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Stay tuned, CAS is off air New Delhi, December 31 Information and Broadcasting Minister, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, told reporters after a meeting with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and BJP MP V K Malhotra that he has sought field reports from the Delhi government and would take a decision after that. Earlier, Ms Dikshit and Mr Malhotra told reporters that CAS implementation in South Delhi has been “indefinitely postponed”. Mr Prasad said he was feeling “deep pain and anguish” over the way cable and Multi Service Operators (MSOs) were pressurising the consumers to adopt CAS, which was brought in as a consumer-friendly measure. “This is a design to exploit and fleece. The government will not remain a silent spectator in such a situation,” he said, adding that Ms Dikshit and Mr Malhotra had told him about the hardships being faced by the consumers in South Delhi, where CAS has been made applicable since December 15. The decision to withhold the implementation of CAS, meanwhile, brought much cheer to TV buffs, who had begun the countdown before their favourite channels went off the air. Those who had already invested in the STBs were disappointed. Immediately after CAS was implemented in South Delhi, the Residents Welfare Associations had issued an appeal to consumers asking them to refrain from purchasing the Set Top Boxes as they felt the technology was outdated. These RWAs had also made representations against the implementation of CAS. The companies selling STBs also registered a dip in sales after the RWAs appealed against the immediate purchase of these boxes. Consumers, who preferred not to buy the boxes, got some respite when the channel operators declared a reprieve till the midnight of 31st December, 2003. The cable operators are now considering seeking legal advice, since CAS was being implemented following the directive of the High Court. Despite their political disagreement, both the Delhi BJP and the ruling Congress were initially reluctant to implement CAS, in view of the Assembly elections in the NCT of Delhi. Observers feel that with indications of early Lok Sabha elections, the implementation of CAS may have to be postponed till after the polls. It is significant that the most vocal anti-CAS voice has been that of Prof. V K Malhotra of the BJP, who represents South Delhi constituency in the Lok Sabha. He has been in touch with the RWAs and conveyed the sentiments of the residents to the party high command as well as the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
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VK car-jacking case nets gang of four New Delhi, December 31 Two country made pistols, two live cartridges, two fired cartridges, two knives and two stolen cars, including an Alto, which was robbed from an employee of a multinational company in the Saket area, were recovered from them. On December 19, one Robin Sarkar, a resident of Vasant Kunj, was robbed of his car while he was waiting for his wife in the Saket area. The suspects had abducted Robin, later dumped him in Faridabad and sped away in his Alto car. Since the suspects had driven the car towards Faridabad area, special surveillance was mounted on car jackers operating in the Delhi-Haryana border. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Vivek Gogia, on December 30 the police had received a tip-off that some criminals were planning to strike in Ghaziabad. It was also learnt that they would be travelling in an Indica car. The team spotted and intercepted the car in question near NIIT on Mathura Road. Instead of stepping out, the criminals started firing at the police team. However, they were immediately overpowered. Gogia said that the accused were identified as Vijay Kumar alias Pandit alias Kanhaiya (26), a resident of Maidangarhi, Naresh Shokeen (24), a resident of Najafgarh, Raj Kumar alias Raju (22), a resident of Ballabhgarh and Mohammad Mannan (19), a resident of Saurabh Vihar. During interrogation the accused revealed that the Indica car was stolen from Mangolpuri in May this year. They told the police that the Alto car, which they robbed from Robin, was sold to one Sikander Sachdeva in Jaipur. A team, which was sent to Jaipur, had brought the car back to Delhi and also arrested the buyer. The accused also disclosed that they were involved in several cases of murder, robbery and car thefts. The main accused, Vijay, has been involved in 16 cases of robbery, arms act and thefts. |
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Daily commuters on Delhi-Ambala section worst-hit Sonepat, December 31 The Delhi-bound Jammu Mail and the New Delhi-bound Jhelum Express were running four to eighth hours behind schedule. The Shalimar Express, the Bhatinda Intercity Express and the Amritsar Super Fast Express passed through Sonepat, hours behind schedule. Not a single long-distance and suburban train ran on schedule on the DUK section today. This caused much bitterness among the passengers, mostly commuters, who failed to reach their destinations on time. Most government employees faced the
wrth of their bosses for coming in late. |
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Delhiites snuggle deeper into quilts New Delhi, December 31 Markets, restaurants, pubs and cinema halls did brisk business as people thronged these specially decorated places. The police too were out in strength, keen to ensure that revelry did not cross the line laid down by the law. The maximum temperature touched ten degrees Celsius at mid-day; the minimum temperature, on the other hand, rose to six degrees Celsius, one degree higher than that reported yesterday, which was the season’s lowest so far. The fog, which had engulfed the city since early morning, cleared a little later in the day. As usual, the fog continued to play havoc with train services; however, flights were normal, minus a few hiccups. The Patna-New Delhi Magadh Express, the Allahabad-Ambala Unchahar Express, the Sealdah-Delhi Lal Quila Express and the Kalindi Express remained off the tracks. Several trains originating in the Capital, including Delhi-Katihar Mahananda Express, the Nizamuddin-Amritsar Shan-e-Punjab Express, The Delhi-Azamgarh Kaifiyat Express and the New Delhi Ajmer Shatabdi Express were rescheduled due to the fog. Besides, a number of trains were running late by several hours. The Guwahati-Delhi Brahmputra Express was late by 14 hours. |
