New Delhi, May 17
The Delhi government has sought Centre's help to deal with the problem of water shortage in the national capital.

According to senior officials, the government has proposed some radical measures for dealing with the issue.

"The issue of water shortage was discussed at a meeting of the Planning Commission held recently. At the meeting, Delhi's annual plan size of Rs 15,135 crore was approved. The amount is a jump of over 30 per cent from the last year," said a senior official.

Sources say Dikshit has suggested three options to overcome water shortage in the Capital.

"The first option is the Renuka dam in Himachal Pradesh, which is facing objections from the Union environment ministry. The second one is deep tunneling to transport surplus water from the oversupplied areas to the less-supplied ones. The third option is to have an interstate water reservoir," sources said.

The option of deep tunneling to transport surplus water from south to southwest Delhi and from north to west Delhi is said to be the costliest among the three options.

Sources say that the Chief Minister has suggested that the option of building an interstate water reservoir is the cheapest option.

Sources go on to say that as part of the radical measures, the Chief Minister has proposed to involve the private sector in the distribution of water to ensure that there is no wastage and rational utilisation of water.

"She is also stated to have said that Delhi needed a drainage masterplan which could be prepared by a Japanese consultant. It has also been said that about six to seven private companies have come forward fro the distribution work of the Delhi Jal Board," said the officer.

Further, at the meeting, it was also stated that Haryana, Punjab and Delhi could come together to have an interstate water reservoir, which would be the cheapest way to solve Delhi's water crisis.

New Delhi, May 17
Though the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, said Delhi had power enough to meet the demand of the city, people were not getting any respite from the heat due to severe power cuts ranging from one to four hours reported from various areas of the Capital.

The major areas that suffer from outages are south, east, north, northeast and west Delhi. There are outages for three hours in south, east and north Delhi while residents in several localities in west Delhi complained of power cuts for four hours.

The power cuts made life miserable for the citizens as mercury went up to the season's highest of 44.1° C.

A resident of Mustafabad in northeast Delhi, Narender, said there was no power for almost three hours in the locality. People had got registered complaints with local office of the power department but nothing had been done to restore the power supply.

A power department official said the peak demand was recorded at 4,365 MW today against yesterday's 4,526 MW.

However, a senior official of the power department said power cuts took place due to some of the technical snags that generally take place during summers. As far as availability of power was concerned, Delhi had sufficient power.

New Delhi, May 17
The national capital today witnessed the hottest May 17 in the past five years as the day temperature soared up to 44.1 degree Celsius, five degrees above the average for this time of the season. The minimum temperature too was four notches above normal at 28.5 degrees. The humidity was recorded at 35 per cent.

The city residents sweltered in extreme heat and most of them tried to avoid stepping out with elderly and children.

"Last year on May 17, the maximum temperature was recorded at 44 degrees. In 2009, it was 41 degrees, 41.2 degrees in 2008, 40 in 2007 and in 2006, it was 39 degrees," said an official of India Meteorological Department (IMD).

"The dry winds made the condition worse. Be it AC or cooler, nothing seemed to be working today. Even after covering myself from head to toe, I felt like my skin was burning. I ended up with sunburns on my back. It was a bad day to step out today," said Kamakshi Kothiwal, a wedding planner based in south Delhi.

However, the bad news is that the metrological department has predicted that it will only get hotter as the mercury levels are expected to rise as the week proceeds.

Speaking about the probable weather conditions tomorrow, a senior metrological department official said, "There is no possibility of rain tomorrow as of now. The maximum and the minimum temperatures are expected to oscillate between 44 and 30 degree Celsius."

According to the Met department, several parts of Northwest India are reeling from heat. Last year, on May 18, the maximum temperature had touched 45.4 degree Celsius, which is the highest temperature in May in the past 10 years. The highest temperature record in May is 47.2 degree Celsius, which was recorded on May 29, 1944.

Noida, May 17
Once again hundreds of farmers were on roads with their demands for better compensation. Protesters reached construction sites of real estate developers and disrupted the work yesterday. They have given June 15 as the deadline for meeting their demands.

After setting aside of land acquisition at Sobberi village in Noida Extension by the high court, farmers in many other villages have decided to approach the court for redressal of their grievances. But the court have yet to hear four-dozen petitions from farmers.

All these cases have been lodged by farmers from Habibpur and Sobberi villages. Many petitions pertaining to the Noida Extension area are yet to come up for hearing in the court.

While Deputy CEO Akhlesh has claimed that problems of three-dozen villages have been resolved, there is considerable anxiety among builders' lobby as to what attitude courts will take about these petitions. If the court takes a pro-farmer approach, it could adversely affect the builders' lobby. Already three builders have been adversely affected by the court's verdicts.

Acquisition is an important issue in Greater Noida villages. A number of times GNIDA has, through special campaigns, resolved farmers' problems.

According to Akhlesh, the Abadi problems of 8,000 farmers from 40 villages have been resolved. The farmers, who were not satisfied with the authority's endeavour, had approached the court.

The Apex Court had first rejected the acquisition notification of Makoda village. Later, the Allahabad High Court had set aside the notification concerning Sobberi and Surajpur villages. The court ordered the authority to invite farmers' objections first. This has revived hopes in farmers.

Farmer leaders like Manveer Bhatti, Rupesh Verma and Satpal Chaudhary said the authority was claiming to have resolved the Abadi problems in over three dozen villages. But there were many farmers whose problems had not been resolved yet.

Some farmers from Khodna Khurd, Khairpur Gujar, Vaidpur, Roza Jalalpur and Chipyana villages have left for Allahabad. It is clear that the farmers who are not satisfied with the authority's decision will per force have to approach the Allahabad High Court.

