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Khurana begins weeklong ‘Save Delhi Yatra’
BJP ‘Jail Bharo’: Over 100 activists
Noida’s industry, trade hit by SBI strike
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Swami Ramdev denounces quota in education
Power woes: Residents protest outside NPCL office
CM launches April phase of polio programme
Kabir connection echoes throughout Nagarkar’s book
DHBVN hauled up for bypassing regulatory commission
Senior citizens’ centre opens at Laxmibai Nagar
Panel tells Delhi Police to furnish probe details
Soren denies role in secretary’s murder
Bukhari detained in Ghaziabad
Bhakti Utsav, a soulful experience
Health care workers trained on heart revival technique
Fire breaks out at CNG station
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Khurana begins weeklong ‘Save Delhi Yatra’
New Delhi, April 8 He launched his weeklong yatra to create awareness amongst people against the ongoing demolition drive in certain parts of the city. The expelled BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Uma Bharati also joined him. She will take part in the yatra tomorrow. The yatra began from the Sadar area and culminated at Chandni Chowk. Hundreds of traders accompanied him to make the yatra successful. He started it from Bara Tooti in Sadar Bazar at 4 pm. The yatra affected traffic as the area is very congested. People have to wait for hours to reach their destinations. Khurana had visited Ayodhya yesterday to seek blessings of Lord Rama and said Delhi was like a temple to him and he was hurt by the demolition drive. He said if the Delhi government failed to bring an ordinance to stop the demolitions after the yatra, then he would begin a fast unto death before the Rashtrapati Bhavan. According to him, as many as 35 lakh people lost their source of income due to demolitions. Earlier, Khurana had requested all the parties to join hands against the ongoing demolition and sealing of shops in the Capital. In a bid to press his demand, he also asked the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Shiela Dikshit, to announce that she would step down if the Centre failed to bring in an ordinance or a Bill to stop it. He welcomed the demand by five Congress members of Parliament of Delhi and Congress MLAs for the ordinance and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) agitation against the demolition drive. He also said that during his term he had formed a committee headed by BJP leader V K Malhotra. But no results came out on the recommendations of the committee. Khurana, however, regretted that the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government had failed to implement the recommendations of the Malhotra Committee regarding the unauthorised construction and reallocation of industries. The Malhotra Committee Report recommended mixed land use and amnesty for all the constructions. Addressing the gathering at Bara Tooti, Ms Uma Bharti appealed to Mr Khurara to come forward to “lead in the Assembly polls in Delhi”. Describing the Delhi stalwart as a “father figure”, she said Mr Khurana could fight forthcoming elections from a common platform. Some leaders in the party insulted him by taking away his powers. “I want to see him as Delhi Chief Minister,” she said.
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BJP ‘Jail Bharo’: Over 100 activists rounded up
New Delhi, April 8 The BJP workers from 10
“mandals”: Rajouri Garden, Pratap Nagar, Janak Puri, Nangla Raya, Raghubir Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Delhi Cantt, Tagore Garden, Tilak Nagar and Hari Nagar, started arriving near Tilak Nagar Police Station since morning. They sat down on the road raising slogans like ‘Sonia Gandhi
murdabad’, ‘Sheila Dikshit istifa do’. The traffic remained blocked for hours. The police arrested Jagdish
Mukhi, Karan Singh Tanwar, Meera Kanwaria, Subhash Arya, Prithvi Raj Sahni, Satya Narain Dang, Meena Thakur, Yashpal Arya, Kamla Malhotra, Devendra Mohan Katyal and 15 others. Besides, 101 activists were arrested on charges of breach of peace and sent to jail. They demanded that sealing of shops should be stopped immediately. Vijay Kumar Malhotra and general secretary Alok Kumar addressed the leaders and workers. Prof Mukhi said that the Delhi government deliberately wanted to ruin the established trade being run for years so that the people of Delhi might be compelled to purchase costly goods of the multinational companies. In another development, in protest against the sealing of shops, thousands of traders belonging to more than 30 trade organisations today formed a ‘human chain’ from Nehru Place Chowk to Tuglakabad Chowk. The agitation is being run under the banner of CAIT. Area MLA Subhash Chopra and Municipal Councillors also joined the human chain. Mr Chopra said that sealing would damage the basic trade fabric of Capital.
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Noida’s industry, trade hit by SBI strike
Noida, April 8 Incidentally, Noida is also the home of about 2000 pensioners, both from the civil and the defence services. They are finding it difficult to pull through, as they have not been able to draw their pension amount. The Chief Manager, State Bank of India, main branch, Rajiv Jain, has expressed his helplessness in the matter. Besides, there are some 5000 salaried persons who are also feeling the pinch. It may be pointed out, that the State Government is also at the receiving end. A large number of cheques pertaining to the deposit of sales tax, income-tax, advance tax as well as stamp duty revenue have been piling up. The senior officials said that it will take a long time to clear the backlog even after the strike is called off.
