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Couple cheats 113 B.Ed aspirants of over Rs 65 lakh
Hospitals upgrade facilities for accreditation
Power-starved Gurgaon
waits for a miracle
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Call centre employee crushed as crane topples on 3 cars
Cop accused of rape
A view of the longest Metro span being
constructed on a bridge near Okhla, in New Delhi on Sunday. This 100-metre span
is being built over an operating railway track. Tribune photo
19 drunk Holi revellers held
Beware of chemicals
HOLI REVELLERY: Girls celebrate Holi in New Delhi on Sunday. Tribune
photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui
Help civic agency solve water woes: HC
Way to de-stress for C’wealth Games volunteers
Health scheme for central govt staff
Godman likely to be booked under MCOCA
Four killed in accidents
DELHI DIARY
A street urchin plays in New Delhi. Tribune
photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui
Acid thrown on woman
2 held with liquor bottles
Delhi records season’s hottest day in four years
Man charred in showroom
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Couple cheats 113 B.Ed aspirants of over Rs 65 lakh
New Delhi, February 28 They were arrested yesterday from Lodhi Institutional area. They had come there to establish their base. They lived in a rented kothi in the posh Delta-1 in Greater Noida. “The accused had been absconding. The Delhi High Court had even issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against them,” said HGS Dhaliwal, DCP (south). The crime branch of Delhi police was investigating a case against the accused. The couple had allegedly cheated 113 students of over Rs 65 lakh on the pretext of awarding them with B.Ed and M.Ed degrees from Jammu & Kashmir and Kurkshetra Universities. The arrests came on a complaint filed by Simmi Trehan, a resident of Sector-9 in Rohini. In her complaint, Trehan had stated that Rochak Sharma, director of Dolphin College in Vikaspuri, had collected money from students who had applied for B.Ed and M.Ed programme but later he closed the office. The police said that later the couple started a new institution ‘Sharma College of Education’ in Janakpuri and again cheated B.Ed and M.Ed aspirants before closing down the institute. Later, the investigation was handed over to crime branch and 112 students confirmed of being cheated by the couple. “Rochak was arrested but his wife Jasmine managed to get interim bail. Later, the court granted bail to Rochak too when he assured the court that he would settle the issue with the victims. However, instead of settling the issue, the couple absconded,” said Dhaliwal. Then the couple established their base in Greater Noida and started luring other aspirants. They supplied prospectus of various universities to the aspirants and collected money. By then the court had already issued non-bailable warrants against them. “Proceedings to declare them proclaimed offenders were also initiated,” the official added. Rochak disclosed that he met Jasmine at a Study centre in Janakpuri five years ago and married her. In order to earn easy money, they lured aspirants of B.Ed and M.Ed courses/ degrees by giving advertisements in newspapers. “They also started a few other branches of Dolphin Institute in rural areas of Delhi and collected money on the basis of getting them admitted in recognised universities and arranging degrees of B.Ed. and M.Ed for them. They would not deposit the cash in any university and misappropriated with the amount for their personal gains and once exposed they would close the institute,” Dhaliwal said. They disclosed that they had sensed that the police was keeping an eye on them in Greater Noida so they shifted to Delhi and contacted a few dealers of the Lodhi Road area to secure a rented premises to start another institute namely ‘Jasmine Institute of Professional Studies’. |
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Hospitals upgrade facilities for accreditation
New Delhi, February 28 The Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IBHAS), which was inspected last year by NABH’s experts comprising doctors, nurses and hospital administrators, has upgraded its overall infrastructure on the lines suggested by the panel. The director of IBHAS, Dr R K Grover, said, “Earlier, we were carrying our routine in-house checks without knowing our shortcomings. While heading towards the NABH accreditation, we are doing it in an organised manner, based on certain standardised norms. Many internal changes are being made in view of achieving the standards of distinction in quality care.” To make the health facility accessible to more patients, new counters would be in place for registration and drugs distribution and signage would also be instituted at several parts of the hospitals. Further, to