New Delhi, July 5
The power situation in the Capital today continued to remain grim with Delhi Transco Ltd (DTL) resorting to 576 MW of loadshedding during peak hours. Several areas of South Delhi experienced several hours of loadshedding.

Out of the peak demand of 3838 MW, DTL could meet only 3262 MW, a spokesperson of the company said.

DTL officials say the power crisis could prevail for at least two weeks due to the shut down of the 200 MW Badarpur power plant, which was undergoing maintenance.

They added that the grave power situation was also due to the fact that the existing generation was low while the demand was high, which often led to the Northern Grid, the main source of power supply to the Capital, experiencing frequency problems.

Meanwhile, Delhi Government is seeking help of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to curb power thefts in the Capital which is estimated to be around 20-24 per cent.

Delhi Power Secretary Mr Rakesh Mehta said that Delhi Government had asked the Centre to lend it three to four companies of the CISF to help it check power thefts. One company of the CISF would be available as early as this week.

He said that although after the privatisation of the power distribution in Delhi, theft had decreased from 54 per cent to 22-24 per cent, it still remained a major cause of concern for the government considering that the Capital was facing acute shortage of power, with several areas experiencing loadshedding.

Earlier, speaking after inauguration of the Energy Efficiency and Renewal Energy Management Centre of Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) by Delhi Power Minister Mr Haroon Yousuf, Mr Mehta said promotion of efficient use of energy was part of joint efforts by the Delhi Government and Delhi Transco Limited to deal with the severe power crunch currently being faced by Delhi.

Over the last one year, the peak deficit in Delhi has risen to 350 MW. One of the ways to meet this deficit was efficient use of energy, an objective which was sought to be achieved by the centre, he said.

Speaking to mediapersons, Mr Haroon Yousuf said promoting efficient use of energy was one of the steps to help Delhi meet its ever-increasing power needs through its own resources.

Currently, Delhi was dependent on the Northern Grid as well as other states for its power needs.

Though the government, keeping in view the increased power requirements of the state in the near future, has undertaken several steps like announcing the setting up of a 2,000 MW power plant for Delhi at Chhattisgarh at an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore, there was also a need to promote energy efficiency as in times of crunch. He said even 300-400 MW saved through efficient energy use could prove crucial.

In fact, he said the potential of energy saving through the setting up of the Energy Management Centre was as much as 25-30 per cent.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General of the Bureau of Power Efficiency V. S. Verma and Director General of Tata Energy Research Institute R. K. Pachauri hailed the setting up of the Centre as an important step in the direction of institutionalising the network to promote efficient use of energy. The setting up of the Centre is part of an action plan by the DTL to meet its obligation to take up energy conservation work under the energy conservation act.

The action plan envisages promoting use of CFL lamps, electronic chokes and their role in energy efficiency, use of automatic switches in offices and industrial  establishments, grass and trees to absorb heat and encourage billboard managers to use solar panels for lighting to save on energy consumption.

Gurgaon, July 5
Cases have been filed against 8 leading builders and 18 property dealers here for allegedly duping the people of crores of rupees by selling plots, flats or shops to them in Rewari and Daruhera on the pretext of pre-launching their proposed projects.

The cases were registered after the developers failed to take heed to notices sent by the Haryana Urban Development Authority to “stop the illegal activities”, HUDA administrator SP Gupta said today.

On directions of the Chief Minister’s ‘Flying Squad’, an FIR was filed under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC against 3 developers for “selling properties and collecting huge sums illegally from the public in May,” Rewari Superintendent of Police said.

He said the case had been referred to the CID Punchkula for further investigations “keeping in mind the complexities of the property deals”.

Mr Gupta said the racket was investigated by Rewari District Town Planner Madhu Smita who found that 8 builders allegedly used the services of 20 property dealers and “pre-launched their proposed projects” in Dharuhera and Rewari.

He said “crores of rupees were collected illegally from the public”. The builders and property dealers have also been charged with violating the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act, 1975, and Punjab Roads and Control Areas Registration of Unregulated Development Act, 1963. Explaining the modus operandi, Ms Smita said “the developers buy land and start selling plots, flats, villas or commercial shops on an artificial map under the guise of pre-launching the projects and dupe the public”. The leading developers which had allegedly violated the rules are Ferrous Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., Triveni Infrastructure, Sun City Projects, Pal Builders, Pasarvnath, etc, said Ms Smita.

