New Delhi, August 18
A fire swept through a cloth market in the city’s busy Chandni Chowk area in North Delhi early this morning leaving nearly 20-odd shops completely gutted causing a loss of crores of rupees.

No one has been reported injured as the shops were closed when the fire broke out on the ground, first and second floors of Gopal Cloth Market in Chandani Chowk’s Katra Neel area, according to the Fire Brigade. “Seventeen fire tenders, including a couple of water dowsers and suction pumps were pressed into service which battled the fire for nearly eight hours before it was brought under control.

The fire had broken out due to short circuit so it took much time to control,” said a senior officer of the Delhi Fire Service (DFS).

According to Mr Vinod Sharma, patron of the Katra Neel Cloth Market, “One of our watchmen first noticed the fire which had engulfed a shop in the area at 3.45 in the early morning. He immediately informed many of us. We reported the incident to the police and the fire brigade. Despite our intimation, the officials of the BSES arrived at 5.30 am to disconnect the power supply. Other shops would not have been gutted if they had disconnected the supply on time.

There is a dangerous mess of electricity wires in the area. We have reported to the BSES officials many times in this regard but of no avail,” he said.

New Delhi, August 18
Even as the Capital continues to reel from a severe power shortage, Delhi Power Minister Haroon Yusuf, who visited the Badarpur Thermal Power Station to monitor the status of maintenance of the power station, has assured that the Capital’s electricity problems will “end soon”.

The Minister said that the Badarpur Thermal Power Station has a total installed capacity of generating 720 MW of power with five functional units each with a capacity between 95 MW and 210 MW. It meets more than 20 per cent of electricity consumption of Delhi.

Mr Yusuf said an additional 490 MW dedicated power unit for Delhi would be installed in Badarpur Power Station by 2010.

He said that two units of 490 MW each would be installed at NTPC Dadri and would be based on coal. The estimated cost of both the units would be about Rs 4,000 crore that would cater to the demand of electricity in the Capital.

The Minister said that an additional supply of 200 MW of power from Bhutan would be available in the next two days.

The power from Bhutan will be routed through Northern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The transmission trial is on for supply of power to the Capital, he said, adding that there is a plan to take electricity from Damodar Valley Corporation. Meanwhile, as the city continues to endure long and recurring power cuts, the government assurance that the power situation will improve soon has no takers.

The city’s administration that has been extending the deadline for solving the severe power crisis has now asked irate residents to wait till August 21, when the NTPC-run Badarpur unit will start supplying power.

Officials also claim that they are expecting gas from Gujarat for the Pragati power station in a couple of days. The Capital has been promised 500 MW of power from the Kawas power plant in Gujarat by August 25.

The line test is expected to start from Saturday and after five days of testing, it will be ready to transmit energy to Delhi, sources said.

New Delhi, August 18
Delhi’s growing water problem and heavy power cuts figured in a major way in a press conference held in the city on Friday in which two senior BJP leaders, Vijay Jolly, MLA Saket and Ramesh Bidhuri, MLA Tughluqabad crossed swords with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on these crucial issues.

The two MLAs said that the authorities give “step-motherly treatment” to the residents of Tigri Jhuggi Jhompari clusters, DDA flats, Devli Road colonies, Sangam Vihar, Saket and Pushp Vihar in the Saket assembly constituency and in the SC/ST-dominated Dakshinpuri and Kalkaji Extn. areas in the Tughlaqabad assembly constituency.

Both Mr Jolly and Mr Bidhuri contested the claim put forward by the Delhi Jal Board CEO Arun Mathur that South Delhi colonies were now getting water for 12 hours.

The two MLAs termed this claim a ‘frivolous gimmick’ and ‘totally false’. They drew the Chief Minister’s attention to the “parched condition of Delhi” and the “perennial water problem” that the city suffers from.

They claimed that the crisis is widespread in the densely populated areas of Saket and Tughlaqabad constituencies.

They added that water from the 140 MGD Sonia Vihar Treatment Plant is still a distant dream for the residents of Sangam Vihar, Tigri, Devli Road, Saket, Pushp Vihar, Dakshinpuri and Kalkaji Extn colony.

They said that the East Delhi constituency that is in the domain of the Chief Minister’s son, Sandeep Dikshit, gets sufficient water, but people in other areas do not have such luck.

