New Delhi, July 2
Contractual sanitation workers of three municipal corporations in Delhi may strike work to press their demand for regularisation of their services, a workers' leader said today.

"We have given a letter to all the three corporations for making the workers' services permanent, but still there has been no response," said Vinod Sarwan, general secretary of the Rashtriya Safai Mazdoor Congress. He alleged that some sanitation workers in the Karol Bagh zone under the north corporation, Najafgarh under the south corporation and some areas in Shahdara under the east corporation had not been receiving their salaries.

"They are workers who depend on the daily wages. We are tired of the false promises that the commissioners make after every meeting," added Sarwan.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Commissioner Manish Gupta said, "Under SDMC, the jobs of the sanitation workers, recruited in 1997-98, have already been regularised and their salaries are delivered on time."

The three corporations have claimed that the process to fulfill the workers' demand has been initiated. Officials said they are also looking at offering medical insurance to the workers.

"Apart from regularisation, we would also be providing the workers with cashless medical cards. The services in the government hospitals would be free afterwards. As it is a joint venture, we are awaiting a decision from the north corporation," said Gupta.

"We have taken the demand into consideration and are doing our best with all the available resources," said North Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner P.K. Gupta.

The corporation is also working on a new set of uniform and by September, all the sanitation workers would be provided with new dresses. According to Sarwan, there are over 60,000 sanitation workers in the three civic agencies and over 10,000 contractual employees.

New Delhi, July 2
Ridership of the Delhi Metro today touched a new high of over 23.50 lakh, said a senior official of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

"The trains yesterday carried 23,62,279 passengers, surpassing the 23,32,298 figure of June 18," said the official. According to the DMRC, the daily footfall has been over 23 lakh in June.

The usually overcrowded Blue Line (Dwarka-Noida City Centre/Vaishali) recorded the maximum ridership of 9,25,707 followed by Yellow Line (Jahangirpuri-Huda City Centre) at 8,60,985.

The Red Line (Rithala-Dilshad Garden) carried over three lakh passengers while the Violet Line (Central Secretariat to Badarpur) carried 1,69,487 people and Green Line (Inderlok to Mundka) had a ridership of 84,243.

"The ridership figure for Monday on the Airport Metro Express Line saw a footfall of 10,300, the first day of its operations under the Delhi Metro supervision," the official added.

The Delhi Metro, the city's lifeline, ferries nearly two million passengers on week days and makes over 2,800 trips daily.

New Delhi, July 2
Expressing deep concern over the rising crime graph against women in Delhi, the BJP today announced that it would soon come out with a white paper on "women safety" which would suggest the ways and means of making Delhi safe for women.

Delhi had witnessed 806 rape cases this year till June 20, a sharp increase from 330 cases during previous year within same period. The jump in the number of molestation cases is even steeper, with 1,780 cases reported in the Capital in the first six months this year against 270 for the same period last year.

"The situation is grave in Delhi with more than 2,500 incidents of rape and molestation over a period of the last six months. A party delegation will meet the Union Home Minister to demand immediate remedial action.

“It is deplorable that the Congress government in Delhi remains either tightlipped or just put the blame on the Delhi Police for such a grave situation. There is an urgent need for action," said Vijay Goel, president of the Delhi unit of the BJP.

"There has to be a time-bound action plan on the ground to curb the rising crime graph against women in the city," he said.

Goel said the BJP would strengthen home guards by providing them better training and enhancing their numbers to supplement the efforts of the police, if the party comes to power in Delhi.

"We will constitute quick reaction teams to deal with any incident of eve-teasing or crime against women," said the president of the Delhi unit of the BJP.

New Delhi, July 2
The Crime Branch of Delhi Police today claimed to have unearthed a racket of supplying illegal weapons to Delhi and NCR. One person, Raju Dabar, has been arrested in the case.

The police recovered four revolvers of point 32-bore, six pistols of 7.65-bore and 10 live cartridges from his possession. The weapons recovered are manufactured with high skills and appear to be genuine. One can hardly detect that it is an imitation, the police said.

The police had information that a gang engaged in the sale and supply of illegal arms and ammunition to Delhi and NCR is getting the weapons from one Sarvan at Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. There was possibility that these weapons might have been used by the alleged criminals of Delhi and NCR.

During investigation, the police received input that Sarvan had sent a consignment of arms and ammunition through one of his conduits. The consignment will be delivered to one Robin near ISBT Anand Vihar. A trap was laid there and the accused arrested.

The accused disclosed that this gang is headed by Sarwan of Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. He has been engaged in this illegal trade for the last 4-5 years and has supplied more than 200 sophisticated weapons to various persons, including the gangsters of Delhi, NCR, UP, MP and Haryana.

Raju along with Sarvan was in touch with various persons of Delhi, NCR, UP and Haryana in connection with the sale of weapons. These persons used to place the orders on the telephone and the settled amount was deposited in the bank account numbers.

A point 32-bore pistol was sold at the rate between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 and a revolver between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000.

New Delhi, July 2
The pending cases of vehicle registration are set to be cleared by the Delhi Transport Department.

The Transport Minister, Ramakant Goswami, said that within a week, the system will be streamlined to clear the backlog.

Goswami said foreign companies would be invited for the trial run to test their buses in the conditions of the city. The department is planning to purchase 1,725 new buses under the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and bring 425 more buses under cluster scheme.

"To provide state-of-the-art services to the citizens of Delhi, the department will renovate all of its zonal offices in the Capital. The zonal offices would be refurbished with lounge and air-conditioners," he said.

A high-level review meeting of the department chaired by the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, was held to discuss the matter, which was attended by senior officials of the Transport Department and DTC.

New Delhi, July 2
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has extended the last date for admission to its various academic programmes till July 8, said a statement issued by the university today.

"The revised date for the session is July 8 without late fee and July 31 with late fee for various programmes," said the statement. Earlier, the last date to submit applications at regional centres of the university was July 1.

IGNOU is the world's largest open university with a pan-Indian and international reach with flexible entry qualifications and a wide range of academic programmes at affordable costs.

New Delhi, July 2
CRPF personnel have donated their one-day salary to the PM's Relief Fund for rehabilitation of Uttarakhand flash-flood victims.

Pranay Sahay, DG of the CRPF, today presented a cheque for Rs 18.1 crore to Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Home Minister today.

Anil Goswami, Union Home Secretary, S.S. Jayaraman, Special Secretary, Internal Security, Aruna Bahuguna, Special DG, CRPF, along with other senior officers of the CRPF, were also present on the occasion.

Earlier, CRPF Wives' Welfare Association (CWWA) had sent two trucks of relief material, comprising clothing items, utensils and food articles.

New Delhi, July 2
A 25-year-old man was killed by two of his friends after a heated argument, police said on Tuesday.

The accused have been arrested.

Vinod, a resident of west Delhi's Paschim Vihar, was found injured near a park in west Delhi's Punjabi Bagh area on Monday night.

"He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead," said a police officer.

Jitender, 30, and Joginder, 33, have been arrested. "They attacked the victim with stones after a row while they were drinking," said the officer.

Vinod was released from jail recently. — IANS