New Delhi, January 14
The Union Government today told the Delhi High Court that it was formulating a new policy on allotment of land to private hospitals and charitable institutions.

Appearing before a Division Bench of Chief Justice BC Patel and Justice BD Ahmed, Additional Solicitor General PP Malhotra said, “The UPA Government led by Dr Mammohan Singh is formulating a new policy for the allotment of land to different charitable organisations, including hospitals, educational institutions, etc”.

The court would be informed after the Union Cabinet approved the policy in February first week, Mr Malhotra said during the hearing of a petition of the Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (EHIRC).

The EHIRC, in an application, appealed to pay the market rate of the land which was allotted to it by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) instead of providing free treatment, for setting up the hospital in 1982.

“The institute is willing to pay the difference between the concessional price at which the land was allotted to it and the market price of the said land,” the application said.

“The provision of 25 per cent free beds to the patients in all the hospitals, which were allotted land subject to terms and conditions, will at the most result in the availability of few hundred beds,” said the application filed by Counsel Simran Mehta appearing for the Escorts Hospital.

The beneficiaries of such concessional land allotments were EHIRC, Dharamshila Cancer Hospital, Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (VIMHANS). etc.

The High Court had earlier asked the Centre to ‘re-consider’ its proposal to release the city private hospitals of their obligations to provide free treatment to the poor, if they agree to pay the differential amount between their heavily subsidised land allotment price and the current market price. In a proposal put forth by the hospitals, it was stated that a corpus fund be formed with the amount to pay the premium of a new insurance scheme for the poor.

Under the scheme, a family of five would be required to pay an annual premium of Rs 545 for reimbursement of medical expenses up to Rs 30 thousand for hospitalisation and some other benefits stipulated in the scheme. Families in the Below Poverty Line category would only have to pay Rs 245 while the Department of Banking and Insurance would provide a subsidy of Rs 300.

The hospitals that were not willing or able to pay the difference between the price of the land allotted to them and its current market rate would have to discharge the obligation, specified in their land leases, of free treatment for poor patients up to 25 per cent in case of indoor patients and 40 per cent in case of outdoor patients.

The judges had also asked the government to give details of duty cuts provided to hospitals to import machinery and equipment from abroad.

The High Court had earlier directed the Centre to decide within a fortnight on the representations of the hospitals, saying they wanted to pay their way out of the obligations to treat poor patients free.

The Escorts Heart Institute had earlier offered to pay Rs 51 crore to get out of the land lease condition, and recently the Dharamshila Cancer Hospital and Research Centre approached the DDA with the idea to pay to reduce its ‘burden’ to treat poor patients from 25 to 10 per cent.

The judges observed that the land lease agreement was essential for the benefit of the downtrodden and the demand was so made to the government to allot land for hospitals to serve the poor. It was, however, found over the years that such benefits had not reached the poor, even though large lands had been given to the hospitals. The court was dealing with a PIL filed by counsel Ashok Agarwal on behalf of ‘Social Jurist’ seeking enforcement of the land lease condition by the hospitals, which provided for 25 per cent free treatment to the poor.

New Delhi, January 14
A city court today denied bail to a Delhi Police Sub Inspector who was accused of assaulting a boy by injecting petrol and thinner into his rectum.

Parveen Kumar’s bail application was dismissed by Additional Sessions Judge V P Vaish. The accused is presently in judicial custody.

Kumar was arrested on January 1 following allegations by one Deepak, alias Ravi, who claimed that he was picked up by the SI from a Ghaziabad locality on the intervening night of June 13 and 14, 2002, and brought him to Ambedkar Nagar police station, where the cop tortured him and demanded Rs 50,000 for facilitating his release.

On his refusal, the SI injected petrol and thinner into his rectum, the boy has alleged. The victim was shifted to the Batra hospital after his condition deteriorated.

Initially, the South Delhi police probed the case which was transferred to Crime Branch in November 2002.

Initially Deepak told police that it he had received the injuries in a scuffle with some fellow pickpockets.

Later, his father filed a petition in the High Court alleging that Deepak was picked up and tortured by policemen, following which the High Court directed that a fresh statement of Deepak be recorded.

In his fresh statement, Deepak repeated charges levelled by his father and said his earlier statement was made on the direction of the accused police official. Earlier this month a Metropolitan Magistrate too had rejected Kumar’s bail plea. 

New Delhi, January 14
A woman, who murdered her husband at their Sultanpuri residence in August 2002 following a prolonged strained relationship, has been sentenced to life imprisonment today by a Delhi court.

Additional Sessions Judge Indermeet Kaur Kochar also imposed a fine of Rs 500 on Babli who strangulated Gyan Singh and then tried to burn his body on August 9, 2002.

The police had alleged that the accused killed her husband at midnight and then tried to burn the body to make it look like a suicide. Thereafter, Babli went over to her mother-in-law and sister-in-law’s place – they lived on the ground floor of the house — and told them that something had happened to her husband..

