New Delhi, November 16
A 50-year-old businessman was allegedly set on fire by local vendors in the Khayala area of West Delhi this morning.

The deceased, identified as Vijay Arora, is survived by wife and three children, said the police. Vijay used to deal in auto parts in T block of Khayala. He was having a clash with some vendors outside his shop. The family members of the deceased have named four persons for the murder, said senior police officials.

The police got a call at around 8:10 am that a charred body was found inside a shop in the Khayala area. Fire engines were also rushed to the spot as flames were reported from the shop. After the fire was extinguished and the body recovered by the fire officials, it was handed over to the police. The police rushed the body to Deen Dyal Upadhaya Hospital for postmortem.

The police has booked two women, Chandrakanta and Krishna in their fifties and three youths Puran, Chaman and Raj under various sections of Indian Penal Code.

The police said during investigation, it was found that the accused women ran a stall of earthen pots outside Arora's shop. Arora allegedly did not allow them to put their stall outside his shop due to which they often exchanged heated arguments.

"Arora used to run three shops in the area. One of his neighbours had encroached on the common passage. Arora had asked him to remove the encroachment several times, and had heated arguments with him over the issue," said the police.

An FIR of murder was registered in the case. Arora's family alleged that five persons were seen with him last time. They beat him up and set him on fire after pouring kerosene. The miscreants also set the shop on fire before fleeing, said the police.

The police said that they have formed several teams to crack the case and taken the statements of a few vendors in the area.

New Delhi, November 16
A postgraduate student of Delhi University was found hanging from the ceiling of a hostel room in Hindu College this morning. The 21-year-old deceased, Shashi Shekhar, belonged to Nalanda, Bihar. He was pursuing masters in Hindi literature and was a bright student.

He was found hanging by one of the inmates in the room number 111 at around 9 am today, said the police.

"One of his friends called me up to check in his room in the morning after he had not responded to the calls for long. We knocked on his door and then peeped through the window only to find him hanging," said Aseem Aggrawal, who spent time with him till late last night.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, North district, Sindhu Pillai said that a PCR call reporting the matter was received at around 9.15 am.

"After reaching the spot, the police immediately took him to Bara Hindu Rao Hospital where he was declared brought dead," said Pillai.

"We have informed his family members. His father Chandra Shekhar Prasad Chaurasia is a professor at Nalanda University," he said.

Though the police has not been able to decipher the cause of suicide as no suicide note was found from his room, it recovered a notebook, with a poem written in it by someone else.

However, the police officials said that Shekhar added a few lines to it: 'It's my story…can we do nothing for the dead and for the long time answer has been nothing'.

"The poem is not written by him though he has added a few lines to it with his signature at the end," said Pillai. Indicating a love angle in the matter, the police said that the exact cause of suicide will be ascertained only after the postmortem report.

His friends said that Shekhar showed no sign of depression till a day before and was very cooperative. "He called me up around 10 last night and asked me to come over to his room for general discussion and studies. He did not appear depressed or disappointed in any manner," claimed Aggrawal.

"He was a very studious and bright student getting a gold medal and scholarship in Master of Arts," said Praduman Kumar, principal of the college.

New Delhi, November 16
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit at a meeting held today with the Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram demanded an increase in the Central budgetary allocation to Delhi. The Delhi budget has been stagnant at Rs 325 crore per annum for the last 10 years.

She appealed to the Union Finance Minister that the Central assistance should be in proportionate to the size of Delhi's annual budget which crossed Rs 35,000 crore.

"I reminded the Finance Minister that Delhi has been getting a budgetary support of Rs 325 crore a year for the last decade and we do feel that it should be increased. The assistance should be proportionate to our annual budget which crossed Rs 35,000 crore," Dikshit said adding that there had been a lot of pressure on the city government to enhance infrastructure due to the increasing migration into the city.

During the meeting with the Minister, Dikshit highlighted various challenges facing the city like shortage of water and rising pollution level.

The meeting was also attended by the chief managing directors of public sector banks and financial institutions.

New Delhi, November 16
The Delhi government has finally decided to launch a major food security programme under its cash transfer scheme on December 15 in which a monthly cash subsidy of Rs 600 will be given to two lakh poor families which are not covered by either BPL scheme or Antyodaya Anna Yojana in the Capital.

