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Reining in MCD: Cong govt gets cold feet
Rs 40 lakh worth insecticides seized
Rape bid foiled, 10-yr-old rescued
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Pak national chargesheeted for spying
Train guard attacked at Dayabasti
Govt to address problems of unorganised labour force
Assault case registered against CM’s daughter
Haryana health staff to hold rally on Sept 28
Global conference on neurology from
tomorrow
Dengue stares Noida in the face
AIDSO to protest against education policies
Centre told to take decision on land lease terms of hospitals
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Reining in MCD: Cong govt gets cold feet
New Delhi, September 23 Highly placed sources say that because of the stiff opposition to the move from both within and outside, the powers that be are now being politically prudent and are prepared to keep the implementation in abeyance at least for the time being. The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, which had successfully beaten the incumbency factor in the assembly elections, had promised to tame the runaway and virtually out of control civic body which according to popular opinion was nothing but a “den of corruption where nothing moved without monetary consideration”. It was also public knowledge that tender mafias, patronised by certain politicians, were virtually running the corporation, contributing to the total neglect of civic services for which it was responsible. Roads were in bad shape, and continue to be so, the sewerage system was on the verge of collapse and illegal constructions and encroachments on public property had becoming a routine affair. It was also alleged that a large number of corporators and MCD officials had formed an unholy nexus in their respective areas and were flouting rules and regulations with immunity. Because of this nexus, middle level officials had virtually entrenched themselves in some lucrative areas for years together without any fear of being transferred. This state of affairs had contributed to the virtual collapse of the civic system in the sprawling metropolis. Delhiites were upset. Sensing the mood of the people, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Party had included the task of cleansing the civic body in its manifesto and this had found considerable support from the general public. Even party men were in favour of such a move as they claimed that the MCD had become unmanageable and there was an urgent need to cut it down to size. Encouraged by such a popular public response, the Government of the NCT of Delhi went ahead with the plan and last month the cabinet approved the move. It was only after that the protests started pouring in. The corporators saw the move as an attempt to whittle away their powers while the officials took it as a personal affront and blatant step to intrude onto their turf. The stiff opposition and resistance have overwhelmed the Delhi government. Even those Delhi politicians who had earlier supported the trifurcation of the civic body for providing better amenities to the public and make it a world class city, as envisioned by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, were now having second thoughts. Publicly, the state government is claiming that it is going ahead with the move and details were being hammered out which obviously takes time.
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Rs 40 lakh worth insecticides seized
Ghaziabad, September 23 Taxable medicines from Himachal Pradesh were being smuggled into Ghaziabad by showing them as non-taxable drugs in documents. A similar case of illegally bringing in taxable medicines as non-taxable ones was unearthed in Bhopura check post a week ago. Truck No. HR-12A/5307, loaded with such medicines was seized at Mohan Nagar Assistance Centre of the trade tax department. In papers, the consignment was being transported to Ghaziabad as anti-mosquito drugs. Joint Commissioner Trade Tax S.P. Singh said the drugs being transported from Himachal Pradesh were worth Rs 40 lakh on the market. He said the officials at Modi Nagar post had immediately flashed this information to Dy. Commissioner B. K. Rai. Jt Commissioner S.P. Singh said the medicines were found to be insecticide and pesticide which are covered by trade tax. Only anti-mosquito drugs are non-taxable. The insecticide was being transported illegally as anti-mosquito drug which is non-taxable. The consignment has been seized and a notice issued to both the consignee and the consignor.
Allottees slap Rs 3-cr case on Noida authority
Noida, September 23 The case is slated to come up for hearing before the National Consumers Disputes Tribunal on September 27, it is learnt. The Noida Authority had got these flats built in Sector-82 by UP Jal Nigam, UP State Construction Corporation and National Building Construction Corporation during Ms Mayawati’s regime. Soon after the construction, complaints like wall plaster peeling off, dampness in ceilings and walls had been noticed on a large scale. Some 73 allottees of LIG and HIG flats, including OP Atre and others had filed a case against the authority on August 4, 2004. In the first hearing of the case on September 9, the Commission had sent a notice to the authority and sought a reply by September 27 and ordered its representative to appear before the tribunal on that day. The Sector-82 allottees had repeatedly brought it to the knowledge of the authority’s officials. As their complaints were not attended to, the allottees knocked at the doors of the National Consumer Redressal Commission. The commission’s notice has taken the authority by surprise. The housing department and the construction wing of the authority are now busy, collecting all the relevant facts and for defending the case before the commission, it is learnt.
