine for power generation, bio-diesel research and contributions made to information security and optical communication devices. She reminded the young graduates that in the new world order, they were not only required to work with a global mindset, but also focus attention on the local needs of the people. The Chief Minister further emphasized that engineering professionals have to nurture not only individual excellence but must also excel as a group so that their capacities could be used in the nation-building task. She also expressed satisfaction with the Department of Training and Technical Education and the Delhi College of Engineering for having developed a well-thought out perspective plan for the growth of quality technical education in Delhi.
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MDI honours media entrepreneur
Gurgaon, February 7 Thirty three-year-old Batra, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of exchange4media group of publications, was honoured with the Alumni of 1996 award by MDI Director Pritam Singh at a ceremony held recently at the institute. Batra, an alumni of the first batch of MBA (PG Programme in Management) of the MDI, has successfully established exchange4media group as a niche publishing company ever since its launch in 2000. In the past 10 years in the industry, Batra has come to be recognised as a thought leader, a successful entrepreneur and a media expert. Speaking on Batra’s nomination as Distinguished Alumni, Dr Pritam Singh said his personality and leadership traits were an inspiration for everyone at the MDI. Prof Amit Kapoor, a batchmate of Batra, who now teaches at the MDI, said Batra had shown what could be accomplished through hard work, ingenuity and compassion. Dedicating his award to all achievers of his batch, Batra said that it was touching to be felicitated by your alma mater and especially by your own distinguished batchmates.
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Panel to study safe transport of children
New Delhi, February 7 The committee, headed by Deputy Director, Department of Education, will look into recent road accidents and suggest measures to prevent its recurrence. It will submit the report within a month, official sources said here. The decision to set up the committee was taken by Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely after he visited a hospital where several schoolchildren injured in an accident yesterday were admitted. Seventeen children of a Central School were injured, four of them seriously, when two minibuses collided head-on in Narela yesterday, the third accident involving school buses this year. Last month, a three-year-old boy was run over by a school bus in Rohini and two students of a Central School were killed in an accident in Naraina. The minister also announced that the Government would foot the hospital expenses of 10-year-old Mohit Bajaj, who was seriously injured in yesterday’s accident.
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Hotel owners jailed in power theft case
New Delhi, February 7 Special Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Sharma asked Satpal Katyal and Ashok Puri, owners of a hotel in Karol Bagh area of central Delhi, to pay the outstanding bill to the BSES, power distribution company, within a month. The court, on a complaint of erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB), held the duo guilty under various provisions of the Indian Electricity Act and under section 379 (theft) of the IPC.
The convicts were allegedly caught red-handed by an investigation team of the DVB and later, as per the average past consumption, a bill of Rs.6.52 lakh was raised, which the accused failed to pay. “Power theft cases are a serious offence against the state and deterrent punishment was the need of the hour,” the Magistrate said. Meanwhile, a mass raid conducted by North Delhi Power in Ashok Vihar revealed more than 80 cases of power theft involving a load of 200 KW. A penalty of around Rs. 21 lacs has been imposed on some of these affluent residents of the colony who had adopted deliberate means to slow down the meters. The seals were found to be tampered with and external devices were inserted into the meters to slow down the meters by 60-90 per cent. The meter rivets and box hinges were also found broken in some cases. The company has booked all these consumers on charges of Dishonest Abstraction of Energy (DAE). The raid involved 2 NDPL Enforcement Teams comprising 20 officials. The highest load booked was 23 KW in A Block Ashok Vihar Phase II where a resident was found using 4 ACs/4 geysers. The meter in this case was found slow to the extent of 92.80 per cent. Said an NDPL spokesperson, “We have intensified our enforcement drive in posh colonies and plan to conduct more such mass raids.” Since starting operations, NDPL has booked more than 11,000 cases of power theft involving a load of over 161 MW and raised a penalty of Rs 225 crores. Out of this, 1,876 are cases of Direct Theft (DT) involving a load of 23 MW, 7,327 are cases of Dishonest Abstraction of Energy (DAE) involving a load of 86 MW and
1,800 are cases of Misuse/Assessment involving a load of 52 MW.
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Three rape cases reported
Bulandshahr, February 7 The victim’s father, Jalal, has lodged a rape case against two accused at the Bugarasi police station. The police have arrested the two youths and sent them to jail. A medical examination of the victim was conducted at the government hospital. Another rape case was reported from the Chhatari area. A 15-year-old girl was raped by a hotel owner and two employees. Villagers blocked the traffic for hours. On persuasion of senior police officials, the jam was lifted. An FIR was lodged against the three accused. The police has launched a manhunt to nab the accused. At Bibi Nagar, a few days ago, two persons raped a woman at gunpoint. After committing rape, they fired shots in the air to scare the villagers. Though the victim had complained to the police, an FIR is yet to be registered. The victim’s relatives had visited senior officials, requesting the registration of a case.
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Showroom ransacked by burglars
Noida, February 7 The showroom manager said unknown persons burgled the showroom on Monday night. The showroom was ransacked. They stole three computers, a digital camera and brass parts. Entrepreneurs here say thefts in industrial areas had been rising in the last few months and the Noida police were unable to curb such incidents. If thefts could not be checked then industrialists would be left with no choice but to shift to other states, they say.
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CGHS scam: Custody of three extended
New Delhi, February 7 Additional Sessions Judge I K Kochhar extended the judicial remand of Raj Kumar Pahuja, N S Khatri and Vinod Kumar Gupta till February 21. The three are co-accused in the multi-crore scam which involves the alleged fraudulent revival of defunct group housing societies by members in conspiracy with the officials of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies
(RCS) here. — TNS
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