Both the MLAs maintained that the DJB’s ambitious 24 hours X 7 days water supply programme has been a non-starter and a failure.

Faridabad, August 18
The criterion for selecting the employees and individuals for getting them honoured on an occasion like the Independence Day is often controversial as many get selected for such honours due to their ‘connections’ rather than eligibility.

The list of 49 persons honoured at the function this year is not free of discrepancies even though the district authorities deny them. At least one of the officials honoured at the function had been suspended about a year ago and booked under sections of the IPC.

A case is still pending in the court.

Besides, 17-odd freedom fighters and their kin who were honoured at the Independence Day function on August 15 included about 49 individuals including some officials, employees and persons from other sections of society.

Though the idea behind this tradition was to encourage and motivate the hardworking and dedicated individuals who contribute towards the betterment of society, it is also a hard fact that some of the persons selected do get the honour as they are either close to the senior officials or they use their connections to get selected.

Though as many as 17 officials and employees of the Fire department were included for the honour this time due to their role in the rescue operations in the boat tragedy at Chhainsa village of Ballabhgarh subdivision on August 6 which claimed four lives, the inclusion of one of the officials, who had been facing a criminal case booked against him several years ago, has surprised many.

It may be recalled that all those who had escaped the boat tragedy had been saved by the locals much before the official rescuers had arrived there.

About half a dozen firemen had remained in water

for several hours looking for any survivor, claimed a villager.

The lists also have four employees working at the office or residence of a senior officer.

The name of an HCS officer and a government doctor was included at the eleventh hour for the appreciation award this year, said the sources in the administration.

It is reported that various departmental heads were asked for the names of the employees for such an award but the final decision regarding the candidates was taken by the office of the Deputy Commissioner.

New Delhi, August 18
A Sessions Court today rejected the application of six accused in the Uphaar fire tragedy case to accompany it during the inspection of the cinema hall where 59 persons died of asphyxia when a fire broke out inside the theatre on July 13, 1997.

Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal, who will hear the final arguments of the case from September 26 to 28, said the court would conduct the inspection scheduled for tomorrow ‘alone’.

The court’s impending visit to the site is the result of a Delhi High Court directive on September 12, 2003 to study the evidence. The cinema complex has remained closed for nine years ever since the 1997 incident.

Numerous petitions by the accused Ansal brothers, owners of the hall, to re-open the theatre during the pendency of the prolonged trial were turned down by both the High Court and the trial court on the ground that the building was part of material evidence and the ‘status quo’ has to be maintained till the final closure of case.

The six accused who moved the application jointly are Uphaar managers Ajit Choudhary and N S Chopra, gate-keeper Manmohan Unniyal, then DVB officials A K Gera and B M Satija and former Delhi Fire Services officer H S Panwar.

The court has, however, posted the hearing of another application moved by accused B M Satija to re-examine defence witness R C Upadhyay, an ex-Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) staffer, to September 1.

The application comes after the court had announced the closure of the defence evidence in the case, which had dragged on for almost 10 months, on August 2 this year.

R C Upadhyay was one of the three defence witnesses who testified in the case. He was called on to appear in the case on the request of accused A K Gera, a former DVB official. Out of the total 16 accused, four are already dead. The remaining 12 accused, including Uphaar owners Sushil and Gopal Ansal, have been charged under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 304 A (causing death by negligence) and other provisions of the IPC and the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

New Delhi, August 18
The Delhi Police have ordered an inquiry into searches carried out by some of its personnel at Jama Masjid this afternoon following a call of a bomb planted there.

The inquiry was ordered after the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid reportedly took offence to the police party entering the Masjid without his permission.

A senior officer of the Delhi Police said that an inquiry had been ordered into the incident and they were going through the facts.

“It started with a three-member police team reaching the masjid, sometime close to 2 pm, following an information that a bomb had been kept at the holy place. While they were checking the place, the Imam was informed, who objected to the police party entering the masjid premises without his permission. His grievance was that he was not informed of the search operation,” said the police officer.

Meanwhile, deploring the incident, brother of Shahi Imam Yahya Bukhari said, “We believe this was part of a conspiracy to defame the masjid which was absolutely unwarranted.”