minimise the response time during exigencies—like fire disaster or bomb blast—the hospital is conducting mock drills at frequent intervals. “The health facility would come up in a more standardised form and we have constituted a fresh team for infusing the motivation in the staff. Given the huge load of patients currently, work for a new emergency wing is in progress and it would meet criteria like space, manpower etc and it would be integrated with the other set-ups in the hospital. Both the hospital staff as well as patients are being trained to deal with emergency situations and changes in clinical facilities are being rapidly being taken up,” Dr Grover added. Both Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Hospital (LNJH) and the centrally managed Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RMLH) had approached NABH for accreditation, but are yet to attain the minimum standards. In the case of LNJP, an array of infrastructural gaps need to be addressed that would most likely take nearly six months. “Accreditation of LNJP is in the pipeline of NABH. The project has been kept on a back-burner for the time being as there are many things to be looked into. Two most significant among them are revamping of the central air-conditioning system of the operation theatre that would need quite some time and a part of the building, new OPD is under construction,” remarked Dr Amit Banerjee, medical superintendent of LNJP during an interaction. However, the medical superintendent of RMLH, Dr T S Sidhu, maintained that the process for RMLH accreditation is halfway through, even though it is yet to invite NABH for initial surveillance. The secretary-general of the Quality Council of India (QCI is an autonomous body under the GOI and NABH is a segment of QCI), Dr Girdhar Gyani, underlined, “While a few hospitals are in an advanced stage of achieving the NABH accreditation, G B Pant Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical Dental College are in the preparatory stage. Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital (GTBH) has to upgrade its entire set-up and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital (DDUH) is far behind.” Besides manpower, infrastructure and equipment, hospitals have to abide by both the clinical and non-clinical guidelines and many hospitals, like DDUH and GTBH have failed in that front and have to work hard on it.
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Power-starved Gurgaon
waits for a miracle
Gurgaon, February 26 Residents of Sushant Lok, DLF, Sector-56 and South City are complaining that power cuts are not only long but are also unscheduled. An official of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) said, “Haryana used to buy power from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir but this winter they decided against it.” “The decision was taken at the government level so we cannot comment on this,” said an official on condition of anonymity. “We used to buy power for summers and winters but this winter the government did not buy,” he added. “We are wondering what will happen in summer when we witnessed 12 hours of power cuts in winter,” said Taskeen Agha of Sector-56. “The situation is going to get worse. The control room set up by DHBVN has no information on power cuts and they simply say that they are not aware of any power shortage,” she added. According to DHBVN officials, they had a problem in January because the transmission lines got wet due to heavy fog and kept tripping. On top of that, five units of a thermal plant in Panipat had broken down. Gurgaon’s daily power demand is of 10 million units, but DHBVN is able to supply only 4-5 million. “Due to the continuing power cuts, the cost of living in Gurgaon is getting higher. We have to pay extra for generators used by apartments,” Shradha, a resident of South City, said. The Haryana government has launched the state’s first gas insulated grid substation (GIS) of 66 KV in Sector-43. The government is also executing an ambitious Rs 1,000-crore power transmission network plan, which is scheduled to be completed next year. “The government had planned to add 27 new substations with total transformation capacity of 1,600 MVa, out of which 10 — two of 220 KVa level and eight of 66 KVa/33 KVa levels — have already been commissioned,” Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said here. Once the network is ready, it should be able to distribute 2,292.5 MVa, far higher than the projected demand of 1,994 MVa. DHBVN is putting up 49 new feeders of 11 KV level at a cost of Rs 20 crore to segregate domestic and agricultural loads. It plans to add 720 new distribution transformers to the present network of 9,056. The network of distribution lines will be increased by 315 km by the end of next financial year, officials said.
