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Passport racket busted
Industrialist kidnapped, robbed
‘Bus terminals’ causing revenue losses to government
13 UP officials suspended for misconduct
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Students need flexibility of time and space: Ganguly
Anxious students solve maths paper with ease
DU girls for counselling contest in Hawaii
Faridabad caught in a crime maze
16 bigha land sold with fake papers
Probe into Moti Goel’s land scams begins
Illegal guesthouses dot residential colonies
Dilshad Colony thirsting for water
Donkey on the rampage
‘Best Academician Award’ presented
Plastic surgery clinic opens in Panchsheel
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Passport racket busted
New Delhi, March 14 The accused persons arrested have been identified as Mohammad Afsar (52), his wife Shehnaz Taj and a tout, Mukram Ali Taufer, residents of Hyderabad. Acting on a tip-off that a couple has arrived in Delhi and were trying to obtain fake passports using forged documents with the help of a tout in Munirka village, the police laid a trap and nabbed the accused persons. During interrogation, Afsar told the police that he has been running a business in sale and purchase of watches in Hyderabad. He has two wives and seven children. He also told the police that he had obtained a fake passport in the name of Nawab Passa and for his wife as Mumtaz Begum from Bangalore. On February 28, both he and his wife visited the US embassy in Chennai and applied for a visa. Failing to acquire the visa in Chennai, they had come to Delhi and tried their luck in the US embassy. However, they were denied the visa once again.
Woman killed, 14 injured
An elderly woman was killed and at least fourteen others were injured this morning when a private bus overturned in the Pheer Ghari area. The police said that the incident took place this morning at around 6.35 a.m. and the victim has been identified as one Dharmi (50). The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital and given treatment.
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Industrialist kidnapped, robbed
Faridabad, March 14 The police have registered a case under Sections 379 and 356 of the IPC, but no arrest has been made so far. According to the complaint lodged by the victim, identified as S. Khanna, the incident took place around 8 p.m. when he was coming back to his house in Sector-9 here from his factory in Sector 27. As the victim’s driver was taking the car towards his house, three youths on a mobike intercepted him and stopped his Honda City car. When the driver tried to know the reason, one of the accused pulled him out and got into the driver’s seat. One of them also got into the rear seat. As the youths sped away the car towards Palwal on the National Highway, the person in the rear seat took out a weapon and threatened to kill the businessman if tried to resist. It is reported that the youths then took away all his belongings, including a gold chain, gold bangle, wrist watch, mobile and cash, which amounted to about Rs 80,000. The victim was then pushed out of the vehicle near Agwanpur village in the Palwal subdivision. The accused fled away with the car. Mr Khanna somehow reached home and informed the police, which booked a case against the unknown persons. It is learnt that the accused also beat up the industrialist before throwing him off the car. This is the first such incident in this industrial town after the recent Assembly elections.
Autolifters have a field day
There has been a spate of thefts of vehicles in the district. At least five vehicles, including two cars and three motorcycles, have been stolen from various parts of the town and district in the past 48 hours. While the majority of these thefts went remained unsolved, the police have allegedly been clubbing more than two thefts into one case, in order to keep down the crime graph. According to reports, a Maruti car, belonging to one Rajiv Nanda, was stolen from outside his house in the NH-5 locality of the NIT here on Saturday night. Similarly, another car was stolen from outside a house in Sector-19 the same day. A motorcycle, belonging to one Ashish of Sector-18, was lifted away by an unidentified man yesterday. Two motorcycles have also reportedly been stolen from Hodal town in the district. At least half a dozen complaints of vehicle thefts have surfaced in the district in the past four weeks. It is learnt that the police normally note down the complaints, and no FIR has been registered against a single complaint. Ironically, one FIR contains many such complaints, according to the police sources.
