TOP STORIES

Govt seeks SC nod for new autos
New Delhi, December 18
The Delhi Government has approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to lift the restriction over registration of new autorickshaws in a bid to break the monopoly of unions and deal with their prolonged strike that has put commuters in great difficulty.

Surajkund Tradefest: Foolproof security plan
Faridabad, December 18
Security risk could pose a major challenge to the proposed Tradefest-2002 to be held at Surajkund here from December 21 to 29 in view of the increased terrorist activities in various parts of the country recently.

CP caught in the coils of connectivity

New Delhi, December 18 In a very few years from now, Connaught Place and its environs will look like Sadar Bazar—all wired up and uglified. The New Delhi Municipal Council has turned a blind eye as the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Delhi Electric Supply Undertaking, cable operators and the cellphone transmission tower—all vie with each other for space among the colonnaded arcades, the rooftops, and the roadways to string up wires of varying dimensions and uses in the name of instant connectivity.

Lutyen’s showpiece, all wired up. — Photo Cecil Victor

Ahulana village: Leaders fishing in troubled waters
Sonepat, December 18
Even though the situation in the violence-hit Ahulana village has come back to almost normal, the leaders of some political parties, particularly the Congress, are trying to exploit the villagers for their political ends.

SMOOTH DIVE: Indian Air Force paragliders perform before the Subroto Cup Under-17 Boys final in the Capital on Wednesday. — Tribune Photo Mukesh Aggarwal

Punjab boy rescued from kidnappers, two held
New Delhi, December 18
The North-West district police today claimed to have solved the kidnapping case of a 12-year-old boy from Punjab in Kapoorthala district with the arrest of two persons in Narela on December 17. A countrymade weapon, three live cartridges and a dagger were recovered from their possession.

Dreaded criminal escapes from police custody
Ghaziabad, December 18
Dreaded criminal Parminder Pehalwan, who was housed in Dasna jail of Ghaziabad and was being taken to a Bulandshahr jail from a court in Anupshahr, escaped from the police custody after throwing chilly powder in the eyes of two escorting cops yesterday.

Lawyers’ strike hits work of Delhi courts New Delhi, December 18 Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that that lawyers should not go on strike, the city courts today bore a deserted look as the striking lawyers refrained from work. The nationwide strike affected the work in the Delhi High Court and the subordinate courts in the Capital with the exception of the Supreme Court. The strike call was given by the Bar Council of India in consultation with the State Bar Councils to protest against the Legal Services Authorities (Amendment) Act, 2002, providing for setting up of permanent Lok Adalats in all public utility departments of the government. Litigants while away their time at Patiala House Courts as lawyers went on strike in the Capital on Wednesday. — Tribune Photo Mukesh Aggarwal

COMMUNITY

SPECIAL FOCUS ON PANIPAT
State-of-the-art parks for picnickers soon
Panipat, December 18
Under an ambitious ‘Green Panipat’ campaign, the district administration has taken upon itself the onerous responsibility of transforming the city parks, long used as dumping grounds and haunts of stray cattle, into lush green strolling state-of-the-art parks. 

Rally for CBI probe into scribe’s death
Panipat, December 18
Journalists, leaders of political parties and various employees union today organised a protest march to press for a CBI probe into the killing of a Sirsa-based journalist, Ram Chander Chaterpati, allegedly by members of the Dera Sachha Sauda.

Panipat Refinery gets award Panipat, December 18 The eco-friendly Panipat Refinery has added another feather to its cap. It has won the National Energy Conservation Award-2002, constituted by the Ministry of Power, Government of India. Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat presenting National Energy Conservation Award to Mr Jaspal Singh, Executive Director, Panipat Refinery.

Vendetta alleged in demolition of Cong leader’s school
Gurgaon, December 18
The demolition of Maharshi Dayanand Senior Secondary School and about a dozen residential accommodations near it in Bindapur village last evening by HUDA and the detention of one of the owners of the property and state leader of the Congress Khazan Singh for several hours has raised the hackles of Congress circles.

IN PARLIAMENT
Delhi Police for special courts to try rape cases
New Delhi, December 18
The Delhi Police has proposed to the Delhi Government to move the High Court for establishment of one special court in each of the three court complexes in the Capital for expeditious disposal of rape cases, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L K Advani, informed the Rajya Sabha today.

