New Delhi, November 11
In an operation carried out simultaneously at Delhi and Ghaziabad, the Delhi Police have unearthed two illegal telephone exchanges. The illegal telephone exchanges were busted based on the information provided by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited. The Vigilance Telecom Monitoring Cell, formed by the DoT, in coordination with the telecom operators has been involved in detecting and monitoring fraudulent activities in this connection.

During such an exercise, it was detected that huge international incoming calls were being distributed through the public switch telecom network and misusing the fixed wireless terminals.

In the present cases, the raids were conducted at Rishab Vihar in Delhi and at Ram Prastha in Ghaziabad. The illegal telecom setup was being used to receive international calls from USA and European countries through the Internet.

In the Rishab Vihar case, 14 CDMA fixed wireless terminals were interfaced with the Internet leased lines, while it was 17 CDMA in the case of Ram Prastha for routing such international calls.

Bypassing the authorised international long distant operators in India, the accused were causing huge loss to the telecom operators and the Government, besides posing security risk, as these calls were beyond the scope of lawful monitoring.

New Delhi, November 11
It is surprising but true that 15 of the most undeveloped villages of East district have not been included under the development programme launched by the newly formed Village Development Board, an agency exclusively constituted for the development of villages of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, thanks to the apathy of the Delhi Government.

These villages are Khajuri Khas, Dallu Pura, Bihari Pur, Ukhami Pur, Babar Pur, Samai Pur Badli, Gadi Maru, Karawal Nagar, Gharauli, Gokal Pur, Jori Pur, Kondli and New Gazipur. Apart from these, other such undeveloped villages of Tughlakabad and Mehrauli and Babarpur constituency have also not been included in the development net.

Recently, the MLA from Babarpur constituency, Mr Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, had written a letter in this regard to the chief minister of Delhi Mrs Sheila Dikshit alleging that the Jat dominated villages of Outer Delhi, like Kanjhawala, Najafgarh, Bawana, had been favoured. “Most of the funds out of the Rs 100 crore annual budget have been targeted to be delivered to the development of those villages as most of these villages fall under the constituency of Mr Sajjan Kumar, the newly appointed chairman of the board as they fall under his Lok Sabha constituency,” alleged Mr Bidhuri.

When contacted, Mr Sajjan Kumar, MP, refuted these charges and said that he had just taken over the chairmanship of the Board and was not aware about these lapses. He promised to look into the matter.

The MLA from Patparganj constituency Mr Amrish Singh Gautam said, it was a very serious matter and all MLAs from East Delhi area will jointly raise the issue.

The president of the Jan Adhikar Society and a well-known social activist Thakur Rajendra Singh said that all these 15 villages are most undeveloped villages of Trans-Yamuna area and a lot of attention should be given to the development of these villages.

New Delhi, November 11
The Delhi Traffic Police have made elaborate traffic arrangements to keep the traffic flow uninterrupted for the coming annual trade fair, scheduled from November 14.

“This is an annual feature and this time also the traffic police have made special arrangements to keep traffic steady and uninterrupted,” said the Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Mr Qamar Ahmed.

The police have made three park and ride sites from where the visitors can park their vehicles and use the public transport arranged under the scheme. This facility is available free of cost at the west gate of Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, Velodrome Road, IGI Stadium and I.P. DTC Depot.

The police have also asked the people to avoid the use of private vehicles.

Besides, special parking arrangements have been made at Bhairon Marg, Railway Container Depot, opposite Traffic Inspector training office, Purana Quila Road, National Stadium, Shahjahan Radial road, Tilak Marg, Raj Path etc.

The police said that no vehicle including private, commercial, auto rickshaws etc would be allowed to halt at the Mathura Road near ITPO gates to pick and drop passengers.

The police have also closed down the ticket counters opened at the different gates. Now the tickets would
be available only at the gate number one, DTC terminal, Bhairon Marg, branches of Andhra Bank and Mother Dairy booths.

New Delhi, November 11
The Leader of Opposition in the Standing Committee of the MCD, Mr Vijender Gupta, has warned that the BJP will oppose the imposition of tax on professionals, traders, call centres and other employment organisations by the Congress-led corporation with all the forces at his command.

The Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta, has prepared a proposal in this regard and it will be tabled before the next Standing Committee meeting to get committee’s approval. However, the Delhi Assembly has already approved the proposal in the last secession.