— TNS
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‘Bus terminals’ causing revenue losses to government
New Delhi, March 14 According to the police sources, there are five spots from where the private bus operators are running these bus-stands illegally. The police sources said that these bus operators do not pay tax to the Delhi Government and run their buses without any permit. According to one of the transporters in the Central district, “We pay money to the local police. The traffic police, local police and the Transport Department are charging Rs 1000 per bus per day from us.” He said that they only book passengers for out station destinations. These buses are mainly tourist buses. At Red Fort, there is a bus terminal for around 150 tourist buses that do not have any permit to park their buses. The other destinations include the bus stand just opposite the Shiela Cinema, New Rohtak Road, Karnal bypass road, Dhaula Kuan etc. There are more than 1000 commercial vehicles running on inter-state routes without permit causing revenue losses to the government. The vehicles include private buses (Deluxe buses), private jeeps like TATA Sumo, RTV, etc. According to a police official, “One bus carries around 60 passengers. If we calculate the fare of outstation destinations, we can easily calculate the losses to suffered by the government.” The tour operators book their buses from different points that include Bhagirath Place, Lajpat Rai Market, ISBT bus terminal, and other parts of the city. It is a big nexus leading to big loss of revenue for the Delhi Government. According to a driver of an inter-state bus at ISBT, Kashmere Gate, Kishor Lal, these buses are well maintained and the passengers generally want to opt for these buses. Moreover, the tour operators also prefer to book passengers for these buses as they get larger commissions from these bus operators, he added. When this correspondent visited one of these bus terminals at the Red Fort, the transporters refused to divulge any information. According to the DCP, North, Rajesh Khurana, “We are not directly concerned with this matter. The Delhi Traffic Police is responsible for such matters.” According to the DCP, Traffic, North district, H.P.S.Virk, “We have impounded more than 100 buses in the recent past. Now the situation is under control. We are further intensifying our drive to curb such illegal activities.” The senior police officials said that it could be checked only when the Transport Department takes initiatives against such illegal activities.
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13 UP officials suspended for misconduct
Ghaziabad, March 14 Azam Khan was repeatedly frisked and treated shabbily by the district police and civil officials, yesterday. The state government in Lucknow issued orders late in the evening, placing 13 officials responsible for the faux pas under suspension. The officials include PCS and PPS officers. The Urban Development Minister had come a few hours earlier to oversee the arrangements for the foundation stone to be laid for a Haj House here by the Chief Minister. Mr Azam Khan was also the chief organiser of the function. The Chief Minister cancelled his programme afterwards in view of the ‘arrogant’ behaviour of the city police and returned to Lucknow via Delhi in the evening. Later, 13 officials were placed under suspension. Addl. District Magistrate (City) Chander Prakash Pandey, City Magistrate Sarvjeet Ram, SP City Ghaziabad, Umesh Srivastava and SP City Noida, AK Jain were suspended for their failure to observe protocol and perform the VIP duty properly. Soon after Mohd Azam Khan had walked out of the venue, the Samajwadi Party workers started protesting and raised
slogans against the officials and even damaged property. Mohd Azam Khan was not allowed entry from the VIP gate by the policemen on duty at the venue of stone-laying. When he tried to enter from the gate No. 1, he was frisked twice and told to pass under a barricade. This was enough for the minister to lose his patience. He went back to Delhi. “If a minister is treated like this, what treatment will be meted out to a common man,” he fumed. The District Magistrate and SSP of Ghaziabad, who were in Modinagar with the Chief Minister, rushed to Delhi to apologise and placate the angry minister. But Azam Khan refused to see them. The Chief Minister also went straight to Delhi from Modinagar. He did not stop at Hindon for the scheduled function. It is learnt that even the Chief Minister’s effort to pacify Mohd Azam Khan came to nought. On District Magistrate Santosh Yadav’s orders, SSP JN Singh suspended nine policemen, including six Sub-Inspectors–Praveen Saxena, Laxmi Narayan, Sunil Sharma, Prithvi Raj Sharma, Vipin Chaudhri and
Sri Pal. IG Police Meerut Zone, Harbhajan Singh has asked Ghaziabad SP (Rural) to probe the whole case and submit report within a week.
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Students need flexibility of time and space: Ganguly
New Delhi, March 14 Mr Ganguly, who is scheduled to meet the Minister of Human Resources Development, Mr Arjun Singh, on March 24 to offer suggestions to de-stress the examination process, highlighted the need to “change the frozen mindsets”. He added, “teachers are knowledge workers and they perceive any change as a threat to a system and their cognitive abilities. We have to offer students the flexibility of time and space.” Elaborating, he said, “why can’t we have a system wherein a student can appear for more than one exam? Why should we have only one annual exam? We should contemplate having examinations divided into two segments. One which is like a multiple choice paper and could be evaluated by a computer and the second segment, which would be application or skill based and evaluated by teachers.” Referring to the space flexibility, he said, “we should segregate exams, perhaps we could have two sessions, those who take the exam in October can begin university in December and those who take the March exams can begin university in July.” Commenting on the present procedure where a student gets three hours to finish the exam, he said, “a child may not be able to deliver in those three hours. We could perhaps allow a child more time.” He said, “We are aware of the stress that the students have to undergo and agree there is need to alter the present pattern. We have to work out a procedure that changes the time constraint that the children face. It is this time constraint that affects the performance of students.” Concerned over the sharp rise in the number of suicides by students each year and the anxiety generated by the exams, the CBSE has highlighted the need for a change in the examination set up, offering respite to the students.
