New Delhi, June 21
Nineteen of the 47 Congress MLAs in the 70-member Delhi Assembly today responded to Election Commission notices asking why they should not be disqualified for holding offices of profit.

Party Lok Sabha member from Outer Delhi Sajjan Kumar also sent his reply to the notice today. The EC had threatened to take an ex-parte decision if they did not respond by today.

“They denied holding offices of profit. The BJP MLA’s complaint to the EC itself was wrong and politically motivated,” state party unit chief Mr Ram Babu Sharma reiterated, speaking about the crux of the argument given before the commission.

In its notices last April, the EC had asked the MLAs, as well as Mr Kumar, to answer the allegation by BJP MLA Vijay Jolly that they were fit for disqualification under Section 146 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 for occupying offices of profit.

The notices were issued following a reference by the President under Section 15(4) of the NCT of Delhi Act, 1991, with regard to the MLAs and Article 103(2) of the Constitution with regard to Mr Sajjan Kumar.

The move, which threatened to reduce the Congress government to a minority, had triggered calls from the opposition BJP for the resignation of Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit and fresh polls.

Worried by the EC notice, the Congress-led government had passed the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill, 2006, at a special one-day session of the Assembly on May 18.

The Bill, patterned on an amendment Bill passed by Parliament, sought to remove the posts in 14 non-legislative bodies from the law on disqualification of MLAs holding office of profit, but it has yet to be notified.

Following consultation with legal experts, the party decided to contest the allegation instead of citing the amended Act that was to come into effect retrospectively from September 9, 1997 in the MLAs’ reply to the EC notice since President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam had returned to Parliament the office of profit Bill.

The EC notices were issued to MLAs Naseeb Singh, Narendra Nath, Anjali Rai, Mateen Ahmed, Rajesh Jain, Prahlad Singh Sawhney, Braham Pal, Ambrish Singh Gautam, Rajesh Lilothia, Bijender Singh, Balram Tanwar, Kiran Walia, Ashok Ahuja, Tajdar Babar, Vijay Singh Lochav, Mahabal Mishra, Kanwar Karan Singh, Veer Singh Dhingan and Bheesham Sharma, besides MP Sajjan Kumar.

New Delhi, June 21
Most parts of Delhi are reeling under acute water shortage due to less procurement of water from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The ‘water mafia’ is busy spinning money out of this situation. Their business is flourishing mostly in East Delhi, North-East Delhi, Outer Delhi and other rural and semi-urban localities of this city with the connivance of the local police and DJB officials.

According to sources, some have mobile business while some have even installed plants for this seasonal business. These plants can be seen at rehabilitation colonies and slums of North-East Delhi.

There are at least three such illegal plants at Kalandar Colony and Hanuman Basti in the Dilshad Colony area. DJB officials had raided those plants about six months back. Despite that, those plants are yet to be closed down.

“In the East Delhi area, there are dozens of such water plants at various locations of Khureji, Brijpuri, Gandhi Nagar, Dharmpura, Mayur Vihar Phase–1, Trilokpuri and Kalyanpuri. One such plant has been operating since years at Jhilmil Industrial Area,” said a local resident.

According to Ms Preeti, councillor of the Vivek Vihar area, “Under the banner of our social service organisation, Lady Help, we have started a crusade against those illegal water units and their owners. With the help of DJB officials, we recently raided two-three such illegal units operating at Kalandar Colony and Hanuman Basti in the Dilshad Colony area.

We found there that all units had taken illegal connections from the DJB water pipelines without taking its permission. Apart from that, they used to target water sources installed at common places for bottling their water cans and jars, especially in the wee hours. They were selling a 20 litre can or jar for at least Rs 20 in remote areas,” she said.

When contacted, a senior officer of the DJB said on condition of anonymity that they were aware of the illegal business. “We have raided illegal plants from time to time. Actually, it is very difficult to locate the plants as most of them are situated in remote and densely populated areas like slums and rehabilitation camps. We are toying with the idea of imposing stringent action and penalty on owners of plants. They are not only stealing the government infrastructure but also cheating common people,” he said. 