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Ministry nod to rail line project? Jhajjar, December 31 Addressing a press conference here today, the chairman of the samiti, Mr Naseeb Singh Kadian, said that hundreds of samiti activists had gone to Delhi yesterday and held a dharna there. Later, a delegation met Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj and Union Minister of State for Home L. D. Swami and apprised them about their demand. He said that Ms Swaraj immediately talked to Railway Minister Nitish Kumar who informed that the project has been cleared from his ministry. But the project has been pending with the Planning Commission. The Health Minister said that she along with the Railway Minister would meet Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K. C. Pant, for funding the project. Other members of the samiti – Mr Shyam Sunder Goyal, Mr Ashok Nagpal, Mr Joginder Takhar, Mr Sohan Singh Gurjar, Mr Pyare Lal Kataria, were present in the press conference. The samiti asked all the social and political organisations to lend support to their agitation. The agitation for connecting the district headquarters with the rail line is launched by the samiti. |
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Erratic supply of canal water puts farmers in a fix Sonepat, December 31 According to a report, as irrigation of the wheat crop that had already been sown in the area has been hit by the canal water shortage, some of the farmers who do not have alternative means of irrigation, have been compelled to purchase water from the owners of the tubewells for irrigating their fields. It is alleged that a number of farmers who allegedly enjoy the patronage of the ruling party MLAs and other politicians, are indulging in large scale theft of canal water. Farmers whose fields are situated at the tail-end bear the brunt of the theft. Expressing anguish over the inadequate supply of irrigation water, the sarpanches and panches of the villages as well as the members of the block samitis and Sonepat Zila Parishad say that the farmers are ready to pay the revenue for their share of water, but the government should ensure adequate and regular supply of canal water. The maintenance of canals, distributaries and minors continues to remain a major problem despite heavy expenditure incurred on them in Gohana sub-division of the district. Though the state government has spent lakhs of rupees on cleaning operations of canals and distributaries in Gohana sub-division, the position has hardly improved, as water does not reach the tail-end fields. Farmers who are supplied water by Israna minor, Butana distributary, Gangaser, Bichpari, Baroda and Busana tails, have made a series of complaints to the authorities concerned about the non-supply of canal water, but no action has so far been taken. As a result, the irrigation of the wheat crop that had already been sown, has been badly hit. Expressing concern over the inadequate supply of canal water, the farmers of many villages blamed the authorities of the Gohana Water Service Division for not cleaning the canals, distributaries and minors despite clear instructions by the state government, particularly the Chief Minister, Mr Om Parkash Chautala. They also alleged that the desilting operations carried out by the officials in the past were merely an eyewash. The farmers whose fields are situated on the tail-end have demanded a probe into their complaints about the canal water not reaching their fields and demanded stern action against the officials found responsible for it. They also alleged that the officials were misleading the district and departmental authorities by insisting that the canal water was reaching all the fields and the
farmers had no problems. |
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UHBVN: No hits, only misses in the year gone by Panipat, December 31 Despite the fact that the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, in the last month of the year, gifted three new sub-stations to the Nigam, the UHBVN could not provide adequate power to its customers. The year 2003 was not a good year for the staff and officers of UHBVN as in this year, 12 persons were killed and around 22 injured badly due to transformer blast on July 18, 2003, at mohalla Pathana on Sanoli Road. On the one hand, as a result of inquiry, five persons including the SDO of UHBVN were suspended, on the other, the SDO of Quila division was caught red-handed by the vigilance team while accepting bribe. The Nigam was busy with the repair, maintenance and replacement of transformers during the whole year. Around 410 transformers were damaged. Besides 12 persons, five cows were also electrocuted. But the Nigam could replace only 25 per cent of the damaged transformers. Moreover, a number of transformers were stolen which were not at all discussed openly by the Nigam. However, the campaign started by the Nigam to nab the power thieves proved futile as small defaulters were nabbed but not even one big fish in the district could be touched. The department did not spare even the petty farmers, but how the staff of the Nigam spared the big bulls is still in question. As per the records of the Bijli Nigam, out of 1,31,000 houses in the town, about 57,500 electric meters have been installed. Obviously