Stating the instance of builder collecting money, Mr Gupta informed that Ferrous Infrastructure was booking the flat ranging between two to four-bed room apartments costing Rs 17 lakh to Rs 32 lakh depending upon the size varying from 1100 to 2000 square feet. The builder was taking the booking amount between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh from the masses and claiming that the rates would increase manifold soon after getting the formal approval from the Haryana government.

Mr Gupta cautioned people not to invest their hard-earned money in the projects which are not approved by the government.

“They must buy the properties only after verifying the facts that the builders had the requisite land and the permission to develop the residential or commercial projects,” he said. 

Hike in charges at AIIMS withdrawn
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 5
In an important move that will benefit poor patients, the Centre today decided to roll back the user charges in the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The decision to withdraw the user charges, imposed earlier this year, was taken at a meeting of the AIIMS Institute Body where a majority of the members wanted the user charges to be rolled back.

The introduction of user charges at the Institute had triggered a sharp reaction from a cross section of people and more than 100 MPs from across the political spectrum had urged the government immediately withdraw the “anti-people” measure.

The MPs had recently met Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh and submitted a memorandum pointing out that the “huge increase” in the user charges had put a tremendous burden on poor patients many of whom came from outside the national Capital for treatment. 

Faridabad, July 5
While the infrastructure and civic amenities have witnessed a massive growth in the recent past, this industrial hub of Haryana has some basic problems regarding the smooth connectivity and traffic management, which have not been addressed properly.

This includes construction of more flyovers at various intersections and providing a well-trained traffic police system. This has been the view of a cross section of the local residents, including some social bodies.

Mr Kailash Sharma of ‘Manav Sewa Samiti’ said that though there had been a huge increase in population and the number of residential sectors in the city in the past two decades, the agencies which developed these sectors had perhaps no idea of the traffic congestion that was going to develop due to lack of proper connectivity of various parts of the town.

Citing the ongoing repair work of the Neelam flyover here, which is the lifeline of the city, he said thousands of commuters crossing over from the NIT or the eastern part had been finding it difficult, as the authorities had blocked one side of the flyover for the next few months.

He said if the city had some more flyovers of this kind, the problems might not have been there. The construction of a flyover at busy Badkhal chowk on National Highway 2, to connect the region of Badkhal and Surajkund on western side, is also considered to be a blunder as it was too narrow and ended just on the highway, creating traffic chaos.

According to a survey, over one lakh vehicles pass over the Neelam and Badkhal flyovers daily and there had been no alternative for people to cross the rail tracks dissecting the city in two parts, except two railway crossings and an underpass near NHPC chowk.

While political parties have asked the government to withdraw the toll charges from the Bata flyover, a local BJP leader said that there was a need of new flyovers for the city to provide a signal-free travel on the National Highway and better connectivity between the western and eastern parts.

New Delhi, July 5
After three days of hot and humid weather, the first pre-monsoon clouds finally appeared over the Delhi skyline today and weathermen predicted first showers by Friday evening or Saturday.

A heavily overcast sky and southeasterly winds today provided some relief from the sultry weather of the past few days, resulting in a fall of mercury to 37 degree Celsius.

The south easterlies brought about a coolness in the air even though the humidity level rose to 60 per cent today. The minimum temperature also decreased to 26 degree Celsius from 26.5 degree Celsius yesterday.

The overcast sky, which was accompanied by high-speed winds, was an indication that the monsoon were on their way to the Capital. Weathermen said the build up of clouds over the Delhi skyline was a pre-monsoon phenomenon.

Though heavy showers of the kind that were witnessed on June 26 were not expected to lash Delhi at least for the next two days, the weather office has forecast light rains and thundershowers accompanied by squalls during the day today as well as tomorrow.

However, with the heavy clouds heralding the beginning of the onset of monsoon over Delhi, the Capital could witness heavy rains by the late evening on July 7 or morning of July 8.

The southwest monsoon has already reached some areas in Punjab like Ludhiana and Amritsar and though the scheduled date for arrival of monsoon in Delhi is June 29, the first monsoon rains have been eluding Delhi even a week after that date.

New Delhi, July 5
A Delhi court today rejected the bail plea of Airtel ‘hacker’ Ankit K Srivastava while noting that he had transgressed the fundamental right of privacy of the telecom major’s subscribers whose billing details were illegally downloaded by him.