Mr Gupta demanded immediate withdrawal of the proposal, as this is violation of the provisions of the Corporation Act and unauthorisedly processed under the directions of the Delhi Government. He demanded a thorough probe leading to imposing of new tax under the provisions of Section 150 of the DMC Act, because it has rider of the provisions of section 111 of the DMC Act, which is applicable only when the income is decreased and suffix to meet the expenditure sanctioned in the budget estimates.

The Congress-led corporation has imposed property tax on rural villages, urban areas, slum areas, resettlement colonies, unauthorised colonies and JJ colonies, which were out of tax net. Many times increase has been imposed on urban residential commercial and industrial areas under the Unit Area Method.

Besides, electricity rates are being increased routinely after privatisation, sanitation charges has been imposed in unauthorised colonies, 5-6 times increased has been made in water charges and night parking charges.

He has also shown concern for hefty payments made to law firms for drafting bylaws and amendments in the Act when the corporation has its own law department having nearly 100 legal experts with mastery over the legal and practical aspects of the DMC Act. Instead of imposing new taxes on the citizens of the Capital, the corporation should check corruption, which will help in increasing the income of the MCD, Mr Gupta said.

New Delhi, November 11
In an effort to check the unauthorised sale of firecrackers, the Delhi Police conducted raids at several places in the city in the last 24 hours.

The North district police have formed four squads to check the illegal trade of firecrackers, which are headed by the ACPs of the area.

“We are trying to check the illegal sale of firecrackers, for which special instructions have been given to all the policemen to keep a vigil on the sale of illegal crackers,” said the DCP, North district, Mr Rajesh Khurana.

He said that the police have seized firecrackers worth Rs 50 lakh and two cases have been registered in the Timarpur area in this connection.

Similar measures have been taken in the East district where the local police stations have been instructed to arrest people selling illegal firecrackers.

The DCP, East district, Ms Nuzhat Hassan, said, “We have the list of shopkeepers who were given licence to sell firecrackers. Other found selling crackers without license would be punished under the law.” 

Noida, November 11
The whole of Noida as well as the shoppers from South Delhi, East Delhi, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad colonies throng Noida’s Sector 18 market to purchase their choicest items to celebrate the festival of lights.

Children, women and young men, all seem to vie with one another to take home their best dresses, gifts, cards and souvenirs. The shopkeepers, however, keep wondering as to why Divali shopping cannot be extended to the whole year.

Though the parking space and routes for vehicle movement in the market area put a dampener on the big day. It is a nightmare to find a suitable and convenient slot for parking one’s car, especially after 6 pm when all the large stores, small shops and eating joints in Sector 18 shopping malls are packed to capacity.

Some people had to spend as much as an hour to park their cars. Shoppers from Lajpat Nagar, Delhi who had heard a lot about Noida market, found the parking problems worse than even in Central Market, Lajpat Nagar.

Young crowd in the central mall was a sight to behold and in the basement of centrestage mall, a musical programme had attracted a large number of young participants who had to sing a song each. They all found it exciting and enjoyable.

Now one can see more shoppers during week days in Sector 18 mart.

New Delhi, November 11
The WWF’s conservation initiatives on the Ganges river Dolphin formed the focus of the special cover that was released by the Department of Posts. A collector’s item, this special cover highlights the Ganges river Dolphin, one of the flagship species that has been the thrust area for WWF-India over the years. The special cover was part of the philately exhibition that was organized by the Postal Department at the WWF-India Secretariat in the Capital.

The Ganges river Dolphin (Platanista Gangetica), commonly known as Susu, is an endemic species of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra river systems.

One of the four species of freshwater dolphins found in the world, it is protected under Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972.

Releasing the special cover, Mr R Ganesan, Director Operations, Postal Services Board, said that special covers like on the theme of wildlife help take the conservation message to the remotest of the areas where Postal Department has an easy reach. This presents a great opportunity to the postal services to lend a hand at sensitising people about wildlife conservation.

The CEO and Secretary General of WWF-India, Mr Ravi Singh, shared similar views when he said that WWF would look forward to more opportunities with the government in the future.

Joint exhibitions like these are one of the many endeavours that WWF is trying to undertake at involving the government in sensitising the public at large on issues concerning nature and its conservation.

