GHAZIABAD: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday sought ten days time to formulate a system to address grievances and problems of the people in Delhi.

He said he would accept the applications of the people visiting him only after a system is in place.

"I don't want to give you false assurances. I will take the application when we put a system in place to resolve the problems," he said.

He assured the visitors, who gathered in large numbers at his residence, that he needed the support of the people to establish such a system and without their backing, he would not be able resolve issues.

"We have just assumed power. It will take us sometime, seven to ten days to put a system in place to resolve your problems," he said, addressing a gathering, which included DTC employees and people from the Valmiki community.

Around 1,000 drivers and conductors of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) gathered outside Kejriwal’s house to congratulate him on becoming Chief Minister of Delhi.

The DTC staff, who have been working with the public transport operator on contractual basis, shouted slogans, “Arvind zindabad”, hoping that the newly sworn-in Chief Minister would work towards ending contractual employment.

“About 14,000 drivers and conductors have been hired on contractual basis by DTC. We have been working on contractual basis for around 10 years. Despite after such long service, DTC has still not made us permanent,” said Ramesh, a DTC driver.

Despite a number of drivers and conductors gathered outside Kejriwal’s house, Suresh, a bus conductor, said the DTC service across Delhi would not be affected as only a section of the DTC staff had come to visit the Delhi CM.

“Kejriwal during elections promised that he would finish “thekari pratha” (contractual service) in Delhi after becoming Chief Minister. We are very hopeful that Kejriwal would direct DTC to make us permanent,” said Deshpal, a driver.

Activists of the Youth Artist Society for Peace and Harmony also congratulated Kejriwal and were seen celebrating outside his house. 

MOSCOW: At least 18 persons were killed and dozens injured on Sunday when a suicide bomber blew herself up at a train station in the Russian city of Volgograd ahead of February's Olympic Games in nearby Sochi.

Regional officials said the woman set off her charge near the metal detectors stationed at the entrance to the city's main train station while it was packed with afternoon travellers.

"It was a very powerful blast," train station store attendant Valentina Petrichenko told the Vesti 24 rolling news channel.

"Some people started running and others were thrown back by the wave of the blast," she said. "It was very scary."

State television footage showed windows blown off across the top two floors of the grey brick building and numerous ambulances gathered at the station's front entrance amid piles of debris and snow.

"Initial indications are that the blast was set off by a female suicide bomber," the national anti-terror committee said in a statement.

Russia's investigative committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said officials had launched an inquiry into a suspected "act of terror".

A regional government spokesman told the RIA Novosti news agency that at least 18 people were killed and more than 40 injured in the attack.

But a federal health ministry spokesman told Russian state television that the number of people wounded stood at more than 50.

The city of Volgograd — known as Stalingrad in the Soviet era — was already attacked in October by a female suicide bomber with links to Islamists fighting federal forces in Russia's volatile North Caucasus.

The October 21 strike killed six people aboard a crowded bus and immediately raised security fears ahead of the February 7-23 Winter Games in Sochi.

The Black Sea city lies 690 kilometres (425 miles) southwest of Volgograd and in direct proximity to the violence ravaging North Caucasus regions such as Dagestan and Chechnya on a daily basis.

Militants are seeking to impose an Islamist state throughout Russia's North Caucasus. Their leader Doku Umarov has ordered his footsoldiers to target civilians outside the region and disrupt the Olympic Games.

The Sochi Games' success carries heavy political overtones for the Kremlin amid its efforts to use patriotism to mobilize support for President Vladimir Putin's 14-year rule.

Putin staked his personal reputation on the games' success by lobbying for Sochi's candidacy before the International Olympic Committee and then spending more than $50 billion (36 billion euros) for the event.

Russian authorities have repeatedly vowed to take the highest security precautions in Sochi, and there have been few indications to date of foreign sports fans cancelling their attendance out of security fears.

Female suicide bombers are often referred to in Russia as "black widows" — women who seek to avenge the deaths of their family members in North Caucasus fighting by targeting Russian civilians.

Female suicide bombers set off blasts at two Moscow metro stations in March 2010 that killed more than 35 people.

So-called black widows were also responsible for killing more than 90 people when they took down two passenger jets that took off from a Moscow airport within minutes of each other in 2004. — AFP

RANCHI: BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi Sunday targeted Rahul Gandhi yet again, saying while nothing is being done to check price rise and corruption, the Congress leader has been only coming out with "akashwani" (celestial voices).

Modi's made these remarks at the rally apparently referring to Congress Vice-President's meeting with Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states in Delhi on Friday during which he asked them to check prices and implement the Lokayukta Act on the lines of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill.

