New Delhi, July 16
With Delhi University scheduled to open from tomorrow, the authorities have put in place a slew of security measures to check ragging and crack down on anti-social elements on the campus.

Installation of closed-circuit television cameras, deployment of additional police force and mobile patrol vans and setting up of two Joint Control Rooms have been done to ensure that the freshers are not harassed and discipline is maintained.

Police personnel in plain clothes will also be posted at various locations, including DTC buses, to check ragging. “We want the freshers to attend their classes from day one. Fear of ragging should not stop them and nobody will be allowed to indulge in ragging, which is a criminal offence,” Delhi University Proctor Gurmeet Singh has maintained.

“Indiscipline and ragging will be dealt with strictly under the University’s Statutes and Ordinances, which give legal authority to principals and wardens to take preventive as well as punitive action, wherever required,” he added.

Prof Singh said a 20-point advisory had been dispatched to the college principals and heads of departments, laying down the guidelines for security measures.

The university had asked all its 79 colleges to install closed-circuit television cameras to monitor the situation though some institutes could not meet the huge financial burden.

Faridabad, July 16
The local area development tax (LADT) collected here is yet to be fully transferred to the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) coffers.

The octroi system of tax collection had been replaced by the LADT about six years ago. The non-transfer of funds has adversely affected the financial health of the civic body.

Now, with reports of the government clearing the release of a part of the funds, there is hope of recovery.

Octroi has always been a major source of revenue generation for the civic body, which has an annual budget of more than Rs 125 crore.

Octroi was abolished in 2000 and the state government had promised to release the funds collected under the LADT. Despite the assurance, the funds collected under this head did not reach the civic body.

The Excise and Taxation Department was entrusted with the job of collecting the LADT here. Department officials said Rs 31.38 crore had been collected during the past year (2005-06). They added the target under this head for the current financial year was Rs 34.52 crore.

Mr Shiv Charan Lal Sharma, Senior Deputy Mayor of the corporation, said the civic body was facing an acute financial crunch and could not carry out several development works due to lack of funds.

He said more than Rs 100 crore was collected during the past six years. But the money could not be spent on local development in the absence of release of the funds.

It was only since the past one year that the present government, which came into power in March in 2005, released a part of the funds.

A sum of Rs 15 crore has been received by the civic body in the past few months under this head. The total amount due could be well over Rs 100 crore.

A civic body member claimed if the LADT funds had been released on time, the pace of development in the city could have been better. 

Gurgaon, July 16
A senior Congress leader of the Congress, Mr Khazan Singh, today called for action against the former Deputy Speaker of the Haryana Assembly and INLD leader, Mr Gopi Chand Gehlot, and his brother for allegedly misleading the court. The Congress leader also urged for a probe into their landed property amassed during the preceding INLD government in the state.

Significantly, while Mr Gehlot represented Gurgaon Assembly in the last Haryana Assembly, Mr Khazan Singh is a well-known face of the Congress in the area. Also, both are native of Jharsa village.

Mr Khazan Singh, who met the media on the issue, alleged that Mr Rajinder Singh, brother of Mr Gehlot along with his followers tried to capture a booth in village Jharsa in the last parliamentary election. Mr Singh was the election agent of the Congress nominee and currently Union minister, Rao Inderjit Singh.

According to Mr Singh, Mr Rajinder Singh, who was then working with the Delhi Police, was present at the booth in the village without any official leave. When Mr Singh resisted his wife, Mrs Sushila along with another woman were injured in the clash.

His charge was that while his complaint was not entertained by the then police authorities during the INLD government, Mr Rajinder Singh’s complaint was entertained and an FIR registered against him and his relatives.

However, thereafter the Congress government came to power and withdrew the FIR against Mr Singh and his relatives, but the court was to uphold the same. It was at this stage that Mr Rajinder Singh is said to have submitted a petition to the Punjab and Haryana High Court urging for transfer of the case from the court in Gurgaon district to a court in other district on the grounds that he was not getting suitable lawyer to represent his case.

Armed with rebuttal, Mr Singh, who is also a practising advocate, circulated a certified copy which showed that Mr Gehlot was advocate. Hence, Mr Rajinder Singh tried to mislead the court by saying that he was not getting any qualified advocate to represent his case.