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Swami Ramdev denounces quota in education
New Delhi, April 8 “Reservation, which sprung from caste factors, was not good for a forward looking outlook. Merit should be the sole criterion.” On his own university, which was working on the research and development of yoga sciences, he said reservation curbed real potential and demoralised competence. Swami Ramdev today said that his institution was working towards the cure of AIDS. Addressing mediapersons before his first seven-day ‘yoga science shivir’ in Delhi, which begins tomorrow, Swami Ramdev said ‘pranayam’ was the key to containing AIDS. ‘’But it will take some time before this could be scientifically established.’’ Refuting charges that his ‘therapy’ was not scientifically proved and lacked clinical research, he said hundreds and thousands of cured patients were proof of the potency of the ‘way of life’ called yoga. ‘’It was easy, inexpensive, authentic and carried no side-effects.’’ Moreover, everyone could do it, though not everyone could take medicines, he explained. ‘’Thousands of years of ayurveda history is testimony to its efficacy whereas allopathy is a new entrant with hardly 200 years behind it, which needs to prove itself,’’ he asserted.
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Power woes: Residents protest outside NPCL office
Noida, April 8 According to sources in the Power Department, with load-shedding appearing to have been enforced in Noida, the residents will have to bear at least a nine-hour power cut daily. After an order for 3 hours cut had been received from the UPP Corporation’s head office in Lucknow, it seems the local authorities have added another three hours power cut on their own from Friday. In effect, it has also affected the water supply in the city. Infuriated residents gheraoed the 220 KV power station in Sector-24 late last night, where power had been cut from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. without any prior notice. The main reason for the frequent power cut is being given as overloading. The load has exceeded 792 MVA while the power station can handle a load of just 725 MVA. As such, this power supply to a number sub station had to be stopped. Over loading is almost a regular phenomenon, the SDO, Transmission, said. A roaster has been made to tackle this problem in all the three divisions, he added. With the rise in mercury and people using coolers and air conditioners, “the people are bound to be traumatised” by the long power cuts, said an angry resident.
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CM launches April phase of polio programme
New Delhi, April 8 Ms Dikshit said the government is working hard to make the Capital a polio-free city. During the February 2006 phase of the programme, the Delhi government has immunised more than 26 lakh children, she added. “Only one case of polio was reported in 2005 and no case has come up in the current year so far,” the Chief Minister said. She said it was the responsibility of the parents also that no child below the age of five was left out from being immunised from the current phase of the programme which will continue till April 15. “It is the government’s resolve to strengthen the routine immunisation and disease surveillance to ensure that polio-virus is detected and responded to rapidly,” she added. Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri, who also attended the launch, said the new pulse polio round will have a special thrust to cover Jhuggi Jhompdi clusters. “Under this campaign, all the Metro stations will be covered for transit population coverage. Four teams each in about 60 trains to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are deployed to cover children in transit in coordination with Northern Railways for six days,” he added.
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Kabir connection echoes throughout Nagarkar’s book
New Delhi, April 8 At a major event organized by Harper Collins at The Park, New Delhi, Aamir Khan released Nagarkar’s book on Friday evening. The evening began to the reverberating music of Kabir’s dohas rendered by the vocalist, Shubha Mudgal. The connection with Kabir is strong as it echoes throughout Nagarkar’s book as an undercurrent. In ‘Gods Little Soldiers’, Nagarkar conducts a literary examination of the violence that afflicts our society and our minds today. A comprehensive book-reading session followed in which both Aamir Khan and Nagarkar read rather witty, sometimes deep, sometimes simply humorous excerpts. Kiran says of his own book, “This book has no message at all. However, if there is any endeavour in my story to convey anything, it is to eliminate the distance between us and them. The real terrorist is inside us.” Nagarkar further elucidates, “For years you know I’m completely irreligious, however, I haven’t escaped religion at all and am thinking of it all the time. The most arresting image while writing this book was that of ‘Gulbadan,’ Babur and Akbar’s daughter. At this point a question arises why we are killing each other, our worst fears have been realized in global rampant terrorism. I’m a story teller and in this book, I’ve looked into why a terrorist does what he does. For a terrorist his religion is extremism and my book is about coming to grips with Zia, my main character in this book.” On being asked about the risks and challenges he faced while writing the book, Nagarkar says, “This comes out of eight years of doubting and this has been a very difficult book to write. If you are taking real risks, chances are of falling flat on your face. While, writing the book half way through I thought of compromising on my original idea of Zia and thought of taking half-way measures, softening Zia’s character down.”
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DHBVN hauled up for bypassing regulatory commission
Faridabad, April 8 It may be pointed out that though the HERC is the regulating body regarding power supply policies and decisions connected with it, the DHBVN and the UHBVN (Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited) have often bypassed it. This was pointed out in the meeting held here on Friday, in which the Chairman of the HERC, Col. (Retd) Raghubir Singh and two members of the Commission were present. The DHBVN, which was pulled up for levying fuel surcharge and not paying interest on deposits made in advance by the industrial consumers, agreed to review the measures. It also agreed to seek the prior approval of the HERC for hiking any further charges connected with power supply. The Commission warned the Nigam to avoid such ‘irregularities’ and directed it to refund the fuel surcharge paid by the industrial consumers. It was also pointed out that the Nigam had failed to release the interest amount worth several crores on the meter security bill collected from non-domestic consumers. The ARR meeting is organized every year, in which the HERC interacts with the consumers in presence of the senior officials of the power supply agency. The Nigam had failed to bring down the line loss despite several measures taken to upgrade the technology over the years. The Faridabad Industries Association (FIA) was represented by Mr
R.C. Brar and Mr G.C. Narang, who lodged their protest over the various issues unattended so far.