— IANS |
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Call centre employee crushed as crane topples on 3 cars
New Delhi, February 28 “The victim has been identified as Abhinav Puri, who was returning to his Tilak Nagar residence from a call centre in Gurgaon where he was working. A crane toppled near the Raja Garden flyover and some part of it fell directly on Puri’s Alto car as well as two other four-wheelers,” said the police. Puri was crushed under its weight and he was trapped inside the car. According to information provided by the police, Puri returned to India two years ago after studying in Australia. A local who was passing through the area informed about the accident to the police which summoned fire officials as well. “A gas cutter was used to retrieve Puri from the mangled car and was rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya hospital where doctors declared him brought dead,” said the official. The construction work was going on near the flyover and the JCB crane belonged to the contractor employed by DJB for excavation work in the area. Prima facie, the police said, it
looks like the crane toppled because of excess weight. A case of causing death due to negligence (Section 304A of IPC) and act endangering life or personal safety of others (Section 336 of IPC) has been registered. The crane operator abandoned
the crane and fled after the accident. The contractor is also being questioned in this regard.
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Cop accused of rape
New Delhi, February 28 In her complaint to the police, Sapna (name changed) alleged that Constable Manoj Kumar, attached with the Crime Branch’s Special Operations Group allegedly raped her on Tuesday night and was under the influence of alcohol. The medical examination of the victim has confirmed rape and a case has been registered in this regard at Dwarka (North) Police Station. “The rape in this matter has been confirmed and a case lodged. The accused, constable Manoj, is absconding. We will nab him very soon,” said Parmaditya, Addictional DCP (south-west). According to information, the accused constable was known to the husband of the victim and often came to the house. “On Tuesday, Sapna’s husband had gone to his ancestral village in Jhajjar district, Haryana, and was to return the next day. It seems Manoj Kumar was aware of the fact and he reached his residence in the night after consuming alcohol. Seeing him intoxicated while her husband was away, Sapna tried to get rid of him on the front door itself. However, he managed to get in on the pretext of using the toilet,” said a police official close to investigation. The police was informed about the incident when Sapna told her husband about it on his return next day. Senior police officials of the district said that besides the case, disciplinary action will also be taken against the accused. |
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Metro makes longest bridge segment
New Delhi, February 28 “The longest span built by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is being constructed on a bridge which will pass over the Indian Railways tracks near Okhla. This bridge will have a 100-metre span built over an operating railway line in Delhi,” DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said. The bridge on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur Metro line is located between Okhla and Jasola Metro stations. It will be 250 metre-long and will comprise three spans. The two others are each 75 metre-long. This Metro line itself, connecting central Delhi to the Capital’s south-east fringes, is 20.16-km long. This Metro corridor is scheduled to be completed by September 2010 ahead of the Commonwealth Games in October. The Delhi Metro is using the ‘cantilever construction (CLC)’ methodology for making the bridge “so that the rail traffic below the Metro corridor is not hampered.” About 130 workers are engaged in the construction of this concrete bridge. Dayal said the bridge construction was tricky because it was being built on a very sharp curve with a 300-metre radius. “The installation of the individual segments of the bridge on the curve is difficult as the railways traffic moving below cannot be obstructed during the construction,” Dayal explained. Before this, the longest bridge segment the Delhi Metro had constructed was the 93 metre span built over the rail tracks near Pragati Maidan. — IANS
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19 drunk Holi revellers held
Greater Noida, February 28 Most of those arrested accused are educated and come from decent families. The accused include doctors, engineers, businessmen and students. Later, their relatives and friends created a ruckus outside the police station. The police and district administration have warned people not to derail the festival of
colours. The arrests would send a message across the public, said a police official. Superintendent of police (rural) Surinder Kumar Verma said that people drinking in public and indulging in hooliganism on Holi would be dealt with a firm hand. On Saturday when DSP Shailender Lal had set out to take a round he noticed people consuming liquor in parks and on roadsides in Alfa I sector. They were allegedly passing lewd remarks on women crossing the area and making vulgar gestures. The DSP called a team from Kasna kotwali to arrest them. About a dozen people were nabbed from the park while a few more were arrested from Jagat Market. Six cars were also seized. The arrested persons include Abhineet and Ajay, both students of engineering; Sandeep Singh and Manoj are businessmen; Rajiv Tyagi and Sandeep are engineers employed in a multi-national company;