Mr Singh today urged that his complaint should be converted into FIR. Also, he demanded of the government for a probe into the landed property of Mr Gehlot and his relatives. He also referred to a murder of one Nirmala Gehlot, a resident of Sector 14, against which FIR was registered in city police station.

He charged that the police did not investigate the case properly. He demanded re-investigation of the case.

New Delhi, July 16
Delhi Legal Services Authority organized Lok Adalats today in association with Delhi Commission for Women, MTNL, MCD and various Banks at Patiala House Courts in which different types of disputes of the respective departments were taken up. For the first time, Criminal Compoundable Cases of pre-litigative stage were also taken up in association with Delhi Police.

Mr Vijender Jain, Patron in Chief and Executive Chairman, Delhi Legal Services Authority and Chief Justice, Delhi High Court, Dr Justice M K Sharma Chairman, Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee and Judge, Delhi High Court Kumari Selja, State Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, Ms Kiran Walia, Chairperson, Delhi Commission for Women, Mr A K Arora, Executive Director, MTNL, Mr Bhim Sain Bassi, Joint Commissioner of Police, Ms Divjot Kohli, Chief Accesor and Collector, MCD, Mr Ashok K Chauhan, founder president, Amity Law Schools, and Ms Vandana Luthra, Managing Director, VLCC, judges from Delhi High Court, judicial officers from District Courts and many other dignitaries graced the occasion.

The third Mobile Legal Services Van in association with Amity Law Schools was flagged of from Patiala House Courts by Mr Justice Vijender Jain, Patron-in-Chief/Executive Chairman, DLSA and Chief Justice, Delhi High Court.

HMJ Vijender Jain observed that this mobile van will immensely help DLSA in taking the justice at the doorsteps of the poor and needy.

HMJ observed that this third Mobile Legal Services Van will be another milestone in the series of two earlier mobile vans which are already in place, catering to the needs of the poor who cannot approach the courts on account of their financial and other constraints.

Justice Jain observed that DLSA has been doing the maximum possible for the downtrodden and it will continue to do so.

The Chief Justice expressed his gratitude to the Amity Law Schools which have come forward to take the justice to the doorstep.

HMJ thanked the participants helping the authority in reduction of the backlog of cases by ADR mechanisms especially Lok Adalats in which the disputes are settled amicably and there is win-win situation for both.

On the occasion, an informative booklet about the law on marriage and divorce in simple form was released by Kumari Selja, She, in her message, appreciated the efforts of Delhi Legal Services Authority in mitigating the sufferings of the persons entitled to the relief and conveyed her best wishes.

She assured to give every possible help to the authority.

New Delhi, July 16
A small sanctuary, Naseerpur Van Udyan, developed about seven years back in Naseerpur area of South-West Delhi wears a deserted look thanks to the apathy of the departments concerned.

According to sources, the foundation-laying ceremony was chaired by the Urban Development Minister, Dr A. K. Walia, on June 13, 1999. At that time, the Delhi Government promised that the sanctuary would be operational by the end of 2002, but it was not to be.

“Then after much pressure by the people, the Delhi Government announced to restart the project. In the wake of that announcement, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dikshit, inaugurated the project in 2003. She promised that the sanctuary would be one of the best tourist destinations of the Capital. However, the sanctuary became a victim of negligence soon after its inauguration,” said a local resident.

“The high mast lights and the colourful fountains never got functional. Tracks constructed for morning walk and jogging, especially for the senior citizens, have developed cracks in most places. Sheeting chairs and benches installed for visitors have already been destroyed,” the resident added.

The fencing constructed around the sanctuary has also developed cracks at many points. To get an easy entry into the sanctuary, people have razed fencing at some points. Thus, stray animals enter it easily.

“At the time of inauguration, 44 employees had been deployed for the upkeep of this sanctuary. The number has now been reduced to 19,” the resident added.

An officer of the forest department clarified that the tender had already been awarded to redevelop the sanctuary. “The development work will be started next month,” he claimed. 

Noida, July 16
Following the bomb blasts in Mumbai local trains, the police here conducted raids for nabbing terrorists suspected to be using Noida as their base.