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Anxious students solve maths paper with ease
New Delhi, March 14 “I was so scared when we saw the news bulletin this morning. Till the time we entered the exam room we were all wondering what if the news is true. Our teachers were trying to calm us down, they said we should concentrate on doing our best, but it was very unnerving,” said Astha, a student of Birla Vidya Niketan. Like her, most of the students found themselves fretting when they should have been busy in last minute revisions. “It is very bad for the psyche of the students. The precious few hours that they have in the morning before the exam have been disturbed by these reports and I am afraid this can affect their concentration,” said Ms Nidhi Mehra, who teaches mathematics at BVN. However, the drama ended on a happy note, with the CBSE clarifying that the paper was not leaked and the students being content with the paper. “It was an easy paper and we finished it on time. What happened this morning did cause tension, but now we are pretty relaxed and happy with the paper,” said Saurabh Sharma of Delhi Public School.
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DU girls for counselling contest in Hawaii
New Delhi, March 14 The team comprising Manju Walia and Ruchika Verma was declared
the winner at the India Chapter of the 22-nation prestigious event for law students. The final round held at the Law Faculty yesterday was judged by Mr Justice B. N. Srikrishna, Mr Justice A. K. Mathur and Mr Justice P. P. Naolekar of the Supreme Court of India. Among those who participated were National Law School (Bangalore), Indian Law School (Pune), Hidayatullah Law School (Raipur), Gurgaon Law School, Amity Law School, Jamia Law Faculty, Vivekanand Institute of Professional Studies and Guru Gobind Singh University. The final round of the event was inaugurated by the Law Commission Chairman, Justice M. Jagannadha Rao, on Saturday.
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Faridabad caught in a crime maze
Faridabad, March 14 A container having spare parts worth several lakhs of rupees was stolen from a colony in Ballabhgarh on Friday last. The container was loaded on a truck which stopped somewhere for a lunch break on its way to Chandigarh. The police have booked a case on the complaint of the truck owner, who is a resident of Sector- 21-B here. In another case, the police have registered a case against the officials of a transport company in connection with the theft of several cheques issued by a bank here. It is reported that the bank officials had booked about 146 boxes containing the cheques of the company to be transported to a place in Rajasthan, but the boxes did not reach the destination on time. In yet another case, a trader of Delhi found his bag containing jewellery worth about Rs 4.25 lakh missing from a shop in Dabua Colony here yesterday. A resident had also lost a bag containing Rs 50,000 from the Nehru Ground area here, a few days ago. At least four persons were booked by the police after they had snatched about Rs 3 lakh from a person going on a two-wheeler in Sector-16 here, a few days ago. Meanwhile, thieves made their way into the house of a policeman living in Sector- 21-D and decamped with valuables and cash worth over Rs 1 lakh. No one was in the house at the time of the incident. The incident took place on Saturday last. Two cases of chain and purse-snatching have also been reported from two places in the district during the past 24 hours. The police have reportedly registered a case of rape during this time. According to one Bhawana Goel of Sector- 15-A here, two youths riding a scooter, snatched her purse containing a mobile phone, chain and some cash, while she was going on a rickshaw towards Sector- 16 yesterday. The second such incident took place at New Colony of the Palwal town in the district, when two youths snatched the gold chain of a woman. In another incident, a woman labourer, working at a brick kiln near Hodal, was allegedly raped by an employee working there.