Subash, a doctor; Jitender, a supervisor in GNIDA; Mohit Saxena is a teacher in an engineering college and
Adesh, a garments showroom owner. Pawan, Jay Prakash, Vedpal and Ravinder were also arrested. The accused were kept in Kasna kotwali lock up for the night, but in morning the relatives of the accused created a commotion alleging that the police had implicated them. |
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Beware of chemicals
Noida, February 28 According to medical experts, such colours can cause skin diseases and other ailments. The colours can adversely affect eyes, nose and ears. For example-- green colour prepared from Copper sulphate is injurious for eyes, red made from Para sulphate is extremely poisonous and can even cause cancer. Dr
P.K. Jha, an ophthalmologist, said that colours containing chemicals can cause pain in eyes. If sprayed one's eyes can swell and become red. It can damage the cornea of eyes and even lead to blindness. Dr S.P
Jain, an ENT specialist, said colours having chemicals can cause allergy in ear, nose and throat. It can damage the eardrums and even taste. So be very careful in indulging in throwing liquid or dry colour on
Holi, he advises. |
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Play safe Holi: Dadwal
Greeting Delhiites on the occasion, City Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal said the festival should be celebrated in all its spirit but it should not infringe on the rights of others. “My appeal to people is to play Holi and not Hooliganism. Play safe and happy
Holi. Respect the sensitivity of others who do not want to play Holi,” the Commissioner said. He also requested festive revelers to avoid throwing balloons at people since it can lead to injury and accidents at time. The police chief warned that police would deal strictly with any hooliganism. |
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Help civic agency solve water woes: HC
New Delhi, February 28 A division bench of acting Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Mukta Gupta said, “The water table of the Capital is coming down at a faster pace. So, the need of the hour is that all of you (residents) should help civic agencies to find a solution.” The court’s remark came after petitioner Surendra Sharma told the court that he had shown three sites to the Delhi Jal Board for constructing underground water reservoirs, but the agency was not showing interest. To this, counsel of DJB replied that those sites were parks and “we cannot construct reservoirs there.” Agreeing to DJB counsel’s submission, the bench said, “The option of parks cannot be followed at all. If we start making reservoirs there, where will children go and play?” The court then directed the petitioner to identify more sites where the reservoirs can be constructed and the water crisis could be solved at the earliest. The court directed the agencies to suggest a permanent solution by April 21. Earlier, the DJB had said that since the area is situated at the tail end of the supply line, low pressure sometimes led to erratic supply from the Bhagirathi water treatment plant. The court was hearing a public interest petition filed by advocate Surendra Sharma, resident of Mohalla Ganga Ram in Shahdara. He had pleaded before the court that there has been no water supply in his area for the past 87 days. The petitioner had also demanded compensation of Rs 2,00,000 from the DJB for the inconvenience caused to residents of the area and sought directions from the court to quash their water bills. — IANS
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Way to de-stress for C’wealth Games volunteers
New Delhi, February 28 The mega event, which will take place in Delhi from October 3 to 14, aims to recruit 30,000 volunteers from a cross-section of people— from students and homemakers to ex-servicemen and corporate honchos. Sudhir Mital, special director general looking after the volunteers programme, said: “The Art of Living Foundation has expressed an interest in providing a three-day course on stress management to the Games volunteers.” “The course, which is otherwise a week-long, will be specially formulated to suit our needs. It will be divided into a four-hour capsule for three days,” said Mital. Darshak Hathi, international director of the Art of Living, said the foundation would also offer members of their youth wing for the volunteers programme. “We are hoping to give 1,000 volunteers from our youth wing for the volunteers programme for the Games. Members of our youth wing are in the age group of 25to 35. Most of them are also from a sports background; so it’s an added advantage,” said Hathi. Hathi said besides helping the volunteers de-stress, the course will also motivate them to take on challenging tasks. “Along with technical skills, it’s important that the volunteers are taught stress management and coping skills. They also need to be motivated to take up challenging tasks. Therefore, we have proposed to impart them the required skills. The same will be provided to the staff,” he said. Since the number of volunteers will be huge, Hathi said the group will be divided into batches of 2,000 who will be trained by 25 trainers.