“If a person has downloaded the call detail records of any other subscriber, then he must have broken into the system or the password of the subscriber and hacked into the system of the service provider,” Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kanwaljeet Arora said, dismissing the bail plea.

During bail arguments yesterday, the defence had demonstrated by means of a laptop that there was a “flaw” in the security system of Airtel. According to them, anyone could access call details of a subscriber by merely registering on the Airtel website the latter’s cell number and an e-mail ID, following which the call records of the number would automatically be sent to the same ID on the billing date. Dismissing this contention, the court today held that Airtel furnished all its subscribers with a secret password forwarded to the same number and it was “impossible” to access billing records without breaking into the password.

“The password is available only through the handset and not the e-mail ID... it is evident that no one can get call records of a subscriber without knowing his password,” the court said.

Srivastava, who was arrested on June 26 from his Shipra Sun City residence in Ghaziabad, has been accused of offences under sections 419 (cheating), 379 (theft), 385(extortion) of the IPC and section 66 (hacking into computer system) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

If found guilty under Section 66 of the IT Act, he would face imprisonment of up to three years.

Ghaziabad, July 5
Some criminals stabbed to death a housewife Kamlesh with a pair of scissors in Kavi Nagar, a posh colony of Ghaziabad and fled away. The killers had taken away Rs 10,000 kept in the house. Kamlesh’s husband is a headmaster in a junior high school in Delhi.

Police have detained three persons. B.K. Kaushik lives in J-142, Kavi Nagar, with his family. His younger brother also lives there with his family. Ms Kamlesh, 52, was alone at home at the time of incident on Tuesday.

Some criminals barged into their house and slit Kamlesh’s throat and stabbed her 20 times in the abdomen. Some painters working in the adjacent house were suspected to have committed the crime.

The Kavi Nagar police said police were verifying whether Kamlesh, an epileptic, could have killed herself.

But she could not have slit her own throat and also inflict 20 wounds with a sharp-edged weapon. At 1.15 pm when Shushma and her daughter returned from school, they found the main door closed.

On opening it she found her sister-in-law in a pool of blood in the drawing room. Two knives and a pair of scissors were lying nearby.

Two glasses and a bottle of water were also found nearby.

Police felt there could have been two visitors in the house. A safe in another room had not been touched though its keys were hanging alongside. The rear door was found open; apparently the intruders had made their exit from there. 

Noida, July 5
The farmers of Beel Akbarpur village in Dadri do not get the facilities available to the farmers of other villages in the areas.

There is no drainage system for the exit of rainwater in the village. As a result, standing crops on thousands of bighas are destroyed by water.

The residents have raised this issue many times in Block, Tehsil and District-level Janta Durbars, but nothing has been done to save the agricultural land from the fury of monsoon rains.

Chemicals being discharged from a factory on GT Road have ruined the crops, so much so that the cattle that are fed on fodder grown in the fields fall sick.

A farmer said that the power supply in villages is already bad; the old cables which have gone weak often fall on them.

Rattan Singh, a farmer, says some people have encroached on the cremation ground and some others on the community land of the village.

Rati Devi, a housewife, says there is no drinking water available in the village. The leaders came to visit the village during elections only and later forget about their problems.

Greater Noida, July 5
Dengue seems to be spreading its wings in Greater Noida where another patient suffering from dengue was admitted to a private hospital. Three dengue patients have been confirmed in Greater Noida within a week. But the administration has not taken any steps to contain it so far.

While doctors are confirming the incidence of dengue fever, the administration dismisses it as mere rumours.

Though the Greater Noida Authority claims to have taken some steps to contain the scourge, these have proved inadequate so far. Two dengue patients were admitted to Sharda Hospital in Knowledge Park-III last week.

On Monday, a 13-year-old girl was also admitted to Sharda Hospital, which according to Dr Majid is a confirmed case of dengue. She has, however, been referred to Delhi.

Dr Majid said two of the three dengue patients admitted have been referred to Delhi while one is under treatment.

He said the main symptoms of dengue are dark stool and red spots on body. It occurs by the bite of Aides Ajaptegi mosquito which is of black colour and 3 to 4 mm in size. Normally it bites during daytime.

The Health department and the administration have done little so far to control dengue.