New Delhi, December 11
The ruling Congress in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Delhi government is having second thoughts over the implementation of the proposed controversial service tax because of the adverse reaction from within the party and the opposition.

Senior party leaders are now discussing various ways to extricate themselves from a situation which may cost them politically in the long run. There is also a talk of carrying out an amendment in the proposal for the new tax, raising the income of those coming in the net from the present Rs 30,000 per month.

According to these sources, initially the decision was to impose the professional tax on all those who earn more than Rs 5,000 per month so that a large chunk of the residents fall under the net. The proposals were tabled by the Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta, before the Standing Committee of the corporation on December 8. They are considering increasing the limit of income and the duration.

At present, the limit of income is Rs 30,000 and the duration of levy of the tax is monthly. The Leader of the House, Mr Satbir Singh, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee, Mr Mukesh Goel, took the issue seriously just after the Leader of Opposition, Mr Vijender Gupta, boycotted the meeting in protest against the tabling of the proposals.

Sources said that differences came to light just after the meeting as a number of standing committee members who represented the Congress opposed the levy of the new tax. A heated discussion took place in the chamber of the Chairman. Showing their resentment, a few Congress councillors did not even attend the weekly meeting of the Standing Committee.

Senior members of the corporation expressed their helplessness to prevent the commissioner from tabling the proposals of the professional tax.

Noticing the adamant attitude of the Municipal Commissioner, senior leaders of the corporation have decided to approach the party high command to get it rejected, as imposition of the new tax will make the citizens of the Capital unhappy with the party.

Rejecting the commissioner’s plea that the new tax will yield enough money to overcome the financial crisis of the corporation, the leaders say that it will be an additional burden on the Delhiites. The corporation can generate revenue from other sources like advertisement, toll tax, property tax, etc. They are already under pressure after the Delhi government has increased the rates of power and water.

The sources say that the Municipal Commissioner was asked to sideline the professional tax when he discussed this issue with a few of his confidential officers. In the beginning, he has a limit of income of Rs 5,000 per month. Instead of putting the proposals in cold storage, he increased the income limit and tabled before the corporation giving an example of Hyderabad where this tax was already in practice.

However, sources said that before giving it final shape, the proposals would be discussed in all the meetings of the corporation, including the zonal and other committees. 

New Delhi, December 11
Blaming the University of Delhi authorities for their ‘failure’ to protect the interest of the ad hoc teachers by not implementing the recommendations of the Agnihotri Committee report, seven teachers walked out of the Academic Council meeting here today.

The teachers also protested against what they allege is the Vice-Chancellor’s “arbitrary act of tampering with the electoral lists for the election of teachers to the AC and the EC”.

In the meeting which began at 2 pm here, several teachers expressed concern over the non-implementation of the recommendations made by the Agnihotri Committee. The committee was formed by the V-C himself to look into the problems of the ad hoc teachers.

The seven AC members who walked out of
the meeting today were also demanding a change in the composition of the selection committees, DUTA president Narain Mishra said.

New Delhi, December 11
With the arrest of two persons, the Delhi Police has busted one of the biggest gangs that was active in making pirated CDs, MP3 and pornographic material. The accused have been identified as Shiv Shankar Sharma (39) and Chander Pal Singh (29).

However, their third associate Karan Singh escaped from the spot. The police have recovered 31 CD writers worth Rs 31 lakh in this connection.

Karan Singh is a trader in mini Lajpat Rai Market. He has a manufacturing unit in Brahmpuri, Northeast district, the police said. The Economic Offence wing conducted a raid after inspector K.P. Kukrety had received a tip-off.

New Delhi, December 11
The Academic Council (AC) of the University of Delhi has approved the revised syllabi in respect of discipline and language courses of the restructured BA courses today.

The syllabi of Arabic, English, Hindi, Persian, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Philosophy, Computer Applications, Operation Research, Statistics, Geography, History, Marathi, Oriya, Sindhi, Tamil and Telugu have been approved. In addition, the syllabi of language courses in English, Pali (Department of Buddhist Studies), Punjabi, Sanskrit, Urdu and Modern Indian languages - Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, Sindhi, Tamil and Telugu —were also endorsed in the meeting of the AC.