New Delhi, November 11
Lamenting that even 50 years after Independence the country has failed to provide universal education, the IAP group on Child Abuse, Neglect and Child Labour is organising a seminar to highlight the need for educating the marginalised sections of the society.

“Even today, despite the government and the international agencies pumping in money for projects like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, education is inaccessible for the marginalised. For those who can afford it there are public and private schools,” complained Dr Rajeev Seth, Joint Secretary, IAP (Indian Academy of Pediatricians).

The seminar titled, ‘Every child in school’, and involving stakeholders and even street children themselves, encourages deliberations on how with the given resources, education and healthcare can be provided to children. “We focus on education and a compulsive vaccination programme for all children. As we pointed out, the resources are there, what we need is the correct utilisation of these resources,” said Dr Seth.

Pointing out that families where children are seen as earning members need incentives to allow them to continue schooling, Dr Kiran Aggarwal of IAP said owing to pressure from the NGOs and stakeholders the MCD has been asked to forgo admission formalities like a birth certificate or residential proof.

Seeking more effective steps to be taken in the direction of child welfare, it was pointed out that even SAA has pitfall as it completely excludes the health component.

IAP-CANCL, which has been working for the health and educational rights of the children, puts forth that “every child in school is the only answer to take away children from child labour. The responsibility for this should be with the village panchayats, blocks and district officers.

Once in school, the health and nutrition problems of children must be addressed, mid-day meals, immunisation and screening for common diseases should be the essential components.”

New Delhi, November 11
To help students understand chemistry better, the NCERT has released a multimedia package CD Rom - Understanding Chemistry - Class XI. The function was presided over by Prof Krishna Kumar, Director, NCERT and the chief guest was Dr (Mrs) N. Rathnashree, Director, Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi.

It was pointed out that the step is in keeping with NCERT’s endeavour for qualitative improvement of science education at the school level through upgrading of curriculum and curricular materials.

In a bid to bring qualitative change in teaching-learning situations, the Department of Education in Science and Mathematics (DESM) in collaboration with CIET has brought out a computer aided instructional multimedia package in chemistry utilising various features of this information and communication technology.

This multimedia package is designed to enhance the students’ understanding of chemistry. It covers three fundamental topics for chemistry XI, names, electronic structure of atom, periodic table and periodicity and chemical bonding and molecular structure.

Interactive learning, simulated experiments, animations, computerised ready-reckoners, FAQs, continuous evaluation, time-line of development of each topic, etc are some of the inherent features of this multimedia package.

Prof Krishna Kumar in his presidential address said that the NCERT is very positive on development of new techniques of technology for school education. He said marketing of good quality study material on reasonable rates will be a challenge and we will explore other possibilities and try to make it available in NBT, Cottage Emporium etc.

Noida, November 11
A sensational case of insurance stamp scam has come to light in UP, the value of which runs into hundreds of crores.

It was found after a CBI inquiry that not a single stamp paper had been purchased from the UP treasuries from 1987 to 2001. No state government official had even bothered to look into the matter all these years.

The premier user of insurance stamp papers– Life Insurance Corporation of India, had been procuring stamp papers from the individual stamp vendors of Maharashtra and using the same in entire Uttar Pradesh state for the past 13 years. This way the state government had suffered a loss of hundreds of crores of rupees.

The question whether the stamp papers procured from Maharashtra–the citadel of Abdul Karim Telgi, the kingpin of stamps scam, were genuine, is also being probed. Heads of many top officers are expected to roll in this big scam.

The CBI is understood to have been probing the matter for long but no official seemed to be aware of it. The CBI has called for a districtwise report of the sale of insurance stamp papers from the financial year 1987 to 2001 from the government treasuries and the district administration.

The Dy Commissioner, Kanpur, had recently inspected the LIC office and found that insurance stamps worth hundreds of crores of rupees were being used in the LIC policies, but the government treasuries had not sold stamp worth even a rupee.

The matter had come to light when its report was sent to the government. The Lucknow wing of the CBI is now investigating the matter.

It has been confirmed that in spite of the insurance stamps available in the government mints and treasuries, no sale of the stamp was ever made. Administrative irresponsibility has been cited as the reason for it.

The preference shown by the LIC officials in procuring stamp from Maharashtra instead of procuring it from local treasuries is also being probed. The whole matter is being viewed by linking it with the Telgi episode.