Some clothes, a brick, kerosene oil, a candle and a matchbox was found near Singh’s body which was partly burnt, the police said. The deceased’s mother said that on the fateful night she heard the sound of a brick and immediately inquired about it from her daughter-in-law who dismissed the issue. She also informed the police that the pair was having a strained relationship. The prosecution examined 21 witnesses in the case.

New Delhi, January 14
Four leading jazz musicians arrive this week in India for a weeklong round of concerts, classes and public appearances aimed at helping to focus attention on the growing HIV / AIDS epidemic.

The US Department of State, MTV India and Black Entertainment Television’s Jazz Channel (BET-Jazz) are sponsoring the tour by vocalist Al Jarreau, guitarist Earl Klugh, pianist George Duke and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane.

They would perform in New Delhi on January 18. The performers would also conduct a master class for Indian musicians and meet with HIV-positive young people. A major goal of the project is to emphasise shared Indo-American concerns about HIV / AIDS in India, where an estimated 50 lakh people already are afflicted with the disease that US Secretary of State Colin Powell calls “the world’s most horrendous weapon of mass destruction”.

Vocalist Al Jarreau is a five-time Grammy Award winner and one of the few artists to have received Grammys in the three categories of jazz, pop and rhythm and blues. He has also been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an honour reserved for top performers in their fields.

Acoustic guitarist Earl Klugh, one of the icons of smooth jazz, is a 13-time Grammy nominee and winner of a Grammy.

Ghaziabad, January 14
The Vijay Nagar and Modi Nagar police shot dead two criminals in encounters in the early hours today. One of them carried a reward of Rs 5,000 on his head. Two revolvers and a number of live cartridges had been seized from the site of the encounter, the police said. The criminals shot dead last night belonged to Muzzafarnagar district.

The Senior Superintendent of Police, Mr Jai Narain Singh, said that increased patrolling and vehicle checking at night by the police patrol had resulted in the success.

The police chief informed media persons that the sleuths had noticed a Maruti car without a number near Saberi village on the by-pass today.

Even as S.O. Satpal Singh followed the vehicle, he flashed a message to the Superintendent of Police, City, and CO Dharam Veer Singh and requested for more force.

When the criminals realised that they were being followed, they started firing at the police team. Subsequently, the criminals were surrounded and in the ensuing encounter two criminals were seriously injured. When the police party took the criminals to a hospital, they were declared brought dead by doctors. A diary found in the car identified them as Ashok, alias Devi Singh, (son of Bhartu) and Mehboob (son of Yaseen).

Both of them hailed from village Banta Khera under police station Babri in Muzzafarnagar, the SSP said.

They were involved in a dacoity case and an incident of loot in Muzzafarngar last year. Ashok was wanted in a loot case involving a Haryana Roadways bus. He was a wanted criminal and the Karnal police had announced a reward of Rs 5,000 for his arrest.

New Delhi, January 14
The Delhi High Court today issued notices to Apeejay Institute of Management and Information Technology and Amritsar-based Guru Nanak Dev University for suspending a student on charges of receiving information on mobile phone during examination.

Justice Geeta Mittal issued notices to Delhi-based Appejay Institute of Management and Information Technology and GND University on the application of Abhimanyu Choudhary, a second year B Com student, for suspending him from the institute for two years for allegedly receiving information during the examination through SMS.

Counsel R K Saini, appearing for Choudhary, claimed in the application that ‘’the SMS was not in any connected with the examination or subject of the said examination held in April 2004.’’

New Delhi, January 14
In a fallout over the escape of Sher Singh Rana, a convict in Phoolan Devi murder case, Tihar jail is all set to introduce Bio-metric Finger Identification System that will facilitate entry of only authorized prisoners and jail officials for court hearings.

Director-General (Prisons) R P Singh today announced at the annual press conference that the move to introduce the system would largely address the problem of security concerns inside the jail.

With the introduction of this system, the jail officials would have with them the fingerprints and personal details of prisoners, jail staff and other persons working in the jail.

In case there is any infringement of security, details would me immediately made available for further course of action, he added. A video conferencing system would also be in place soon, which would link all city courts, including Tiz Hazari, Karkardooma and Patiala House, with Tihar Jail. This, in turn, would facilitate hearings.

Mr R P Singh said that the jails were facing an acute problem of congestion: the existing number of prisoners exceeds the prescribed strength.

At present, the seven Central Prisons and one District Jail in Rohini have a capacity to lodge 5050 prisoners; as agai8nst this, 12,580 prisoners were lodged in the jails as on December 31, 2004. This number included 10,054 undertrails, 2511 convicts and 15 detainees. In December 2004, 95.97 percent of the prison population was male and 4.03 percent female. In the male category, undertrials constituted 80.04 percent, convicts 19.74 percent and detainees 0.12 percent.