Noida, according to sources, has been a base for terrorists for the past 15 years and they have a numbers of hideouts here.

The Noida police claim to have apprehended a number of terror agents. Inputs obtained on the basis of their interrogation have constantly been conveyed to the intelligence agencies.

The Noida police had arrested two terrorists from Punjab, Harminder Singh Jinda and Satnam Singh Bawa, from a bus stand 15 years ago. They were living in a rented house in Sector 37. They had been active in western UP.

Three years ago, two terrorists were killed in an encounter in Sector 58 here. Recently, Abdul Karim Tunda, a Pilkhuwa native, had been directing terrorist activities in Noida and Greater Noida while living in Karachi in Pakistan.

Two Pakistani nationals arrested from Javer in first week of July this year had confirmed this fact. A fortnight ago, the Delhi Police had arrested a terrorist who was the kingpin of a gang which had accomplished 30 bank robberies in the NCR region. He was living in a rented house in Sector 82 here. The police suspected him to be an ISI agent. In Sector 4, a Bangladeshi terrorist had made a pucca bunker-cum-godown in his jhuggi there. A fire in the jhuggis had brought this fact out.

The Noida police are on alert and are trying to nab the fugitives living in this area.

Ghaziabad, July 16
The son of a Delhi Police constable had been arrested for allegedly snatching a woman’s necklace here, the police said on Saturday.
Jeetu, son of Constable Devender Choudhary, was handed over to the police by a group of people after he was caught by them while snatching the necklace, they said.

The group also beat him up, they said, adding that the authorities here had already informed the Delhi Police about the arrest.
Earlier this week, two sons of two UP Police constables were found involved in the alleged kidnapping of two children.

New Delhi, July 16
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed chargesheet against one of its own official arrested while allegedly accepting bribe of Rs 4 lakh.

The chargesheet was filed against CBI’s Deputy Legal Advisor (DLA) D K Srivastava before the court of Special Judge Indermeet Kaur Kochhar on July 11, within the stipulated period of 60 days failing which he would have become entitled to statutory bail under the Criminal Procedure Code.

Srivastava was arrested on May 11 this year on the written complaint of Rajeev Sharma, former employee of Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL).

Deputy Legal Advisor D K Srivastava, who is the fifth CBI official nabbed by the CBI ever since Vijay Shanker took over as the Director of the agency, was arrested while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 4 lakh from Sharma to give an opinion in his favour, CBI alleged.

The IGL employee, who was a subject matter of an Preliminary Enquiry registered by the CBI, informed the agency who laid a trap and allegedly caught Srivastava, working for the agency since last 10 years, while accepting the bribe from him. He is the second DLA who was arrested by the CBI.

Earlier on March 14 this year, the CBI sleuths had arrested a DLA, R P Dwivedi, along with a constable, B S Prabhu, in Mumbai following allegation that they had been indulging in corrupt practices.

New Delhi, July 16
Delhi Police has busted a high-tech betting racket being run during the England vs Pakistan cricket match on Saturday with the arrest of three persons.

Identified as Sanjay Arora, resident of Brij Vihar in Ghaziabad, Badal Chawla and Pawan Kumar, both residents of Jhilmil Colony in East Delhi, the three were running the ‘satta’ racket from a house in Vivek Vihar during the test match, police said today.

Six mobile phones and a colour TV were recovered from the three, they said.

According to the organizers, rare chromolithographs from the Chor Bagan and Kansaripara Studios as well as Tanjore paintings, advert cards and rare books on India will also be auctioned.

Exhibition on Russian traditions

An exhibition of photographs, paintings and lithographs on the multi-religious traditions existing in Russia over the centuries is being held at the Art Gallery (Annexe) at the India International Centre here from July 25 to July 28.

The exhibition is being jointly organized by the Russian News agency, RIA Novosti and the Russian Cultural Centre here.

‘Mystery of Colours’

The Visual Art Gallery at the India Habitat Centre here is holding an exhibition, “Mystery of Colours” comprising recent works of some of the upcoming artists working on the theme of life and colour. The exhibition will be on from July 20 to July 25.

Panchtativa

Panchtativa, an exhibition of the works of artist Narenderpal Singh, is being held at the Shridharani Art Gallery here from July 20 to July 28.