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Rape bid foiled, 10-yr-old rescued
New Delhi, September 23 Mr Inder Singh, ASI (Crime Branch), was on duty at Old Delhi Railway Station, when he heard feeble cries emanating from a locked toilet on platform number 10. He knocked at the door but there was no response. At this, he broke the door and found the accused trying to rape a minor girl. Seeing the man in uniform, the accused tried to flee from the spot. But Inder Singh, after a scuffle, managed to catch him. Later, the ASI handed over the accused to the local police. The girl has been sent for a medical examination. A case has been registered against the accused in the local police station. The girl was an orphan and has been handed over to an NGO.
Bid to travel on fake passports
The Delhi Police has arrested five persons, who were trying to go to Paris via Moscow on fake passports. The accused have been identified as Gurmukh Singh, a native of Haryana, Simranjit Singh, Sukhdeep Singh, Sukhjinder Singh and Surjit Singh. Of these, Gurmukh Singh is from Haryana while the others are from Punjab. The police said that they had all procured fake visas from an agent Kuku Bajaj, a resident of Fateh Garh Sahib, for a sum of Rs 4 to Rs 6.5 lakh each. The police said that such cases are increasing day by day. On September 22, six persons from Punjab tried to board a flight to Paris. During investigation, it was revealed that all the passports were fake. These visas were also issued from Kuku Bajaj. According to DCP, Airport, Mr U.K. Chaudhary, “During investigations, the accused revealed the address of the travel agent and Suresh Bajaj, alias Kuku Bajaj, a resident of 3106, Sector 35, Chandigarh, was arrested.” He said that the police were further investigating the matter and trying to find out which other passengers had migrated illegally to other countries.
Telephony racket busted
The Delhi Police claims to have busted an illegal telephone exchange racket in Noida: High-tech equipment was being used to configure international calls as local ones. The raid party included officials of the Department of Telecom and VSNL. The police said that the exchange racket used to route incoming international calls through Internet and further distribute them on the local telephone network in and around Delhi. The police have arrested one person in the case and are trying to find out if any Indian or foreign partners are involved in the racket. The police have also seized 36 mobile connections of Hutch and 19 Airtel along with an internet-leased line of World Phone. In India, Internet telephony is permitted only on PC mode, which means only from PC to PC. Other kinds of communication, as was done in this case, are not permissible and are punishable
under the law, said a senior police official.
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Pak national chargesheeted for spying
New Delhi, September 23 The chargesheet was filed in the court of Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate Reena Singh Nag. The court has now fixed October 7 for hearing arguments on the charges. The suspect was arrested on July 25 with defence-related documents and maps, the police said. Qureshi, who hails from Hassanpur in Rahimyar Khan district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, was apprehended when he came to a cyber cafe in Laxmi Nagar area in East Delhi to send sensitive data to his mentors in Pakistan, the police said. A document in a coded language, a paper containing secret codes, a hand-drawn site map of Delhi Cantonment area, a telephone directory of defence establishment in Delhi Cantonment, fake driving licenses, a diary containing phone numbers of Pakistan, Bangladeshi and Pakistani currency and a camera were recovered from his possession. He had been asked to set up a base in New Delhi and obtain information about defence establishments in and around the city. He was to go to Pokhran in Rajasthan later and set up a base there, the police said. The son of a retired Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) of the Pakistan Army and a tailor by profession, Qureshi came in contact with an operative of Combined Military Intelligence of Pakistan, who convinced him to spy against India. He was imparted training and then sent to Bangladesh from where he entered India last month. Qureshi arrived in Delhi on June 29 and stayed in hotels and rented rooms.
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Train guard attacked at Dayabasti
Ghaziabad, September 23 The injured guard who had been thrown off the train by the assailants regained consciousness after 24 hours and somehow reached home on Tuesday morning. He was still dazed. When the goods train reached Dayabasti station on September 20, Khemchand said a youth had climbed on to guard’s cabin and tried to loot his valuables. While Khemchand was grappling with him, his two companions also entered the cabin. All three threw him off the running train after beating him hard. The guard became unconscious as soon as he fell down. The criminals, he said, had looted Rs 15,000 from him. Some slum dwellers along the rail track took him into their jhuggis where he remained for 24 hours. Khemchand said such incidents often take place in Dayabasti area, but
there is no security arrangement, so much so that the guard’s cabin does not have even a door. His wife Rajwatti said she had spent three days, praying to God for the safe return of her husband. She was very angry with the police who had informed her that her husband Khemchand had been murdered. The police said that they had searched in the area for her husband and even pressed the dogs to locate him. He had been lying beside the railway track, and the police did not reach there, she added. Khemchand’s wife Rajwatti, their daughters Shailja, 10, Nandive, 7, and Bhawya, 4, are all very happy that Khemchand is back home. Railway guards and women had twice held demonstrations at Ghaziabad ever since Khemchand had gone missing.
