TOP STORIES

Police whisk away Vikas as HC turns on heat

Ghaziabad, February 28 Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav, prime accused in the kidnapping and murder of an IAS officer’s son, Nitish Katara, on February 17 in Ghaziabad, were whisked away to an unknown destination for interrogation by Ghaziabad Police on Thursday morning. The cops were allowed to keep the accused in police remand for 24 hours yesterday. Full Story

New Delhi, February 28 The Delhi High Court today directed the Uttar Pradesh Police to file a status report on the investigations in the Nitish Katara case. Directing the SSP Ghaziabad to file the status report by 2 p.m. tomorrow, a Division Bench comprising Justice B A Khan and Justice V S Agarwal said: “In the interest of justice, this court is not bound by any boundary.” Full Story

VHP bandh hovers over CBSE exams
New Delhi, February 28
The entire police force in the Capital has been put on a maximum alert in view of the Delhi bandh call tomorrow, given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its sister organisations to protest against the attack on kar sewaks in Gujarat.

Tickets-seekers for MCD election at Kamal Nath’s residence in the Capital on Thursday.—Tribune Photo Mukesh Aggarwal

Board cannot postpone papers
New Delhi, February 28
Class 12 students, who are to appear for the board exam tomorrow, are saddled with yet another worry. If the call for bandh given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad is anything to go by, there may be an impact on the exams being conducted by the CBSE.

Schools denying roll nos to students?
Faridabad, February 28
The School Abhibhawak Manch(Parents Association) has alleged that some of the public schools here have denied permission to some of its regular students to appear in the CBSE board examination on one pretext or the other. 

A village where criminals are demi-gods
Panipat, February 28
Crime seems to be a way of life in Siwah village near Panipat. If there was ever an entry for the ‘most criminal’ village in the record books, this place, the native village of the Haryana Assembly Speaker, Mr Satbir Kadian, might have been streets ahead of others. 

CRIME
Agent shot, youths escape with Santro, Rs 25 lakh
New Delhi, February 28
In a sensational daylight robbery, two unidentified youths on a motorcycle shot dead a commission agent and escaped with Rs 25 lakh and his Santro car ( DL 8CG 4268) this afternoon in Anand Parbat area of West Delhi.

Reactions on B-Day
The good, the bad and the ugly… 

New Delhi, February 28 “Oh! No” was all Ms. Diya Mehta could think of when she was told that LPG has become dearer by Rs. 40. The Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, seems to have offended the householders because of the hike in LPG and kerosene costs. “What are we going to do now. For those with large families, it spells trouble. It is sad that the cost of LPG and kerosene has gone up, this will add to the woes of the middle class”, added Ms. Mehta.

COMMUNITY

Gurgaon cable operators’ strike fizzles out
Gurgaon, February 28
The indefinite strike by the city’s cable operators fizzled out on the third day this afternoon in the face of tough stand taken by the district administration. The operators resumed their services in the afternoon. According to an operator, the strike has been just postponed till Monday.

Only four corporators turn up for Mayor’s lunch
Faridabad, February 28
While the Mayor, Mrs Anita Goswami, must have succeeded in proving that she has a good rapport with the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, by holding a lunch in honour of him on Wednesday, the function proved futile to bridge the growing differences between her and the majority of the municipal corporators.

Harvesting season raises border villagers’ hackles 
Faridabad, February 28
Come the harvesting season and the tension at some of the villages in and around Haryana and Uttar Pradesh border mounts up. Claims and counter-claims over the lands vitiate the atmosphere.

Anti-encroachment drive ‘praiseworthy’
Sonepat, February 28
The senior citizens of Sector 14, a residential colony of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda), today lauded the efforts being made for the facelift of Sonepat city.

NCR BRIEFS
Five held for conspiring to loot held
Rohtak, February 28
Five youths, who were arrested by the police on Wednesday evening on the charge of conspiring to loot bus passengers, were remanded to police custody till March 5 today by a local court.

Market fee Soldier cremated

Five hurt in mishaps Suicide attempts

Delhi Police allocation up only marginally
New Delhi, February 28
The budget allocation for the Delhi Police has been raised to Rs 827.84 crore from last year’s Rs 810.50 crore. The Plan and non-Plan expenditure for the year 2002-2003 has been pegged at Rs 818.34 crore and Rs 9.5 crore respectively, up from Rs 804 crore and Rs 6.5 crore last year.

Budget to hit middle class, says Saathi
New Delhi, February 28
Dubbing the General Budget 2002-2003, presented by Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, as anti-farmer and anti-people, the Finance Minister of Delhi, Mr M. S. Saathi, said the middle class would be adversely affected. He described the Budget as one that would not aid economic growth.