New Delhi, August 18
The Delhi High Court today directed the MCD Commissioner to appear before it on August 31 to explain the continued unauthorised constructions in the national 
Capital.

It also ordered a CBI inquiry and immediate transfer of the Deputy Commissioner of Rohini Zone for his alleged role in promoting illegal constructions in the area.

The order was passed by a Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vijyender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma.

Greater Noida, August 18
Former Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Mr Raj Babbar, MP and Chairman of the Jan Morcha, kept the promise made to Dadri farmers when they ploughed the fields early this morning. The fields in the Bajhera Khurd area of Dadri have been earmarked for the Reliance project.

Mr V. P. Singh, Mr Raj Babbar, CPI leader A.B. Bardhan and others were stopped from reaching the rally site yesterday. The Uttar Pradesh Government had deployed massive police force in the area. The leaders were detained at UP Gate near Ghaziabad.

All these leaders and their supporters sneaked into the Dadri area early this morning from different routes. The former Prime Minister got on to a tractor and ploughed the farmers’ field followed by Mr Raj Babbar and others.

A few hundred farmers had also gathered there along with several followers and supporters. Members of the Dehat Morcha also joined them.

Mr V. P. Singh said the land belonged to the farmers and they would continue to undertake farming there. No power could deprive them of their land without their consent.

At about 9 am, the SSP, Ghaziabad, Mr Piyush Mordia, arrested Mr V. P. Singh, Mr Raj Babbar and others for breach of peace. They were taken to a guest house. Section 144 was imposed in the area for August 17 and 18.

Mr V. P. Singh said the struggle for farmers’ rights would continue. There was a mild lathi charge by the police. 

New Delhi, August 18
Calling for formation of a corpus fund to provide cover to trauma victims from the poor sections of society, Delhi Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit suggested here today to levy a cess on the purchase of every vehicle and using that amount for the benefit of the victims.

“It has to be insured that proper care is provided especially to the underprivileged trauma victims. The treatment is much expensive and quite lengthy and most of the private hospitals are wary of doing so,” Ms Dikshit said while inaugurating the annual conference of the Neurotrauma Society of India.

The Chief Minister suggested a levy of a cess on the purchase of every vehicle. “The amount so collected could be used as corpus fund for the benefit of the poor trauma victims,” she said.

“Apart from this, victims of terrorist activities and disasters also require trauma treatment,” she added.

She stressed the importance of strict enforcement of traffic rules and traffic discipline besides better roads and vehicles. “General public awareness of the need of following traffic rules would also go a long way in mitigating the number of trauma victims,” she said.

The conference has been jointly organized by the Neurotrauma Society of India, Delhi Neurological Association, Department of Neurosciences, Delhi Government and Fortis Hospital, Noida.

New Delhi, August 18
Mr S.K. Pande has been re-elected as president of the Delhi Union of Journalists.

According to a Press release issued here on Wednesday, Dinesh Chandra and Javed Faridi have been elected vice-president and general secretary respectively. Shamim Siddiqui, Madan

Lal Talwar, T.K. Rajalakshmi have been elected secretaries and Sujata Madhok has been elected as treasurer. Persons elected to the DUJ Executive Committee are Mahesh Darpan, Anand Kumar, Harish Damodaran, Krishna Jha, P. Sreekumaran, Amit Prakash Singh, Geeta Shree, Kunwarjee Anjum, Arup Sen, Mohd. Iqbal, Mohd. Saqib, Shehla Nawab, J.C. Verma, Jaspal Singh Sidhu, Rajesh Sharma, Anjali Deshpande, Aruna Singh, Neelam Jeena and Sarvesh.

Those elected to the National Council of the Indian Journalists Union include S.K. Pande, Madan Singh, N. Chidambaram, T.K. Rajalakshmi, Dinesh Chandra, Geetashree,

Anant Mittal, Krishna Jha, Rajesh Sharma, R.K. Bhatnagar and Sarvesh.

Greater Noida, August 18
Two workers were killed and 15 others sustained 70 per cent burn injuries when a fire broke out in a factory due to the bursting of a boiler.

The fire had spread so fast that there was no time to rescue the workers who were all badly charred.

Two of them later succumbed to their burn injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital. They were identified as Amar and Sattey.