The CBI is learnt to have inquired from the state government whether any district administration had brought to its notice the fact that no sale of stamp had ever been registered at the district mints and treasuries.

The CBI has called for a districtwise report to these points through the Stamp Commissioner, UP District Magistrates.

The Addl. DM (Finance & Revenue), senior treasury officers, Asstt. Commissioners (Stamps) in all districts have been asked whether during raids, it ever came to their knowledge that the LIC was not purchasing stamps from the local treasuries.

Faridabad, November 11
Three murders in the past two days have rocked the district. These include murder of a middle-aged person by his own son in Hassanpur village of the Hodal subdivision in the district. The murder toll this year has crossed 60 so far.

According to reports, the residents of Aurangabad village of Palwal subdivision in the district got a shock, when they found bodies of two persons lying in a pit on the side of the National Highway Number 2, in the morning yesterday. The deceased were later identified as driver and owner of a truck, who had been clubbed to death by some unknown assailants and thrown there in the night.

The victims were residents of Etah district in UP and were on the way to Delhi from Gwalior. It is suspected that some persons who had taken a lift, had killed them to loot the Tata-407 vehicle owned by one of them.

It is learnt that the accused had overrun the bodies of the victims after their death so as nobody could recognise them. In another shocking incident, a middle-aged person identified as Harichand was allegedly murdered by his son over a dispute on money in ward number 14 of Hassanpur village of the district.

The accused reported to be just 18 years had a quarrel with his father over money two days ago. The body was found in a compound near the victim’s house next morning after the quarrel. A case has been booked on the complaint of the wife of the victim.

Greater Noida, November 11
The SO in-charge, Kasna police station in Greater Noida, has been found prima facie guilty of assaulting a trader and making death threats by a Ghaziabad court.

The trader had accused the SO of snatching his money and implicating him in a false case. The court has ordered the SO police station, Kasna, Alok Sharma to be present in the court to answer these charges on December 3.

According to information, Ram Kishan, son of Midhan Lal, resident of Barbara, under police station Kasna, Greater Noida, had in his complaint stated that he was returning from Ghaziabad to his village with iron rods worth Rs 1 lakh, loaded in his tractor trolley No. UP-14 F-1159 on June 8.

His tractor was stopped in front of Bisarakh police station by the station in charge Alok Sharma, SI Ram Sahi and three cops who demanded money. On his refusal, Ram Kishan, Parti, alias Pratap, and Kishen Lal, going on tractor, were taken to the police station and beaten up. The cops also allegedly snatched Rs 64,000 which they were carrying. SO Bisarakh, Alok Sharma had registered a case against Ram Kishan and his companions. Ram Kishan filed a suit against this case in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ghaziabad.

A hologram trader had also accused Alok Sharma of exploitation a few days ago which is being probed by SP Noida. Ram Kishan has alleged that Alok Sharma who is SO, Kasna police station, continues to make death threats. Hearing the petitioners, the CJM has found Alok Sharma and his colleagues prima facie guilty under Sections 500, 504, 506, 218 and 323 and summoned them in the court on December 3 to decide the case.

Noida, November 11
Xansa, an international business process and IT services company, donated 100 computers as Divali gifts to select Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) at its office in Sector 1, Noida on November 10 as part of its on-going initiative to spread IT literacy. The company has also adopted a number of schools for the development of its students.

Mr Garg from the Blind School, Mrs Malik from Masonic School, Mrs Tyagi, Educationist and Ms Anit, Principal, Gyan Public School, Noida, were among those who received the computers on behalf of their NGOs.

Executive Chairman, Xansa India, Saurabh Srivastava said, “In Xansa, we believe in the importance of being a socially responsible company committed to do our bit for the community. As Xansa is an international business process and IT services company, we have a particular focus on spreading IT literacy.”

Faridabad, November 11
At least four undertrial prisoners were injured in an accident this morning when the police vehicle carrying them collided with another vehicle near Gurgaon canal.

The police have booked a case, but no arrest has been made so far. The injured have been admitted to the civil hospital.

The incident took place at about 9 pm, when the police vehicle was carrying several undertrials to the court for hearing. The van was coming from Gurgaon and was on its way to the court, when a speeding unidentified vehicle hit the police vehicle from its right side while overtaking it. While this led an abrupt halt, some of the undertrials were injured in the mishap.