New Delhi, September 29
Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel during the Vikas rally held at Japanese Park in Rohini today challenged Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit that she could discuss with him at any platform Delhi’s problems whether they were of power distribution, water supply, inflation, etc.

Addressing a mammoth rally, Goel said, "During the last 15 years' rule of the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress government, Delhi has been involved in CWG, power and DTC scams. The Shunglu committee report has pointed at the scam in CWG, but the government did nothing to get rid of corruption in the departments."

He said if the BJP was voted to power in Delhi, it would change the face of the state within 15 months. Power tariff would be reduced to 30 per cent while the lal dora area would be extended. Besides, unauthorized colonies would be approved; education and health services would get better.

Speaking about the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Goel said that he would like to work under the prime ministership of Narendra Modi as he had worked in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government.

Speaking on the occasion, Leader of Opposition in Delhi Legislative Assembly, Vijay Kumar Malhotra also criticized the Chief Minister for erratic water supply in many areas of the Capital and inflated power bills.

Former Delhi BJP president Dr Harshvardhan said that the BJP would work for all the citizens. The Delhi Government has increased the power tariff to benefit the discoms. If the BJP was voted to power, it would try to provide solar power to every resident, he said.

Others who spoke on the occasion were senior BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi, former Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta and former Mayor Arti Mehra.

New Delhi, September 29
Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) today commissioned a 33/11 kV grid substation at Naraina, benefiting over 80,000 customers.

The newly commissioned substation will benefit the existing and new Tata Power Delhi Distribution's customers in Naraina Industrial Area, Inderpuri, and its adjoining areas.

The substation has been built at a total cost of Rs 9 crore. The 33/11 kV Naraina will be operated from TDPPL's Supervisory Controlled and Data Acquisition Center (SCADA).

This substation will further improve the reliability of power supply and facilitate the load growth in the above-mentioned areas. Earlier, these areas were primarily fed from the Inderpuri grid.

The substation has an installed capacity of 36 MVA, with ten numbers of outgoing feeders at 11kV level. It has an incoming supply from 33kV Inderpuri and Rewari line grids.

"It is equipped with Nitrogen Injection Fire Prevention and Extinction System (NIFPES) installed for power transformers. It also has indoor-type auto-switched capacitor bank, installed for the first time in TDPPL's network. It is a compact grid with the state-of-the-art relays for safety in congested areas," said senior officials of TDPPL.

"I am sure with the commissioning of this state-of the-art grid substation, the customers of Naraina and adjoining areas will be immensely benefited," said Chief Minister Sheila 
Dikshit while inaugurating the grid.

"The power supply in Delhi is one of the best in the country. Today, we are not only providing 24x7 quality supply, but also successfully meeting the ever-growing demand," she said.

New Delhi, September 29
To educate school students about the etiquette of travelling by the Metro and to encourage the use of public transport among the new generation, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has started conducting educational and recreational trips for the students on a regular basis.

As part of these trips, which are conducted every week, students are taken on a joyride of the Delhi Metro during which the station controllers brief them about the functioning of the Metro stations. They are also taken to the Metro Museum at Patel Chowk, said a spokesperson for the DMRC.

"The students are given complimentary tourist information booklets, Metro maps and pamphlets as well. Separate coaches are earmarked for their travel whenever it is feasible to do so," he said.

Recently, more than a thousand students from the city's prestigious schools such as Army Public School (Dhaula Kuan), Kendriya Vidyala (Dwarka Sector 12), North Delhi Public School, Abhinav Public School (Rohini), etc., have visited the Delhi Metro system.

Ever since the beginning of Metro operations, the DMRC has been organizing such trips for the students. The Metro Museum also regularly hosts students in order to educate them about the Metro system.

However, now the DMRC intends to organize such trips regularly so that the students become more aware and conscious about the benefits of using public transport and help the Delhi Metro in maintaining discipline inside the system.

New Delhi, September 29
About three months ago, a man was caught by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at Kolkata Airport. They had suspected that the liquid in a container which he was carrying was ammonium nitrate, a chemical used as a fertilizer and an explosive. He was detained by the police for close to two days and released only after a forensic science laboratory in Kolkata denied that the liquid was ammonium nitrate.

Like this incident, the CISF's intensive search for detecting not only explosives, but also arms and ammunition at airports has been strengthened under its 'random checking' scheme. The CISF is responsible for not only guarding Kolkata Airport, but 58 airports across India. The scheme which is an 'additional layer of security' at an airport was implemented for detecting if passengers and visitors are carrying any arms, ammunition or explosives.