Some eight fire tenders took about 10 hours to control the blaze. Most of the charred workers were rushed to hospitals in Dadri and Greater Noida. Some workers are reported to be missing after the fire.

The factory, Great Value Food Company in site B, which prepare Mid-Day meals and other eatables for school students, has also suffered damage of lakhs of rupees in the blast. About 100 workers are employed in the factory. At 7 am on Thursday when food items were being cooked, the factory boiler suddenly burst which caused a fire in the factory. A sugar mixture and barley bags also caught fire.

They all somehow ran out but by then they had been charred 60 to 70 per cent.

Surajpur police rushed them to Bhagwati Nursing Home, Dadri and Kailash hospital Greater Noida. Later the workers were shifted to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital as their condition had deteriorated. Two of them later succumbed to their injuries.

Among those admitted in Sadarjung hospital, the condition of Lal Moha, Sanjay, Krishen Pad, Azad, Sunil, Santosh, Damodar, Deepak Bindu, and Shakti is serious. All of them belong to Jharkhand, the police said.

New Delhi, August 18
An 18-year-old girl diagnosed with head and neck cancer has been able to escape mutilating facial surgery with the help of revolutionary target therapy and conventional treatment.

The Ghaziabad-based girl who had to skip some classes during the treatment, is now preparing for her Class XII examination. She has opted for the medical stream and has taken her condition with exemplary courage. Her school has allowed her to pursue her studies with bare minimum class attendance. All she needs now is plastic non-mutilating surgery of the cheek region.

The girl’s father, a businessman told The Tribune that they sensed trouble in February this year on noticing that her right eye was popping out. He said that his daughter had been complaining of difficulty in breathing, swallowing and loss of hearing. They consulted a dental surgeon in Yashoda Hospital, Ghaziabad, who referred them to a plastic surgeon.

The surgeon asked them to seek an opinion from a cancer hospital. Onco surgeons at a cancer hospital in Delhi advised a radical surgery without any loss of time. They told the girl’s father that the surgery would mean sacrificing the right eye as the tumour was behind the eye. At the same time, they warned him that the patient’s face would be disfigured and she would not be able to see her face in the mirror.

He said that while he accepted the onco surgeon’s advice as the only option to save his daughter’s life, his family was not prepared for such a surgery. A friend suggested that he seek another medical opinion from Dr Puneet Gupta, consultant medical oncologist in Indraprastha Apollo Hospital and Medical Advisor, Cancer Roko, a UK-based charity.

A consultation with Dr Gupta raised their hopes. Dr Gupta gave the girl target therapy, radiation therapy and chemotherapy for a month.

Dr Gupta told TNS that the patient was presented with popped out right eye, blockage of nose and right ear and a hole in the roof of the mouth.

He explained that US FDA approved target therapy is a breakthrough in treatment of head and neck cancer, which is the most common cancer in India and the sixth most common cancer in the world. He said that until recently, patients had no choice but to go for mutilating surgery.

Dr Gupta said that head and neck cancer was caused due to bad oral hygiene and consumption of any form of tobacco along with alcohol, viral infection and genetics.

Asked what may have triggered the cancer in this case, the oncologist said, “In this case, genetics and viral infection may have played a predominant role.” 

New Delhi, August 18
A six-year-old student of a school in North Delhi’s Sant Nagar Burari under Timarpur police station area died this afternoon after she fell from the school bus.

Pakhi, a student Apex School in Sant Nagar, studying in Class I, fell out of the school bus (RTV) as the driver put immediate brakes to save a vehicle ahead of him, according to a senior police official.

The girl, who was perhaps standing close to the door, was rushed to the Sushrut Trauma Centre at ISBT soon after the incident at about 1410 hrs, where she was declared “brought dead”.

“The glaring negligence was that there was no conductor in the bus to look after the child.

The driver has been arrested. She was the last child who was left to be dropped after school.

Noida, August 18
A cable operator was shot dead by another this morning. The two were in competition with each other for some time.

Manoj and Parvez were running one cable network while Umesh Yadav was the owner of the second one. They had often clashed in the recent past. There was a clash this morning at 9 am between the two groups.

This was followed by a gun-battle. Parvez was killed while Manoj’s wife, Poonam, was grievously injured. She was rushed to Metro Hospital in Sector 12 here. The police have sent Parvez’s body for an autopsy.