New Delhi, June 21
Delhi Police has sought a report from the DRI on the alleged links between the wife of one of its top officials and a city-based trader arrested on charges of tax evasion by the agency.

Following reports of business links between DCP (Special Cell) Ajay Kumar’s wife and Ashwini Aggarwal, held in Mussourie last week, Commissioner of Police K K Paul has asked DRI to sent him details of the case.

“We are in touch with DRI. We are yet to receive the report,” he told reporters.

Asked if he has sought any explanation from Kumar, he said, “Once we get the report, we would like to hear what he has to say on the issue”.

Kumar has denied the allegations and termed them as false. He is at the centre of a controversy after reports of documents seized by the DRI showing a business partnership between his wife Amita and Aggarwal came into light.

DRI has found that Aggarwal along with his two sons is running four companies — V4 Manufacturer, Everest Exports, Laxman Overseas and Amita Exports — and was allegedly responsible for tax evasion to the tune of Rs 100 crores. Amita Exports is allegedly jointly owned by Aggarwal and Kumar’s wife. 

New Delhi, June 21
Just a month after the victim in the Dhaula Kuan rape case identified the main accused as the offender, her friend, a key witness who last saw her before she was allegedly abducted and gangraped, has supported the prosecution case in her statement to a Delhi court.

The victim’s friend narrated the sequence of events that occurred in the early hours of May 8 last year in a statement recorded in camera before Additional Sessions Judge K C Lohia.

She stated that at about 2 a.m. that morning, she and the victim were walking along towards a ‘dhaba’ (eatery) near Dhaula Kuan in South-West Delhi when two men stepped out of a silver-grey Santro car and grabbed both of them.

While she managed to escape, the victim was forced into the car, the witness said, but she could not identify the abductors.

The police were called in, and at about 4 a.m., the victim called her own cell phone which was in the possession of the witness. The victim told her friend she was waiting at a nearby gurudwara, where she was then picked up by the police. The victim told the police that she had been forcibly intoxicated and sexually assaulted by four men in a moving car. Last month, she identified accused Ajit Singh Katiyar as one of the four offenders before the court.

Katiyar (28), the sole accused arrested in the case on May 13 last year, has been charged with gangrape, abduction, intoxication with intent to commit offence, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.

He was pointed out by the victim as one of the culprits in a Test Identification Parade. 

New Delhi, June 21
Peeved at the deterioration in public life and fall in the moral ethical values in society, several senior citizens — former judges, bureaucrats and police officials — have launched an organisation called the ‘India Rejuvenation Initiative (IRI)’, a non-political and social forum which would serve as an “organisation of conscientious individuals”.

The members, consisting of former Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti, former Chief Election Commissioner Mr J M Lyngdoh, former Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy and IIT Kharagpur Director R C Dube, said that the IRI, which otherwise would be called as ‘Bharat Punarutthan Abhiyan’, would focus on attracting public attention and mobilise public opinion on ways to check corruption, lack of accountability and inefficiency and ensure probity in public life.

“Unless the common man is allowed to have access to the justice system and is allowed to live a life of dignity and honour, phrases like ‘rule of law’, ‘justice for all’ etc make no sense. The situation prevailing in many parts of the country does not inspire confidence among the people,” Mr J F Ribeiro, former Director General of Police, said in a release.

He said a meeting of the IRI was held in Delhi to chalk out an action-oriented approach and issues of national importance were discussed. “It was decided to expose corruption, gross inaction and inefficiency in high places. The members decided to initiate series of measures to prevent corrupt and negative elements from occupying key leadership positions and support honest public servants to encourage them to work fearlessly. The focus must be on providing justice to common man and law abiding citizens,” the release said.

The IRI will mobilise public opinion for ensuring that political executives and bureaucrats remain public servants and not act as masters, Mr Ribeiro said.

Other members of the IRI include former CAG Mr V K Shunglu, former IAS officials Mr R S Lakha, Mr V S Pandey, Mr Raju Sharma, Mr Sunil Kumar and Ms Renuka Kumar.