The government has also been facilitating the beneficiaries in opening their no-frills accounts in the banks in order to ensure the direct transfer of financial benefits in their respective accounts. The government has set offer Rs 1,500 crore for the beneficiaries, the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, made this announcement following a meeting with the Union Finance Minister.

''A food subsidy of Rs 600 per month would be transferred directly in the bank account of the seniormost women of the household to enable the family to purchase foodgrains of their choice,'' she said. Officials said that the government was considering offering the cash subsidy to the four lakh beneficiaries who are currently getting subsidised food items.

The city government has been favouring cash transfer to beneficiaries instead of subsidised foodgrains and had even sought an option of direct cash transfer to BPL families instead of foodgrains in the ambitious Food Security Bill, which is being vetted by a parliamentary panel.

Last year, the Delhi government had launched a pilot project in the trans-Yamuna area to know whether the scheme would be feasible or not. The government has decided to launch the scheme when it was sure that it would be feasible.

New Delhi, November 16
It was the same auditorium at Lady Shri Ram College that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a young girl learned to sing Gandhi's "Ragupati Raghav Raja Ram" and scripted a spoof on "Othello," where she returned today after 40 years amidst thunderous applause and a special Burmese song.

It was a befitting homecoming for the democratic beacon of Myanmar as college principal Meenakshi Gopinath said, "Today is the day that LSR celebrates as 'Diwali' when its hero has come home after a much painful exile."

The Nobel laureate, fondly nicknamed "Suu" by her former LSR classmates, today spoke extempore calling herself a part Indian citizen.

"Coming to LSR is not just coming home for me, but means much more as I realize that my hopes, my efforts were not in vain. For all those years when I couldn't contact anyone, I could never know how everyone received the happenings in Myanmar. I always knew I would come back to India and to LSR to see in the eyes of 'my girls' that they understand what I did, and why," Suu Kyi said.

Speaking of Burma, Suu Kyi said that Burma's struggle towards democracy and reaping their reward has just begun.

"Politics is not an easy profession. At times, choices have to be made, which aren't always idealistic, but one shouldn't ever give up on their principles. Unprincipled politics is the most dangerous thing in the world. We have yet not achieved democracy but are still in the process. We seek help from other partner nations," she said.

In India after four decades, Suu Kyi said that her friends told her how Indians are now misusing their democratic rights and not valuing them.

"Democratic rights are a precious gift. What is taken for granted here is exactly what we are fighting for in Myanmar. The importance of democracy can be understood only when it is not accessible," she said.

The political leader, also in the process of setting up a school for Burmese girls in the Capital, further said, "I wish more Burmese girls knew what campus life was. Students are familiar with the university routine of lectures, but they don't have a campus life like colleges here that helps produce probing minds and courage in individuals. I want the students to approach universities not just to gain certificates, but also head towards an engaging and challenging life through campus life."

Gopinath, who was just two batches ahead of Suu Kyi in LSR, said, "I am still a bit shaken. She is an icon and a source of inspiration to all of us at LSR. We wrote to her many times in the past but were not sure if she received our letters. Finally, last year when she was released, we received confirmation through couriers. And today she was here, amongst us."

New Delhi, November 16
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is now in the process of adding two more battalions with 1,140 members each to its existing fleet of 10 under the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

A team of the National Disaster Response Force performs a live demonstration in case of an earthquake during the IITF at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on Friday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

The updated force will have a total of 12 battalions now, including teams for rescue operations, medical responding, bomb disposals and a canine squad, vice-chairman, National Disaster Management Authority, M Shasheedhar Reddy said today at the India International Trade fair in the Capital.

At a live demonstration of the NDRF and the force's canine squad at the ongoing fair today, thousands of schoolchildren, police officials, home guards and security officials sat through an extensive and inspiring mock drill.

Organized by the NDMA in accordance with the India Trade Promotion Organization, the live demonstration will continue until November 18. The entire exercise is aimed at sensitizing people at large, as to how to minimize life and property loss at a time of a natural calamity.

The workshop today focused on the quick tricks used by the NDRF in rescuing civilians from an earthquake site, including chopper surveillance, locating sound waves from any survivors stuck in the debris, rappelling from high buildings with injured civilians, and the latest technology used to cut through cars, metals and concrete with maximum swiftness.

Director-general, NDRF, PM Nayyar said, "Our force was also dispatched to Japan last year, when the Fukushima nuclear blast happened. Our teams have been upgrading themselves with the best of the technological advances, so that we stand prepared at the time of need."