more than half of the houses are having unauthorised connections and the department is losing revenue to the tune of crores of rupees per month. According to an estimate, a sum of Rs 80 crore is unrecovered from the defaulters for which a campaign was launched this year and after disconnecting a small number of power connections, the campaign was abruptly stopped with the reasons best known to the Bijli Nigam authorities. There were complaints of unauthorised recoveries by meter reading contractor, which the Nigam had to refund. In short, privatised meter reading resulted in huge losses to the Nigam. Even the staff members of the contractor were arrested due to demand of bribe from the consumers. In this exercise, revenue loss up to Rs 26 lakh was incurred by the UHBVN and contract had to be cancelled after agitation by the workers’ union. Even programme of night raids with the help of vigilance teams was abandoned after covering some colonies. However, the department visited and checked around 3,000 connections and recovered penalties of Rs 1.54 crore from about 890 consumers and cases against 80 were registered. The only redeeming feature was that UHBVN got three new 133-KV sub-stations as gift from the Haryana Chief Minister. The announcement made by the Chief Minister to make the Sanoli road sub-station, where a transformer burst and 12 persons died, a model sub-station remained in the files even after the lapse of more than six months. The Nigam’s new project remained stranded due to shortage of staff as around 1,250 workers and officers were working throughout the year as against a strength of 2,200 and due to this, the work of replacement of transformers and power cuts in the town could not be solved amicably in this year. Even the superintending engineer of Karnal region, who is taking severe action against the defaulters, has not reached the target of recovery of about Rs 60 crore pendency. |
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Special Focus on panipat Panipat, December 31 The Haryana Karamchari Maha Sangh president, Mr Dara Singh, said this while speaking in the “Pol-Kholo-Campaign” at thermal power station today. The state president was here in Panipat to cover the employees of thermal station, Madloda and Israna blocks. Similar Pol-Kholo-Campaign was launched at Panipat bus stand and village Chhajpur in Bapoli block at Samalkha and Power House at Panipat were some other areas where the meetings were held on Tuesday also. The state president was on a Pol-Kholo programme started from December 4 and will conclude on January 9, 2004 at Bhiwani. He said that a final exposure would be made at Panipat on January 17, 2004 at Rode Dharamshala, of the Chautala Government and HSEB workers meet would be presided over by him the same night at the same place, he added. Speaking on the “Pol-Kholo-Campaign”, the state president emphasised that their campaign is a complete success as majority of the workers particularly from Bijli Board, Excise and Taxation, Roadways, education department, Public Health, PWD (B&R), irrigation and more government offices who feel cheated by the present government were supporting their campaign. Criticising the shunting out of about 16,000 workers from Hafed, Confed, HSIMC and handloom sectors, the state president said that the Haryana Chief Minister’s double policy was not at all acceptable as on the one hand, he confirmed that not even a single employee was being retrenched after closing these offices and on the other, he said that only 25 per cent of the staff would be accommodated. If this was the scene, then what about 75 per cent remaining workers? Such a state of affairs proves the anti-employee policy of the state Chief Minister, he added. Mr Dara Singh also demanded a white paper on the regularisation policy of the Government. Pay scales as per the anomaly committee for gazetted posts and class III are being reconsidered and the pay scale of Vidyut man is still lesser than the state level employee, he said and added that all points discussed with them have been ignored and not taken up yet. Speaking on the privatisation of meter reading contract, the president alleged that the Chautala Government is not doing justice to the employees all over the state. Speaking on the announcements and providing power stations, Mr Dara Singh alleged that not even a single person was employed by the Chautala Government, but so many power stations as well as thermal stations have to function with the same old staff. Moreover, part-time workers were still in the power stations for the last more than 25 years and no confirmation or regularisation system for them was adopted, he said. Even the health staff, water works and safai staff were on contract basis. Strongly criticising such policies of the state government, the state president said that the Chief Minister would go down in history. In Madhya Pradesh, around 16,000 daily wage workers were retrenched during the regime of Dig Vijay Singh, but they have now been accommodated by the Uma Bharti’s Government. Similarly in Delhi, the state president said that the BJP had lost its seats from the colonies of government employees. Dara Singh said that two meetings had already been held with the Chief Minister and now the time has come for implementation of the decisions. Similarly, he said that the so-called cost effective Bijli Board was divided into four parts and another Regulatory Commission from Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN) is also in the pipeline and as a result, instead of one head, now more than five to six heads are there with more expenses and losses to the department. On the occasion, Mr Ashok Chhibar, Chairman of the Maha Sangh from Yamuna Nagar, District president Partap Singh, press secretary Devi Prasad Bhatt, editor Ram Kishan Malik and deputy general secretary Sunder Singh were also present. |