The concept of this scheme came from a bomb blast that took place at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport in January 2011, which killed 35 people and injured about 170 others.

"We realised that it could happen in India as well. So from February 2011, we started the random checking scheme at 22 'hypersensitive' and 'sensitive' airports in India," said a senior CISF officer. Some of the airports where the scheme has been implemented are in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.

The CISF conducts random checking at the departure and arrival lounges of the 22 airports. Under the scheme, a person is frisked, checked by a hand-held metal detector and a door frame metal detector. The security force also uses an explosive vapour detector and the explosive trace detector.

The scheme is divided into two parts. First, all visitors who have come to the arrival lounge are checked. "Most of them are relatives and friends of the passengers who deboard the flights. We frisk all of them. We also see if they have their entry ticket, which is given by the airport authority," said the officer.

Second, about some passengers arriving at the departure lounge are checked. The security personnel first profile them. The profiling plan is employed to find if a passenger betrays suspicious behaviour and if he could be a security threat.

The CISF lays stress on finding weapons and explosives at the arrival and departure lounges. In the past 10 months, the force has made 10 detections of arms and ammunition under the random checking scheme at the airports in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Goa and Mumbai.

"The people who have been caught usually keep ammunition and not arms in their hand baggage," said the sources.

According to the CISF, a passenger can carry only arms and ammunition inside his 'registered' baggage, which is handed over at the airline counter and then kept at the aircraft hold.

"Arms and ammunition are not allowed in a hand bag. At the entry points to the departure lounge, if we find that someone is carrying arms or ammunition in a hand bag, we tell them to place it in their registered luggage. If the person is not carrying a licence, we get him arrested by the police," said the sources.

The CISF says that the people whom they have caught with arms and ammunition, claim that they inadvertently brought it along, but then that is still a crime if they don't carry a licence.

New Delhi, September 29
Mukesh Sharma, MLA, Parliamentary Secretary to Delhi Chief Minister and spokesperson of the Congress Legislative Party, said that a clear message has emerged from the people of Delhi that they are not willing to accept Narendra Modi's model of "communal" politics. Delhi believes in development and this is the model that the Congress government has stood for.

Sharma questioned Modi's presence in Delhi, asking whether he was the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming assembly elections. If Modi is not the saffron party's chief ministerial candidate in Delhi, then who is going to be the face of the BJP, he asked.

Addressing a gathering at Vipin Garden during the Congress Samarthan Rally, Sharma said that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has given Delhi 15 years of uninterrupted development and the people of Delhi have now made up their mind to vote in the Congress for another five years.

The Samarthan Rally went on for six hours and covered 25 km winding through the lanes and bylanes of Mohan Garden, Nevada Ward, Najafgarh Road, Nevada Metro Station and Sewak Road before ending at the Dwarka Mod Metro station.

New Delhi, September 29
The Congress-led state government and the BJP-led Municipal Corporations are set on a political war ahead of the assembly elections with both the parties busy in proving the other down be it the issue of increasing number of dengue deaths in the city or the appointment of aldermen in the corporations.

While Delhi Revenue Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely had launched a fresh attack on the local bodies by cautioning them against violating the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the corporations have hit back blaming the Public Works Department, Delhi Government, for dug-up drains leading to waterlogging.

Lovely had accused the corporations of trying to stall the swearing-in of members (aldermen) nominated by the government and warned them of taking the extreme step against them. The Delhi Government had appointed 10 aldermen to each corporation, which the civic bodies had boycotted, saying that the appointments have been done on the basis of political considerations.

"Aldermen are to be appointed to the House of Municipal Corporation at the beginning of its term. The appointments have been made keeping in mind the political affiliations rather than merit of the persons appointed. Prof. Zile Singh has been nominated to the North Corporation while he is resident of east Delhi. This is a gross violation of the law," said Subhash Arya, Leader of the House in the South Corporation.

However, Lovely said that the appointments are done on the discretion of the Administrator (LG) and the state government and warned to supersede the corporations.

"Why are they not convening the House in respective corporations when more than one fourth of the members in respective Houses have requisitioned for it. The corporations are ignoring the demand which is violation of the Act," he said.

"We request the ruling parties in the corporations to fall in line, otherwise the government would have to take the extreme step," Lovely added.