Gandhi had disapproved of the Maharashtra government's decision to reject the Adarsh Commission's report on the society building scam.

"In ancient times, people heard akashwani (celestial voices) that came as if they (voices) were not concerned about the happenings around....Today, there is akashwani that CMs will do this, CMs will do that. People who are involved in corruption....if there is honesty in the words of people who do akashwani, then they should respond as to how corruption developed under Congress in Jharkhand," Modi said without naming Gandhi.

He said Congress leaders were doing the same today.

Attacking Congress, Modi said the ruling party at the Centre has become a "liability" and a "crisis" for the country as it has lost connection with the masses.

"Congress party, its governments and its leaders cannot listen to the voices of the people....People today want development, not division, they want opportunity, not political opportunism, they want security, not poison of communalism," he said.

Attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of inflation, the Gujarat Chief Minister said despite holding a meeting of Chief Ministers on price rise three years ago, the government has so far failed to take any steps in that regard.

He claimed that he was made a head of a committee to recommend steps to curb price rise.

"There were two other CMs from UPA and Congress-ruled states. We gave 62 actionable points and recommended 20 initiatives. The PM said we did a good job. But two-and-a-half years have lapsed and no action has been taken. The Central government has been paralysed," Modi said. — PTI

Muzaffarnagar: On a visit to relief camps of riot victims here, RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Sunday blamed both the BJP and the SP for the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar even as he heaped praise on Rahul Gandhi, saying Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal were nothing in front of the Congress vice-president.

“Kejriwal and Modi are nothing in front of Rahul. Rahul Gandhi is Rahul Gandhi. You guys have put them (Kejriwal, Modi) on the moon. It is you who give them publicity. What have they done so far,” the RJD chief said, adding his party will tie up with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls.

Lalu, whose visit to the area comes a week after the Congress vice-president’s unannounced visit to the camps in Shamli last Sunday, echoed Rahul’s views that those living in camps should go back to their villages.

“We have come here to wipe away the tears of the victims. They should go back to their homes. Government should facilitate that,” Lalu told reporters.

Slamming the Aam Admi Party, he said the party is doing a “drama” by renouncing facilities such as vehicles with read-beacon cars, security, etc.

“AAP is talking about corruption, they themselves are corrupt, he alleged. Training his guns on Modi and his close aide Amit Shah, whom the RJD chief described as the Gujarat Chief Minister’s “General Manager for communalising society”, Lalu said, “He (Shah) is spoiling the whole atmosphere. He is ... currently their warhorse here”.

“RSS, Modi and Amit Shah, who is working here (in Uttar Pradesh) are well-known for this and see the riots happened.

People used to live here in harmoney but the riots happened... “Communal violence erupted in UP after Amit Shah was sent to handle the party’s poll campaign here. He is spoiling the atmosphere of the state,” he alleged.

He said, “The BJP is the country’s enemy, we are BJP’s enemy.”

“The powers, which were once propagating the rumour that Lord Ganesha is consuming milk, are trying to communalise the whole society and promote both external and internal divisions. Youths are the main victims of this,” he said.

Lalu is considered a popular leader among the minority community and his party RJD had been in power in Bihar for 15 years largely on the basis of MY (Muslim-Yadav) combination.

The RJD chief said, “Divisive forces and those who want to occupy the seat of Hastinapur (Delhi) have targeted Hindi states.

“I had said at a rally in Patna that people have to decide whether the country will remain united or break in the 2014 contest,” he said.

Interacting with riot victims, Lalu, who is out on bail in a fodder scam case, told them that he couldn’t come early as he was in jail.

“No attention was paid in the beginning to those living in the relief camps. If they were taken care of initially, the situation today would have been better,” he said, adding he will be visiting the Loi camp and then will be able to tell why people are being displaced from there.

“I saw a lot of TV coverage their on the riot victims living in relief camps,” he said.

Referring to SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s controversial comments that those living in camps were not riot victims but political activist, Yadav said, “It was too much and very bad...I have also heard people saying that those living in the camps are not victims”

Lalu reminded the SP chief that “minorities had voted with an open heart” for his secular government so much so that even the SP chief had no idea that his party will form a government with such a big a majority.

“Even we had no idea that they (SP) will get such a big majority,” he said.

“I am not criticising anybody. But the kind of attention that should have been given in the beginning was perhaps not given to the issue (condition of riot victims) by the administration,” the RJD chief said.

Asked about the statement of a senior UP official that people were not dying due to cold in relief camps, Lalu said, “All of them have gone mad. Someone else will have to pay for the kind of statements these officials have made”. — PTI

Rameswaram (TN): Amidst stepped up pressure to secure the release of over 220 Tamil Nadu fishermen detained in Sri Lanka, 22 more were arrested by the island navy early today while fishing in the Palk Strait.