New Delhi, June 21
An ambitious project for better disposal of garbage in the trans-Yamuna area initiated two years back by the Trans-Yamuna Development Board could not take off properly as expected earlier due to wrong planning and negligence of the authorities concerned and non-cooperation of local residents. This resulted in complete waste of precious government money to the tune of Rs 6.5 crore spent on the project.

According to sources, the Trans-Yamuna Development Board had sanctioned Rs 2.98 crore for the purchase of trucks and Rs 3.52 crore for the purchase of dustbins two years back for better disposal of garbage in every constituency of the trans-Yamuna area. The decision was taken after a high-level meeting headed by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dikshit.

“It is interesting that trucks and dustbins had been purchased from a foreign firm and at that time it had been decided that maintenance of trucks and dustbins would be carried out by the firm for the next seven years free of cost. Two-three such trucks are out of order and dozens of such dustbins are broken or in a bad condition. Despite that, the firm and the authorities concerned have yet to notice the development,” said a resident.

According to Ms Preeti, councillor of the Vivek Vihar area, at the time of purchase of those trucks and dustbins most members of the council were not taken into confidence. There is no denying the fact that there is a big scandal involved in that deal. In the guise of foreign firms, substandard trucks and dustbins were purchased in the hope of better commission.

“Precisely due to that reason, we are witnessing such a condition of trucks and dustbins. Apart from that, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) takes little interest in disposal of garbage in the area. Now the situation is that trucks seldom come to garbage sites and dustbins are hardly cleaned. As a consequence of the bad smell emanating from these dustbins, no one wants to put dustbins in front of their house. Dustbins are also being stolen. The residents welfare associations (RWAs) can play an important role in this regard,” she said.

When contacted, the Chairman of the board, Dr Narendra Nath, said, “Our role was to release funds for the project. Upkeep is the responsibility of the MCD. However, we will discuss the matter with the officials”.

A senior officer of the Execution and Maintenance (E and M) Department of the MCD said, “We have not received any such complaint so far. If we do so, we will take action on those complaints. We will discuss the matter with our regional sanitary inspectors for better monitoring of the project,” he said. 

New Delhi, June 21
The Health Ministry is reported to be considering a fresh representation to withdraw hiked user charges that were introduced arbitrarily at AIIMS last November.

The change in the stand of the ministry seems to have come about following public outcry and a sustained campaign by AIIMS Front for Social Consciousness (AFSC).

Health Secreatry Mr P.K. Hota did not confirm the withdrawal of user charges at AIIMS. “I don’t know. Let us look at it,” he said.

Dr Anoop Saraya, Professor of Gastroenterology at AIIMS and co- founder of AFSC, confirmed having broached the public interest issue with Union Health Minister Anbhumani Ramadoss on Monday.

Dr Saraya said that the Health Minister had assured him that the position prior to imposition of user charges would be restored. “Dr Ramadoss told me that an order to this effect would be issued soon,” he said.

He said that he apprised Dr Ramadoss of the cumulative revenue generated by way of user charges as inferred by the Rath Committee appointed by the Ministry. The Rath Committee headed by Dr G.K. Rath, Head of the Department of Radiation Oncolgy, had estimated an annual revenue generation of Rs 40 lakh by way of new user charges.

Dr Saraya drew the minister’s attention to the institute’s annual budget for 2005-06 of Rs 383 crore. He pointed that out of the total budget, Rs 40 crore allocated under Plan Head went untilised and was returned to the ministry. “I contended that there was no logic behind passing the burden of budget mismanagement to poor patients,” he said.

Dr Saraya said that withdrawal of user charges would benefit 20 lakh patients who seek treatment at AIIMS every year.

Greater Noida, June 21
The Greater Noida authority is planning to bring out a scheme for deluxe HIG and MIG flats soon. Expected to be announced around second week of July, it is learnt that the price of these houses will range between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 47 lakh each, while their area will range from 70 sq mt to 250 sq mt per unit.

According to sources, the GNIDA will provide facilities found in up-market houses. Although the houses, numbering 2,200, will be single storied, the allottees can build up further two-and-a-half storey.