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Lovesick girl locks up mother, flees
Meerut, September 23 On being informed, the police rushed to the spot and searched for the girl, but the girl had disappeared. The family members lodged an FIR, accusing a youth of kidnapping the girl. The police are still investigating the case. The incident happened in Shastri Nagar where Rama, the elder daughter of Mr S K Verma, fell in love with her classmate Rakesh Jain (names changed). Rama belongs to a well-to-do family and her father is a government servant. Since it was a case of inter-caste relations, the girl’s family had been keeping a watch on her for seven months. She was asked not to study any more. She was not allowed to go out alone and could not make even a telephone call. When Rama protested, her parents even put her under lock. A family member always guarded her whenever she was out of her room. On Tuesday, however, Rama got a chance as her mother forgot to lock her up. The young girl came out of her room and locked her mother in the kitchen. She then left her house, saying that she would not return. Her mother cried for help. By the time the neighbours opened the lock of the kitchen, the girl had left the area. The whole matter became the talk of the town for a day. The police officials refused to help the girl’s family, saying that the girl was not minor.
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Govt to address problems of unorganised labour force
Faridabad, September 23 This was stated by the Union Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr Sis Ram Ola, while interacting with the local industrialists during a meeting organised by the Faridabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) here. Claiming that there were about six crore families living under the poverty line, which required at least 100 days of employment in a year with the minimum daily wages of Rs 66, Mr Ola said that the government was trying to involve these unemployed in the work of construction of roads, buildings and canals. He said this matter had been on the top priority of the Minimum Common Programme of the UPA government and a committee had been set up which would submit its report on the work done after a year. He asked the entrepreneurs to cooperate with the government in evolving strategies to tackle the problems faced by the labour and the unemployed. He stated that cities like Faridabad and Gurgaon had a large potential to grow as important centres of industry and business. The FCCI submitted a memorandum regarding its demands. These include withdrawal of the condition of PF and ESI for the units having fewer than 50 and 20 workers respectively. It also asked the Labour Minister to take over the work of running the ESI hospitals from the state health department and opposed the move to introduce the ‘reservation’ in the private sector. The FCCI president claimed that introduction of reservation might harm the performance and its overall production as the sector does not count on caste or community but depends on expertise. The Labour Minister assured that the demands raised by the FCCI would be looked into and a favourable action would follow if they were genuine.
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Assault case registered against CM’s daughter
New Delhi, September 23 According to the DCP, New Delhi district, “Latika has been booked under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 352 (assault or criminal force other than on grave provocation) and 506 (criminal intimidation).” The DCP said that there were orders from the court to register a case against
Latika. The court also directed the Station House Officer to submit his status report on December 9. Mr Sharma has alleged that on August 25, while he was returning from his office in Patiala House courts, a blue Opel car with a Home Minister sticker suddenly appeared in front of his vehicle near the Chief Minister’s residence. The car was being driven by
Latika, he claimed. She asked him to reverse his car but he could not do that as the traffic was heavy behind him, the complaint
said. Latika then stepped out of the car and allegedly threatened him to turn back. When he did not listen, she called out to a man seated inside the car and this person allegedly caught hold of his collar and threatened him, he said. Later, on her asking, some more men, allegedly policemen in plain clothes, joined them and started shouting at him, Mr Sharma said. The situation was brought under control upon the intervention of his cousin, also an advocate, who apologised for their mistake, if any, the complainant claimed.
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The farm taught them what the school does not
New Delhi, September 23 The two-day event, ‘Kangaroo Kids Farm Day,’ was aimed at teaching the child what it feels to hear a duck quack or a hen cluck. The activity, apart from being a virtual picnic, also taught kids about the behaviour of animals and other interesting things. With activities like a puppet show, shadow plays and rhyme time thrown in, it turned out to be two days of unadulterated fun. The taste buds of the youngsters, who had perhaps never seen a cow being milked or a pot being churned from a handful of mud, were also tickled with fresh food. The thick milkshakes, the crunchy cookies and the hot bread straight from the oven made their day:
the feast was straight from a farm. Ruchika Bhardwaj, Director, Kangaroo Kids, said, “It is something different that a child seeks every time his mind runs into the world of curiosity. The Kangaroo Kids Farm Day is just the answer to one such curiosity,
where through hands-on activities organised for kids, they could have
a variety of sensory learning experiences.”