The fishermen from Jagadapattinam in Pudukottai district were arrested by Sri Lankan Naval personnel this morning for allegedly fishing in their country's territorial waters and taken to Kangesanthurai Port along with their six boats, officials said quoting information received by them.

The Sri Lankan naval personnel also chased away another group of fishermen from here when they were fishing near Katchatheevu after allegedly snapping their fishing nets.

Tension prevailed in the coastal hamlets in Pudukottai following the arrest of 22 fishermen, officials said.

Fishermen in the state had been demanding immediate release of 227 fishermen of Nagapattinam, Karaikal and Pudukottai districts, detained by the Sri Lankan Navy over the past few months and even went on a brief strike.

A delegation of fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry yesterday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to prevail upon Sri Lanka to release their colleagues lodged in jails there. — PTI

JERUSALEM: Rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel Sunday, causing no injuries but sparking an Israeli shelling reprisal in a rare flare-up between the two states.

Residents of the northern Israel town of Kiryat Shmona awoke to a pair of large explosions. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said no injuries or damage were caused from the rocket fire. Shortly after, the Israeli military said it responded with artillery fired toward the source of the launch.

Lebanon’s state news agency said the border area was shelled after the rockets hit Israel. The agency said over 20 shells hit the mountainous region around the southern Lebanese border area of Rachaya.

The Israel-Lebanon border has remained mostly quiet since a month long war in the summer of 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. There have been sporadic outbursts of violence, most recently earlier this month when a Lebanese army sniper killed an Israeli soldier.

Lebanon is unusually jittery after a Friday car bombing in an upscale district of Beirut. On Sunday, Lebanese soldiers fanned out throughout the country, manning checkpoints and closing off sensitive roads.

Nonetheless, the Lebanese government is notoriously unable to control its own security. Hezbollah has its own large, well-trained militia that dominates the southern border. There are also small bands of Palestinian militants who claim responsibility for some isolated rocket attacks.

In the most serious incident, Lebanese forces killed a high-ranking Israeli officer in 2010 and Israel responded with artillery fire that killed three Lebanese. However, incidences of rocket fire have been infrequent since the countries agreed to a ceasefire that ended the 2006 war.

The 2006 war broke out after Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas crossed into Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers. The ensuing month long conflict killed about 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis.

Israel and Lebanon have fought several wars before. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with the stated intention of driving Palestinian guerrillas out of the south. The Israeli military battled halfway through the country into Beirut and occupied south Lebanon until 2000.

Given the years of enmity between the two countries, even the smallest incident raises the risk of sparking a wider conflagration. — AP

SRINAGAR: Cold tightened its grip on Jammu and Kashmir as the night temperature plummeted to season’s lowest of minus 17.3 degrees Celsius in Leh in Ladakh region, with the MeT Department predicting snowfall on New Year’s Eve.

Leh recorded the coldest night of the winter season so far as the minimum temperature dropped to minus 17.3 degrees Celsius, compared to minus 14.9 degrees Celsius on Saturday night, an official of the MeT Department here said on Sunday.

It was the coldest recorded place followed by the nearby Kargil town which recorded a minimum of minus 16.4 degrees Celsius.

This was also the lowest temperature in Kargil this season, the official said.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, registered a drop of almost two degrees in the minimum temperature as the mercury settled at a low of minus 3.7 degrees Celsius, against minus 1.9 degree Celsius on Saturday night.

Qazigund — the gateway town to Kashmir Valley — recorded a low of minus 4.0 degrees Celsius, compared to last night’s low of 3.4 degrees Celsius.

The night temperature in Pahalgam hill resort, which serves as a base camp during the annual Amarnath yatra, settled at a low of minus 7.4 degrees Celsius, compared to the previous night’s minus 6.9 degrees Celsius.

The famous ski-resort of Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 9.6 degrees Celsius, as compared to minus 8.2 degrees Celsius the previous night.

The minimum in Kokernag, in south Kashmir, settled at minus 5.2 degrees Celsius last night, a drop of over two degrees from the previous night’s minus 3.1 degrees Celsius.

Kupwara, in north Kashmir, registered a low of minus 3.7 degrees Celsius, a drop of over one degree from minus 2.5 degrees Celsius.

The Kashmir Valley is currently going through ‘Chillai-Kalan’, considered as the harshest 40-day winter period, which began on December 21.

During this period, the Valley and Ladakh region experience intense cold conditions and possibility of snowfall is also maximum and most frequent.

The MeT Department has said the weather would remain cold and dry over the next 24 hours and there is possibility of rains or snowfall on December 31. — PTI