According to Deputy CEO Harish Kumar Varma, the Greater Noida Authority decided to bring this scheme as no such scheme had been announced for the middle and high income group.

The built up house on 250 sq mt area will cost Rs 47 lakh each while those on 120 sq mt will be priced at RS 21 lakh. According to sources, flats on 90 sq mt will cost Rs 16 lakh and those on 70 sq mt Rs 12 lakh, Mr Verma said.

The 250 sq mt and 120 sq mt houses will have two bedrooms, a drawing room, kitchen and bathrooms.

The 90 sq mt and 70 sq mt houses will have one bedroom, drawing room, kitchen and one bath room.

The project will be located near Ghori Vichhera village.

A swimming pool, park, community centre, milk and vegetable shops, post office, hospital and shopping complex will form a part of this scheme.

Special provision has been made for parking of vehicles.

Noida, June 21
With four murders in Dadri in the last 24 hours there is a general sense of insecurity and panic among the people.

Even as the Dadri police was still grappling with three murders that took place on Sunday-Monday night, an old farmer was murdered with a sharp edged weapon by slitting his neck.

According to CO, Dinesh Tripathy, 75- year-old Babu Singh of Ramgarh village was killed by some unknown assailants at midnight. His eldest son is a policeman with the CRPF, while the second is a Subedar in the Army.

The relatives of the old man lodged a report against unidentified assailants.

Meanwhile, the Dadri police have arrested two suspects in the double murder case. The police had nabbed Krishen and Sanjay from Noida bus stand.

However, the police are still clueless about criminals involved in the murder of one Bhalle, a cousin of Zila Panchayat president, Naresh Bhatti. It may be recalled that Bhalle was kidnapped and his body was recovered from the railway track on Monday morning near Ajaibpur railway station. —OC

New Delhi, June 21
A city court, after hearing final arguments in the 14-year-old murder trial of an east Delhi businessman involving underworld don Babloo Srivastava and two others as accused, has reserved its final verdict.

Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar of a Fast Track Court here, where the case on January 21 was transferred for speedy disposal, reserved the judgement after hearing the three-day long arguments of the counsel for Srivastava and Public prosecutor Zanuel Ubedin.

J P Bansal, appearing for Srivastava, contended that the prosecution has failed to provide credible evidence regarding the complicity of his client in the offence.

Earlier, the prosecution got 32, out of total 52, witnesses examined in the case. However, some of the key witnesses including one Narender Pal, an eye witness, who had lodged the FIR, was not produced by the police for deposing in the case. 

Noida, June 21
The police today arrested one of the co-accused in the Rs 2,600 crore land fraud case involving Gram Sabha land in Greater Noida.

Atar Singh, one of the associates of main accused Moti Goel was arrested from Tugalpur village under Kasna police station in Greater Noida today, according to sources.

Main accused Moti Goel, who had allegedly been involved in grabbing land belonging to the Gram Sabha in Greater Noida worth nearly 2,600 crore, with the connivance of officials, had been arrested last year.

New Delhi, June 21
Delhi Food Supply Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan said that due to short supply of vegetables from Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab the prices of tomato and potato had gone up. Heavy rain in these states, particularly near Karnal in Haryana, from where a majority of the vegetables are supplied to the Capital’s wholesale markets, is responsible for the current situation. The total demand of tomato is 450 tonnes every day while the supply is only 190 tonnes. The wholesale rate of one kilogram tomato is between Rs 8 and Rs 20. The best quality of tomato is available at Rs 20 per kg but in the retail market its price is higher, which cannot be afforded by the middle or lower middle class people. He assured that soon the prices would stabilise. 

New Delhi, June 21
The MCD has made elaborate arrangement to facilitate property tax payers to deposit their taxes comfortably, Assessor and Collector Anil Bamba said. Keeping in view the last date of payment of property tax with 15 per cent rebate, all offices of the property tax department will remain open on Saturday and Sunday falling on June 24 and 25 to avoid last date rush. The last date of payment of the tax is June 30. The timing of the Citizen Service Bureau (CBS) has also been extended from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm. —TNS