PARLIAMENT ATTACK VERDICT Sena’s crackers give a scare New Delhi, December 18 Jubilant Shiv Sena activists burst crackers immediately after the Delhi trial court awarded death sentence to the three convicts in the Parliament House attack case, creating panic among litigants and police at Patiala House here. Soon after Special Judge S. N. Dhingra pronounced the verdict in the case, around 50 Shiv Sena activists burst crackers throwing the police into a tizzy. Shiv Sena activists celebrating after the pronouncement of the sentence in the Parliament attack case outside Patiala House Courts in the Capital on Wednesday. — Tribune Photo Mukesh Aggarwal

Society representatives meet DP brass
New Delhi, December 18
Representatives of various housing societies in the Anand Vihar and Vivek Vihar area of East Delhi had a meeting with top officers of Delhi Police, including Joint Commissioner B. K. Gupta and Deputy Commissioner Nuzhat Hassan, to discuss various security problems being faced by the residents at Shiksha Sadan and Suraj Mal Vihar.

Doctor missing for a month
Noida, December 18
A doctor, who went missing more than a month ago from Javer, is understood to have been actually kidnapped. On the basis of his mother’s report, the Javer police have now registered a case of kidnapping against unknown people.

Capacity of telecom exchanges to be increased
Rewari, December 18
The gross installed capacity of various telephone exchanges of the telecom district of Rewari will be raised from 50,000 connections to 59,000 connections by March 31, 2003.

Load-shedding in ISBT complex
New Delhi
North Delhi Power Limited today announced load-shedding for tomorrow due to maintenance work at the ISBT sub-station (10:00 hrs to 1600 hrs). Power supply will be affected in the ISBT complex on a rotational basis between 10:00 hrs and 16:00 hrs.

CRIME

Child killed, 4 hurt in cylinder blast
New Delhi, December 18
A child was killed and four persons were injured when an LPG cylinder exploded in a house in the Mangolpuri area of North-West district this morning. The deceased was identified as Diksha (two-and-a-half years).

• Smack seized

• Spate of robberies

1 killed, nine hurt in accident
Noida, December 18
One person was killed and nine others were injured in a collision between a DTC bus and a milk tanker near the Kote police post of Dadri police station early morning today. The national highway remained blocked for hours after the accident.

• 24 injured in collision

• Murder accused

• Student run over

EDUCATION

CAMPUS
Arena Multimedia to train underprivileged kids

Arena Multimedia, leaders in multimedia training in Asia, has achieved a significant milestone by enrolling one lakh students. The student, who took the number to one lakh, was felicitated at a glittering ceremony in the Capital. IILM festival FDDI degrees for 10 Conference on pipeline design Admission to CS courses

The winning team of the Vivekananda Memorial Debating Competition of Mosaic 2002.

MDU holds camp on assessing students
Rohtak, December 18
The Psychology Department of Maharshi Dayanand University is holding an assessment camp at Sri Ram Senior School here tomorrow. The thrust of the camp would be the use of standardised psychological tools to assess interests, attitude, aptitude, intelligence level, adjustment, personality traits etc of the students.

COURTS

HC: DFS must inspect all high-rises by March 31
New Delhi, December 18
Dissatisfied with the progress of the inspection of high-rise buildings in the Capital, the Delhi High Court today directed the Delhi Fire Service chief, Mr R. C. Sharma, to finish the inspection by March 31, 2003.

Govt plea against bail to Bar members rejected
Rohtak, December 18
The Additional Sessions Judge, Mr Shiva Sharma, has refused to cancel the bail granted to Rajeshwar Dalal and others in the FIR No 442 dated August 14 under Sections 4/8-A/406/307/506 of the IPC.

SPORTS

Sidhana’s ton helps Modern School win
New Delhi, December 18
A fine century by Mayank Sidhana (141 runs 15X4, 6X2) and deadly bowling by Karan Harit (4/23), Aviral (2/26), Deepak (2/32) helped Modern School, Barakhamba Road, beat Bal Bharati Ganga Ram Lane School by 157 runs and Salwan Public School, Rajender Nagar, beat Amity International School, Noida, to enter the quarter-finals of HT Pace Milo Young Cricket Tournament.

• Shalaj Sondhi shines

Gyan Bharti enter final of Bon-Ton Cricket
New Delhi, December 18
Deadly bowling by TCA Jayant (5/27) and good knocks by Ankur Julka (67 and 72) and Manav Sharma (80) helped Gyan Bharti School, Saket, beat St Columba’s School by 168 runs and enter the final of the sixth Bon-Ton Inter-School (under-17) two-day Cricket Tournament at the Gyan Bharti ground.

Bokaro School, Jharkhand, beat Apex Public School, Sant Nagar, Delhi, in the final match of Subroto Cup Football Tournament 2002 in the Capital on Wednesday. —Tribune Photo Mukesh Aggarwal

Frontiers Club lose to Tarun Sangha
New Delhi, December 18
Tarun Sangha F.C. defeated Frontiers Club by 2-0 to earn three full points in the Group-A preliminary league match of the Delhi Soccer Association (DSA)-SAIL Annual Open Clubs Senior Division Football League Championship being played at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium (East) ground here today.

• Briefly...

• National Games: Faridabad girl wins bronze

• B.L. Kashyap enter semis