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Senior citizens’ centre opens at Laxmibai Nagar
New Delhi, April 8 While inaugurating the centre, Mrs Khullar said that this place should be named ‘Harsh’ so that people enjoy its facilities with enthusiasm and happiness. She added that this double-storeyed complex will later get a hall on the ground floor, a recreation centre, a small office and a kitchen as well as other essential services. Facility will also be provided for yoga instruction to the elderly. This multi-purpose building has been constructed in an area of 780 sq-mts and at an estimated cost of Rs 60 lakh. Ahuja, the area MLA also addressed the gathering and said that NDMC had allocated sufficient funds for the construction of a number of projects in the adjacent area which includes construction of foot overbridges, improvement in Sanjay Gandhi Jheel Park, construction of grass pavers on both sides of Aurobindo Marg, construction of an entry gate at all points of entry to NDMC area, the re-development of the Nauroji Nagar Market and the repair and maintenance of the roof in Suvidha Market.
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Panel tells Delhi Police to furnish probe details
New Delhi, April 8 The Commission rejected Sinha’s argument that the information sought by the advocate cannot be disclosed since the inquiry report was already submitted before Delhi High Court which had ordered the probe. In his appeal before the Commission, lawyer Ravinder Kumar complained that certain annexures pertaining to the inquiry conducted by Sinha was withheld from him despite several requests. He complained that the police authorities refused to part with the information in the annexure on the ground that it would interfere with the investigations and also on the plea that the report was already submitted to the High Court. Sinha contended that the advocate was not entitled to the copy of the annexures as the main inquiry report was already furnished to him during the trial in the High Court. However, the Commission noted that since the High Court had not imposed any prohibition on the Joint Commissioner to keep the documents confidential, there was no justification in the authorities withholding the information sought by the advocate.
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Soren denies role in secretary’s murder
New Delhi, April 8 He said this before Additional Sessions Judge B R Kedia here while recording his statement, which concluded yesterday. During the recording of his statement in the case, he was asked 130 questions, including about the charges against him, most of which he denied. The CBI had exhumed a skeleton from Piska Nagari (Ranchi) in August 1998 and claimed that it was of Jha. Following the recovery of the skeleton, Soren and six others were arrested in the case. The agency claimed that Jha’s knowledge of payment of bribe to four JMM MPs who had voted against a no-confidence motion against the minority P V Narasimha Rao government in July 1993, and his threat to expose Soren, had led to his murder. However, two successive tests of the exhumed skeletal remains at the Hyderabad-based Centre for
Cellular and Molecular Studies had reportedly established that the remains were not of Jha as they did not match the blood samples taken from his mother and brother.
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Bukhari detained in Ghaziabad
New Delhi, April 8 Bukhari along with his supporters was going to visit Aligarh where the riots struck recently, said the Ghaziabad police officials. “We have detained Shahi Imam and a couple of his supporters as they were going to visit the riot-affected areas in Aligarh,” Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police J N Singh told the media persons here today. Six persons were killed in Aligarh when members of the two communities indulged in firing and throwing stones following a dispute. The members of a particular community had removed the decorations in certain areas on the occasion of ‘Ram Navami’ and this led to clashes between the two sides on Thursday.
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Bhakti Utsav, a soulful experience
New Delhi, April 8 The festival began here today with the recital of the Wadali brothers—Puran Chand Wadali and Piyare Lal Wadali, the famous duo from Punjab who were given a rousing reception by the audience. Besides performances from Sufi singers within the country, the first day of the three-day-long event also had singers from Sri Lanka who performed at the show. The musical extravaganza will include performances by artists from Bangladesh and Pakistan who will perform over the next three days. Sufism, an offshoot of Islam, has evolved as the modern form of Qawwali.
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Health care workers trained on heart revival technique
New Delhi, April 8 Inaugurating the CHR Workshop Federation of NCR Doctors, Dr K K Aggarwal said that like in the West, no health care worker should be appointed in India without a CHR certificate. Health care workers are the backbone of society. They should take over the role of counselling and practical first-aid training for the patients. They should take patients’ group support sessions. It has now been proven that the health care results improve if a health care provider calls the patient back home after discharge from the hospital and asks how he or she was, a release said.
— TNS
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Fire breaks out at CNG station
New Delhi, April 8 The fire took place at around 5.40 pm today. While the fire officials are still investigating the matter, preliminary investigations revealed that the fire took place due to leakage in one of the cylinders at the CNG station. A bus, a car and an auto rickshaw were burnt in the fire. No one was reportedly injured, claimed the fire officials. Immediately after the fire was reported, all the vehicles were removed from the filling station except the three vehicles that got damaged, said the police. The fire officials also said that five fire tenders were sent to the spot that doused the fire in one hour.
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