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Cold wave turns life
topsy-turvy in Meerut belt Meerut, December 31 The son god has played hide and seek for the past two days and the mercury on Tuesday fell up to a record level of 9.8C, the lowest in the last five years. Temperature was just 6.5C the previous night. Arrangements made by the district administration to give relief to the poor living on the roadside failed. The attendance in the government offices was quite thin. The power department also failed to meet the increasing demand as more people switched on electric heaters to keep themselves warm. The sale of woollen clothes including caps is on the rise and the shopkeepers are taking advantage of this by presenting woollens “out of stock”. Even the ladies were seen wearing woollen caps on Tuesday and Wednesday. Daily commuters from Saharanpur, Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad and to Delhi also suffered a lot of hardships due to bad weather conditions. The fog also disrupted the road and rail traffic in the region. Several important trains are running late and the night bus services on some routes have already been stopped due to thick layer of fog. Several important trains on Meerut-Ambala and Meerut-Lucknow were cancelled. According to the Met department at Modipunom, Meerut, cold will increase in the next two days and there is also possibility of rain in the region. |
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Dense fog claims life of a cyclist Sonepat, December 31 According to a report, the cyclist was
identified as Rakesh of Kanpur (UP) and he was employed in a factory
near Biswan Meel on the G T Road. He was on his way to Biswan Meel
when he was hit by a Maruti car coming from Delhi. The police have
registered the case against the driver of the car on the charge of
rash and negligent driving and killing the victim. According to
another report, three youths going on a motorcycle were injured
seriously when the motorcycle dashed against a divider on the G T Road
near Qumashpur village about 13 km from here last evening. The injured
persons were identified as Suresh, Ramesh and Rakesh, all residents of
Indira Colony, Sonepat. All the injured youths were immediately
hospitalised. Meanwhile, Mr Abdul, resident of Hullaheri village, was
seriously injured when he was hit by an unknown vehicle on the
Sonepat-Gohana Road near Barwasni village about 5 km from here last
evening. The injured man was on his way to Barwasni village. He was
immediately hospitalised and stated to be out of danger. The police
are investigating into the case. According to another report, an aged
woman was hit and injured by a running train near the railway station
here yesterday. The injured woman was immediately rushed to the local
civil hospital wherefrom she was shifted to a trauma centre in Delhi
for further treatment. The woman has not been identified so far. The
Government Railway Police (GRP) are investigating into the case. |
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Rally against move to raze constructions Sonepat, December 31 On receiving information that the district administration has made preparations to demolish unauthorised constructions at the village ‘phirni’, a large number of residents of Chhatera villages reached the DC’s office to submit a memorandum with the plea that there was not any problem to the villagers from these constructions and the persons concerned were ready to deposit the amounts of the land value. The village panchayat has also passed a resolution that these constructions should be regularised after charging the amount of land value from them. It is also being alleged that during his recent visit, the Chief Minister has reportedly directed the administration to demolish unauthorised constructions. However, the DC reportedly declined to accept their demand pointing out that the constructions were illegal and unauthorised and have to be demolished. The residents of village Khewra also handed over a memorandum to the DC alleging that the police have been adopting casual attitude in arresting the alleged accused in a murder of one Ramesh of the village on December 21. |
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Passenger train derails New Delhi, December 31 The police said that the coaches derailed when the train streamed into the railway station at around 8.45 a.m. Commotion reigned thereafter. The senior officers of the Northern Railway immediately reached the site and supervised the restoration work. The train movement was restored at around 9 50 am.
Honoured: Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management president S Prehlad Singh Chandok honoured Professor Darshan Singh Khalsa, former Jathedar of Sri Akal Takhat Sahib and Sri Amritsar with Shields and Siropas for performing a continuous kirtan of Asa Di Var with Katha Vichar for 25 hours. The function was held this morning at Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Punjabi Bagh.
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In-laws face dowry rap Sonepat, December 31 House burgled:
According to a report, the owner of the house has lodged a complaint with the police and further investigations were in progress. The spates of thefts in the city and the villages have caused a panic among the residents. |
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One held for fixing electric meters New Delhi, December 31 Based on a secret information that one person has been involved in the fiddling of the electric meters, the sleuths nabbed Suresh and recovered electric meter fiddling machines like drilling machine, two wire cutter and other implements. During interrogation he told the sleuths that he has been involved in this illegal activity for the last two years and has been earning his livelihood through this activity.
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