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Haryana health staff to hold rally on Sept 28
Faridabad, September 23 Stating this, a spokesperson of the ‘Multi-purpose health employees union’ said here yesterday that the demands discussed and accepted in principle by the minister himself had been kept in abeyance for the past over six months and there was no sign of action on the part of the government despite the promise made by Mr
M.L. Ranga, Health Minister. She claimed that Mr Ranga had invited a delegation of the employees in Chandigarh and agreed to many of the demands in presence of some senior officials of the department, including the Director-General, Health, but lamented that to date, there had been no move to implement these on papers. Claiming that all the demands were justified, she said the main issues included regularising the RCH workers, creating new posts in ratio to the increased workload and population, opening new health centres, issuance of seniority list, withdrawing the training condition for promotion, repair and maintenance of the sub-health centres, providing better infrastructure and giving up the ‘privatisation’ of various services of the department.
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Global conference on neurology from
tomorrow
New Delhi, September 23 According to the organising secretary of this conference, Dr M. M. Mehndiratta, the main theme of this two-day-long conference is to update the knowledge in neurology for good clinical practice and evidence-based medicine. He informed that 51 faculties (350 delegates) from India are going to present their papers on various neurological childhood disorders, epilepsy, stroke, Parkinson’s disease and critical neurological disorders. Besides, 12 international faculties from the USA, Canada and Scotland with expertise in the field of epilepsy, stroke, auto-immune disorders of the brains and the nerves, viral and bacterial infections of the brain will also deliver their talks on the occasion. Dr M. M. Mehndiratta said since the medical science is advancing at a very rapid pace, the knowledge needs to be updated from time to time.
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Dengue stares Noida in the face
Noida, September 23 The Noida Authority and the health department are reportedly doing little to check the menace. Last year, more than 150 dengue cases were reported in September. With over a dozen people in Javer and Dankore having lost their lives with high fever, some 17 persons have been declared victims of malaria there. Dadri area leads in the number of malaria cases. Private nursing homes are treating hundreds of malaria patients with high fever in towns. But the health department officials do not believe that the situation is grim, though count of platelets in blood reported markedly low, a sure sign of dengue fever. In Delhi, some 40 cases of dengue have been reported while in Loni area of Ghaziabad, many cases have been confirmed. In Delhi alone, some 354 patients had died out of the total of 2,772 patients in 2003. In G.B. Nagar, some 151 cases had been confirmed last year. But strangely, the health department is not taking any action. No measures are being taken to stem the rise in cases.
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AIDSO to protest against education policies
New Delhi, September 23 The AIDSO, which has called for support from students, teachers and people concerned, will also submit a memorandum to the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Mr Arjun Singh, seeking changes in the existing education policy, an AIDSO release here said. The organisation said the National Policy on Education drafted by the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government in 1986 was being followed by all successive governments. The policy lays emphasis on job-oriented professional courses and ignores other areas, it has been pointed out. “The sole aim of the policy was to restructure the whole education system and make it job-oriented according to the market demands,’’ the organisation said.
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Centre told to take decision on land lease terms of hospitals
New Delhi, September 23 Meanwhile, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has said it is changing the policy of allotment of land to private hospitals after 2000. It will now adopt a policy of tender or auction for the purpose as it was felt that “there was no justification for allotment of land at concessional rates to private hospitals. In the case of the Dharamshila Cancer Foundation and Research Hospital, the DDA has said in its affidavit: “It appears that there would be no justification for reducing the free bed quota for this hospital, which was put at 25 per cent as per the original allotment letter which forms part of the terms and conditions of the lease”. The Dharamshila Hospital had claimed before the court that by a February 1993 letter, the Directorate of Health Services had relaxed the lease condition from reserving 25 per cent bed to 10 per cent for the poor.
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A K Puri takes over as BHEL Chairman
An electrical engineer and MBA in Marketing & Finance from Delhi University, Mr Puri joined BHEL in 1976 after a brief stint in the private sector. During his over 35 years of professional experience, Mr Puri has made significant contribution in key functions like corporate management and domestic/international marketing.
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Official held in fraud case
New Delhi, September 23
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New Delhi, September 23