— IANS
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Health scheme for central govt staff
New Delhi, February 28 The programme of preventive health check-up is under way in the Capital’s south zone, on a pilot-basis. Dr S.N. Mishra, director of CGHS north zone, said, “We will launch a pilot health scheme for beneficiaries of CGHS, including employees, who are of 40 years and above and pensioners in Janakpuri and Vikaspuri areas of north zone, in April.” Adding that the project which had recently been started in R.K. Puram Sector-12 is the first-of-its-kind, Dr Mishra said that the idea behind the project was to detect diseases at early stages. This would help in reducing morbidity rate and cost of treatment. “Diseases like— tuberculosis demand prolonged treatment. And with the coming in of preventive check-ups there would be better and efficient health outcome. A team comprising a physician, opthalmologist, gynaecologist, two or three medical officers, nurses and paramedics would carry out the work at both the centres,” Dr Mishra said. Further, given the constraints of infrastructure and human resource that the project demands, the pilot project would be evaluated and based on the outcome, it would be extended to other areas of the Capital, followed by introducing it in other parts of the country, said Dr
Mishra.
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Godman likely to be booked under MCOCA
New Delhi, February 28 Police sources said they were looking into whether Dwivedi could be slapped charges under the provisions of MCOCA, which allows police to furnish as evidence confession the accused made before a senior official not below the rank of a DCP. The police believes that Dwivedi was in close association with some infamous pimps, including Sonu Punjaban and two others who was arrested in November 2008, and were running the racket along with them. Apparently, they fell out and the others were arrested couples of month back. Dwivedi is believed to have earned crores through the sex racket.
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Four killed in accidents
Greater Noida, February 28 One of the two injured students, Arvind, later died in the Kailash Hospital. In another accident, a woman identified as Santosh Devi got crushed under a truck died on the spot. While a biker was killed while his friend was injured in yet another accident at Expressway on Friday night. The victims have been identified as Shishir and Sanjay of Raj Nagar in Delhi. The two were going on a bike from Greater Noida to Noida late at night on Friday. An Indica car had hit their bike near Sector-93. Shishir and Sanjay sustained injuries. The policemen rushed them to the Kailash Hospital where Shishir succumbed to his injuries. In another accident a mini-truck crushed a biker Dinesh, a resident of Ghaziabad, who was on his way to Secunderabad near Chithera village on Dadri National Highway. Dinesh died on the spot. The mini-truck driver Mustafa Ali has been arrested.
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Govt in the soup over hike in oil prices
The hike in petrol and diesel prices in the Union government’s budget has put the Delhi government in a fix. It had claimed that the rates of essential food items would come down in the Capital soon. An official, however, says that the hike in oil prices will make it difficult to contain the prices which may even go up. The Delhi government is selling wheat flour, eight kinds of pulses and sugar on control rate from outlets of Kendriya Bhandar and Mother Dairy. If increased rates of petrol and diesel are not rolled back, the government will have to factor in the hike, which could affect the prices adversely, he says. What is more, the state Congress leaders lament that they could not blame the Union government which is led by their own party. All for a cause!