Conductor stabs student, mob smashes bus

New Delhi, February 28 An angry mob smashed a Blue Line bus today afternoon in Katwaria Sarai after a student of Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sansrit Vidya Peeth, Maneesh, was reportedly stabbed by the conductor when three students got into an argument with him over buying tickets. A mob of students of Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidya Peeth smashed a bus in Katwaria Sarai on Thursday after the conductor of the bus stabbed a student following an argument over a ticket. —Tribune Photo

Martyr’s wife wants more land for memorial
Sonepat, February 28
The issue of constructing a memorial of Nanak Chand, an ASI of Delhi Police who was killed in the terrorists' attack on Parliament on December 13 last year, has taken an interesting turn.

• Mystery shrouds girl’s death

CRIME

Decomposed bodies of father, son found in trunk
New Delhi, February 28
Six bodies, including two in a decomposed state, were found from different areas of the Capital during the last 24 hours. All the bodies bore injury marks. The decomposed bodies of two persons, father and son, were found from their house (A-151, J.J. Colony) in the Shakurpur area in North-West district this morning. They were identified as Ram Murti and his son.

Six-month jail term to HSEB SDO for taking bribe
Rewari, February 28
Mr S. P. Singh, Special Judge, Rewari, has sentenced Sube Singh, SDO of Haryana State Electricity Board (HSEB), to rigorous imprisonment for six months and a fine of Rs 1,000 for taking bribe, an offence punishable under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

CULTURE

Commercial chamber to help safeguard Maharashtrian culture 
Gurgaon, February 28
It was a moment of fulfilment in the lives of about 300 Maharastrians living in Gurgaon city when the local branch of Jagtik Marathi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (JMCCI) was opened here.

ART SCAPE
Paintings of the first water wow art fraternity

Defence Colony is providing the art lovers something to rejoice. It is emerging as an art corner because of its three galleries: Gallery 42, Gallery Om and Krishna Collection. The galleries have paintings of diverse artists and mediums this time. While Gallery Om has a few renowned names, painting with watercolours, Krishna Collection has come out with big and bright paintings, and Gallery 42 shows the mundane life. Maity’s serene seashore in watercolour.

• Tribute to curator

Doordarshan can heave a sigh of relief now. Its position is being elevated ever since Prasar Bharti had a tie-up with Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), a non-profit organisation, recently. Under the tie-up, PSBT will receive 50 per cent funding from Prasar Bharti and arrange the rest of the 50 per cent from other sources.  A still from the award-winning documentary ‘Tell them the tree they planted has now grown’.

SPORTS

Kayaking and canoeing officials meet Kalmadi
New Delhi, February 28
Senior vice-president of the Asian Canoe Confederation Wu Wen-Ta and chairman of Asian Canoe Slalom Committee M Narita along with their coach Liu Te-Chim called on Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi to initiate launching of canoe slalom and canoe polo disciplines, which are part of the International Canoe Federation programmes.

Arjun Atwal in top 200 of World Ranking
New Delhi, February 28
Arjun Atwal became only the second Indian player after Jeev Milkha Singh to break into the top-200 of the World Rankings, following his victory in the US $-900,000 Caltex Singapore Masters.

• Win an European Tour event

Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs Arun Jaitly inaugurating a cricket photo exhibition on the Delhi and District Cricket Association premises on Thursday.

S Delhi, Oberoi move up in polo
New Delhi, February 28
South Delhi beat Army (Green) by ten goals to eight and Oberoi Blues beat McDowell’s Signature by ten goals to seven in the quarter-final matches of the Hindustan Times Trophy played at the Jaipur Polo ground in the Capital.

5 teams for Division League
New Delhi, February 28
Five football teams of the country — Jorba Durga (Orissa), Uttar Pradesh Police, ASEB Sports Club (Assam), Boys Athletic Club of Sikkim and DSA League runners-up Hindustan Club — will participate in the Cluster-I matches of the second Division National Football League, to be held at the Ambedkar Stadium in the Capital from March 2 to 11.1.

Two seeds left in the fray in ITF Open
New Delhi, February 28
Only fifth seeded Maria Kindratieva of Russia and fourth-seeded Young-Jai Choi of Korea were left in the fray as the semi-final line-up in the Syndicate Bank-ITF Women’s Open Tennis was completed at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association deco turf courts in the Capital on Thursday.

R R Gymkhana enter last eight
New Delhi, February 28
Rohtak Road Gymkhana beat Chand Khanna Club by 61 runs to enter the quarter-final of the second Rajdhani Sports Trophy Cricket Tournament at the Mohan Meakin ground.

ADMINISTRATION

5,000 issued I-T notices in Sonepat 
Sonepat, February 28
The Income Tax Department has issued notices to more than 5,000 persons, who have been covered under the ‘one-by-six’ scheme, introduced by the Central Government for increasing the number of income tax payees in the district.