The BA programme of the University of Delhi is the single largest programme of study at the undergraduate level with more than 1,00,000 students enrolled in the programme. The restructured BA programme, introduced in July 2004, replaces the erstwhile BA pass course, which had remained unchanged for 50 years. The Academic Council has thus brought to conclusion a major process of restructuring that was initiated over two years ago to make the programme stimulating for students.

According to a release, the council also approved the revised syllabi in respect of BA Honours in Economics and MSc Botany courses. These revised courses will be introduced from the next academic year beginning July 2005.

However, the council approved the phasing out of the affiliation and degree conferring arrangements with Sherubtse College, Bhutan, due to the establishment of the Royal University of Bhutan by 2010. The council also agreed in principle to consider the request to grant affiliation to the proposed Army Medical College, but noted that important issues pertaining to admission, including the policy on reservations for children of army personnel, the examination fee and faculty, need to be resolved beforehand, for which the Vice-chancellor was authorised to constitute a committee with wide representation, including elected members of the Academic Council, only thereafter.

New Delhi, December 11
President Abdul Kalam has expressed concern over the growing diseases and health problems in the country and urged medical professionals to devise innovative and cost-effective ways of controlling the spread of such ailments.

While inaugurating a five-day international meet on liver and liver related diseases, organised by the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver, the president said that medical professionals should also evolve a programme to check increasing commercialisation of medical services and development of complex diagnostic and surgical procedures. The aforesaid, he added, were rendering the best medical care out of reach of common people. The meet was organised by the Study of the Liver in collaboration with the Indian Association for the Study of the Liver here today.

Speaking on the occasion, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit urged the private sector to supplement and support efforts of government institutions as it is difficult for the government to provide state-of-the-art medical facilities to its citizens considering the complexity and magnitude of the problems faced by state-owned hospitals and their limited resources.

Mrs Dikshit said that there was an urgent need to evolve a strategy for early care and specialised treatment in a cost-effective manner for accident victims. The dearth of these facilities in the Capital has led to many deaths and rendered many permanently disabled.

More than 1,000 surgeons academicians and experts will take part in the five-day international meet on liver and liver related disease, which began here today.

New Delhi, December 11
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Najafgarh Zone, removed encroachments from in front of 22 flats in C-1 Block. The encroachment drive began at around 11.30 am and finished at 4 pm.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rahul Dua, said that the flat owners were issued notices before the demolition of encroached parts.

He said that some residents have encroached upon the government land for gardening and some for parking vehicles. Similar encroachment has been made from C-2 Block to C-9 Block. The action will be taken in these blocks also.

The residents resisted the demolition move, but the MCD had taken the police help and succeeded in doing its job, the Deputy Commissioner said.

New Delhi, December 11
Two oil tankers caught fire in West Delhi’s Mangolpuri area early today. The incident took place at around 6 am when five oil tankers were parked at Katran Market in Mangolpuri Phase I. According to the police sources, there has been no casualty so far. The entire area was cordoned off immediately after the fire had been reported. The other oil tankers were removed from the area.

As many as 20 fire tenders reached the spot that took two hours to control the fire. The police and the fire department are still on the way to ascertain the cause of fire.

The area has a dense population though there was no report of loss of life or damage to the shops.

New Delhi, December 11
The Shiromani Gurudwara Sewadar Committee said that all Singh Sabhas, Gurdwara Committees and Shabad Choki Jathas were invited to join the Nagar Kirtan to be held on December 12 at Gurudwara Singh Sabha, Rajouri Garden.

They were urged to participate in the Nagar Kirtan to mark the 300th anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh’s sons Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh’s assassination at Fatehgarh Sahib at the age of seven and nine years. It was decided to commemorate the anniversary on a large scale.

The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee will start the Nagar Kirtan from Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib to Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in which all the 325 Sri Guru Singh Sabhas will take part.