Acknowledgement by the likes of Nandan Nilekani, Infosys’ co-founder and an intellectual, of someone’s good work is sufficient reason for celebration for most people and Bindeshwar Pathak of Sulabh International, is no exception. In his well-received book, Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation, Nilekani has made a passing reference to the good work being done by individuals independent of government, reserving a couple of lines for
Pathak. Feeling so happy about it, Pathak makes it a point to hand over a copy of this not-so-cheap book to his visitors. Pathak tells them it is not for his publicity but for the cause of “toilet for everyone” in India which is so close to his heart. Karan Johar pips SRK, Tharoor
to post
At a time when communication tools are rising exponentially, it is only expected that some of them are recognised and applauded for the impact they have made on our lives. And a recent award function organised by a leading news channel did just that. It added a new category to its list of awards and decided to honour a personality for popularising the social networking tool, Twitter. It all went smoothly until the winner’s name was announced. The exclusive audience, which comprised Bollywood celebrities and Delhi’s power people, was betting on the likes of Shashi
Tharoor, who commands a large following on Twitter and has hit headlines more for his “tweets” than his work. There was also certain Shah Rukh Khan who rallied people around him with his “tweets” when Shiv Sena went after him and his movie My Name is Khan. But it was his close pal Karan
Johar, who bagged the award, much to the surprise of the audience. JNU to shed its intellectual tag for a day
Jawaharlal Nehru University is the fountainhead of public debates but its intellectuals will take some much-needed mental break on the day of
Holi. Following their annual unique tradition, university students will crack meaningless jokes and the winner will be the one who bores the audience the most. If somebody manages to amuse the audience, then he will be a bore rest of the year! The winner will take the crown of “Maha Chaat (great bore)” and is taken around the university campus on a donkey. To top the event with some drama, a famous Maha Chaat of the university who runs a dhaba on campus will dress up like a god and attend the ceremony. Providing ideological sanctity to the event, senior students of the university describe it as a symbolic revolt of the masses against the elite culture of rock bands and raggae music. (Contributed by Syed Ali Ahmed, Kumar Rakesh, Himani Chandel, Akhila Singh) |
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Acid thrown on woman
New Delhi, February 28 The incident was reported from the Delhi Cantonment area around 7 pm yesterday when the victim, Vimla, was returning home from work. Vimla works as a saleswoman at a health drink company in Rajouri Garden. “Vimala was on a cycle rickshaw when two men on a motorcycle threw some chemical on her face and fled within seconds. She was rushed to a nearby hospital with 20 per cent burn injuries on her hands and chest,” said a police official. However, the official said that the actual content of the chemical thrown had not been ascertained yet. Vimla is married and lives with her husband in Nangal. She could not identify the attackers, as it was dark. She could not even note down the registration number of the motorcycle. A case
has been registered. |
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2 held with liquor bottles
New Delhi, February 28 Manita (26) and Promod (30) were caught on a tip off and 1,296 bottles of illicit liquor were seized from them. The police seized 696 bottles of liquor from Manita’s residence and she was arrested. “This liquor was being stored in Manita’s house for illegal sale on the eve of Holi,” a senior police official said. In another such incident, Promod was caught from the same area with 600 bottles of country-made liquor. Manita has been involved in four cases while Promod has been involved in six. In the past few days, the police has seized 2,448 bottles of illicit liquor in three separate incidents in south Delhi and arrested four persons in this connection.
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Delhi records season’s hottest day in four years
New Delhi, February 28 While the minimum temperature was recorded at 16.6° Celsius, five degrees above the average for this time of the season. “The temperature is likely to increase further with the maximum and minimum temperature Monday settling at 32 degrees and 16 degrees Celsius,” said an India Meteorological Department (IMD)
official. — IANS |
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Man charred in showroom
New Delhi, February 28 “Three fire tenders were rushed to the spot which brought the flames under control. The rescue workers found a completely charred body inside the showroom which was handed over to the local police,” said the police. The deceased could not be identified as yet. One man identified as Rajesh Anand suffered minor injuries and was rushed to hospital. |
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The hike in petrol and diesel prices in the Union government’s budget has put the Delhi government in a fix. It had claimed that the rates of essential food items would come down in the Capital soon. An official, however, says that the hike in oil prices will make it difficult to contain the prices which may even go up.
The Delhi government is selling wheat flour, eight kinds of pulses and sugar on control rate from outlets of Kendriya Bhandar and Mother Dairy.
New Delhi, February 28