New Delhi, May 17
With the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations declaring Classes X and XII results today, once again the girls outperformed boys with better pass percentages.

In Delhi and national capital region (NCR), girls outshone boys in both the exams, the board said.

While 98.99 per cent girls cleared the Class X exam, 98.47 per cent boys passed the exam. In Class XII, the pass percentage of girls is 98.55 as against 98.26 in case of boys. In all, the pass percentage at Class X stood at 98.72, up by 0.46 per cent while in Class XII it stood at 98.41, up by 1.53 per cent.

The board said the marksheets for Class XII would reach the schools on May 19 and for Class X a day later.

A total of 1,22,347 (68,382 boys and 53,965 girls) took the Class X exams from 1,638 schools across the country.

New Delhi, May 17
Two men, accused of raping a woman together last year, have been acquitted by a Delhi court as she failed to identify them and the police failed to send medical samples for forensic tests in time, resulting in their decay before the test.

"Since the woman has not identified the accused persons categorically as the persons who raped her, despite her examination, cross-examination and re-examination, the benefit of doubt has to be given to the accused persons in the facts and circumstances of the present case," additional sessions judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said.

"Both the accused persons are acquitted of the charge of gangrape under Section 376 (2)(g) of the Indian Penal Code," the court said despite suspecting that the duo-- Pooth Khurd village residents Ashok Kumar and Sandeep -- were the persons involved in the rape.

Observing that medical reports would have been the best evidence to prove the duo's crime, the court rued that nothing came against the accused in the forensic report though victim's clothes and her forensic samples were taken immediately after the incident.

"Yet it has been reported in the FSL report that all the blood samples were putrefied or there were no reaction.

“The said evidence would have been best scientific evidence to nail the culpability of the accused persons in the present case," the court said.

The judge had earlier expressed concern over the lack of facilities at police stations for preserving various medical and biological samples in criminal cases, often leading to their decay before being sent for forensic tests and affecting the outcome of the case. — PTI

New Delhi, May 17
The north district police has arrested a 50-year-old tantrik from the Timarpur area for allegedly raping a 21-year-old student of Delhi University for three months.

According to the police, accused Dharam Prakash had also made a CD of the rape and used it to threaten her against telling anyone about the rape.

Prakash was arrested yesterday after the victim reported the matter to the police and her medical examination confirmed rape.

"Prakash is well known in the area and had a considerable following. He was referred to the victim's parents after they told someone that their daughter was not feeling well and facing problems in life. They took her to Prakash, who assured the parents that he would set things right. Initially, the parents went with the girl, but later, she would visit Prakash on her own. It was during one such visits that Prakash gave the girl prasad laced with some sedatives, and after she fell unconscious, raped her," said a police official.

Prakash also made a CD of the act and threatened the victim to make it public if she told about the incident to anyone. As a result, the victim was exploited for over several months.

It was only on Sunday when the victim was again called by Prakash and she told about him to a friend, who in turn informed the girl's father.

"We have registered a case against the accused under sections of rape and criminal intimidation after the victim's examination confirmed rape. He has been arrested. The CD made by him has been seized," said the official. He added that investigation was on to ascertain the involvement of someone else who filmed the CD," said the official.

New Delhi, May 17
Two persons were killed while three others are feared buried under the debris of a four-storey under-construction building that collapsed in the Nihal Vihara area of west Delhi this evening.

According to fire officials engaged in the rescue act, the incident was reported around 4.20 pm from building site, B-72/74, in Chandar Vihar.

The victims have been identified as Nirmal Singh, the owner of the building and Daya Ram, a labourer working at the site.

"Two bodies have been recovered while an injured woman has been admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. Rescue work is on with help from fire officials, disaster management unit and local volunteers," said a police official. He said that the rescue operation had been slowed down as any rush could endanger the life of anyone still alive under the debris.

More than 12 fire trucks and CAT ambulances are present at the crash site.

According to information, a building just adjacent to the site of the collapse has also tilted and it has been evacuated. The rescue operations being carried out under the supervision of senior police officials of the district are likely to go on till the wee hours.

"The cause of the collapse will be investigated later. Now, our priority is to clear the debris and rescue those trapped," said the official when asked what led to the crash. 

New Delhi, May 17
The crime branch of the Delhi police has arrested two persons, including a woman, for their alleged involved in human trafficking from Assam, West Bengal and Indo-Bangladesh border. Nine children, including seven girls were rescued from their clutches.

According to Ashok Chand, DCP (crime), the accused have been identified as Ismail Ahmed (32), hailing from Nowagaon in Assam and Babita (25), who runs an illegal placement agency.

Ahmed was the first to be arrested on May 5 from Shakurpur when he struck a deal with a decoy customer for selling a minor girl for Rs 1.5 lakh.

"He told the police that there were agents operating in Assam, West Bengal and the Indo-Bangladesh border who bring minor children to Delhi on the pretext of giving them better lives," said Chand.

The children are then handed over to the illegal placement agency run by Babita.

The police with help from NGO Shakti Vahini has rescued eight more minor girls and boys aged between 11-15 years who were working as domestic helps.

These children had no knowledge if any salary was being paid to them or send to their parents. Most of them had no contact with their parents after coming to Delhi.

Investigations have revealed that the broker was paid about Rs 20, 000 by Babita for each child. She further charged about Rs 35, 000 as the initial amount from the house where the children were sent to work. According to officials, even the monthly salaries of the children paid by their employers were misappropriated by Babita and it never reached their parents.