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16 bigha land sold with fake papers
Greater Noida, March 14 The aggrieved farmers have met and petitioned District Magistrate Santosh Yadav. The District Magistrate has asked the Dy Collector and Administrative officer, Mr Rajiv Kumar, to probe the matter. Jagdish and Santram have apprised the District Magistrate that their paternal grandfather, late Arjun Singh had six sons. The eldest had taken his share in the property long back. Among the other five, four were bachelors, two of whom had since died. The youngest uncle, Khubi Chand also died in 1979 and his property divided among their father Subhe and the last bachelor uncle Ram Chander. Their father and the last uncle also died soon thereafter and the whole property was inherited by both the brothers. This was not liked by their cousin Om Pal, son of the eldest uncle, late Gopi Chand, who had taken his share while their grandfather was alive. Om Pal asked for 50% share in the whole ancestral property which was refused by Jagdish and Sant Ram. On November 16, 1989, Om Pal contacted the Asstt Consolidation Officer and presented a will purportedly written by Ram Pal, younger brother of grandfather and got half the property transferred to his name on June 22, 1991. However, Rampal is said to have died two years earlier in 1989. On a petition by Jagdish and Sant Ram, the court of administrative officer had ordered in 1996 that the property be returned to them by cancelling the orders of the consolidation officer. But in spite of the court orders, Om Pal had not handed over the land to them and with the connivance of the assistant consolidation office and revenue official Jai Singh had sold 16 bigha land out of a total of 42 bigha on the basis of fake documents.
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Probe into Moti Goel’s land scams begins
Ghaziabad, March 14 He said a fair and full probe would be held and none of the guilty would go unpunished. It may be mentioned that Moti Goel is involved in the scams amounting to Rs 2,500 crore in Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar districts. The state government had decided to have the matter probed by a senior officer after it was raised in the UP Assembly. The fraud was not only committed in the revenue records, but even the courts had been fed with false information. Mr Joseph said the entire record was taken to
the residence of junior-level government officials and tampered with, the Revenue Board Member said. Since the party is very rich and influential, it will hire the best of advocates and could also exert influence in the case. Mr Joseph said he would complete the probe within a month and submit the report to the government.
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Illegal guesthouses dot residential colonies
Gurgaon, March 14 According to a general estimate, there are more than 100 illegal guesthouses functioning in the private residential colonies of new Gurgaon city area alone. According to the Enforcement Wing of the District Town and Country Planning, notices have been issued to the owners of the properties, which are being used as guesthouses. The department has categorised these guesthouses under “commercial activities”, which cannot take place in residential colonies. The residents of the private colonies, like the DLF and Sushant Lok, allege that when the authorities cannot stop the construction of these guesthouses, how can they ensure that the activities in these guesthouses are legal. The Resident Welfare Association of DLF complained to the authorities recently about the increasing commercial activities in the residential areas. The residents feel that the guesthouses culture was damaging the concept
of “community living in peace” and having adverse affect on the process of socialisation on the children. The officials’ modus operandi seems to be to first allow the construction of the guesthouses and then serve notices and allow the issue to be taken to the court. The general feeling is that this is just an excuse to keep up the facade of an administrative action. The departmental officials then simply wash their hands of the issue on the ground that it is sub judice.
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Dilshad Colony thirsting for water
New Delhi, March 14 In 1998, the Delhi Jal Board had planned a project to develop two big underground reservoirs at two different locations of this area to mitigate the drinking water problem of the residents. In accordance to the Delhi Jal Board directive, the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of this colony collected a sum of Rs 60 lakh and handed it over to the Delhi Jal Board in 1999. Surprisingly enough, no further initiative was taken in this direction for years. Only after sustained pressure by local residents, the Delhi Jal Board earmarked the locations for the development of underground reservoirs at Block - A and F of that area last year and handed over Rs 25 lakhs to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) as against the acquired land. Since then, no further development has been carried out. The general secretary of the RWA of this colony, Mr M. Hassan said, the whole project is the brainchild of our organisation. For this innovative project, we were even awarded by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dikshit, at Bhagidari Utsav held at Pragati Maidan some time back. “The only source of water supply for this area is through Tahirpur water unit. But it hardly meets our requirement. Development of underground water reservoirs is the only option for our problem.” “There is no question of negligence. We are working on that project and expect that it would be completed by the end of May this year,” a senior officer of the Delhi Jal Board said.
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Donkey on the rampage
New Delhi, March 14 The spice peddler, a regular in the area, was later admitted to a hospital with deep bite wounds in the right foot. It is perhaps for the first time that such an incident has been reported in the Capital, a senior MCD official said. Irate residents of the area who had rushed to rescue the peddler later beat up the animal and managed to tie it to an electric pole in the area till the officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi arrived on the scene to take the animal into their custody. According to the police, who were summoned to the spot by panicky residents, the incident occurred around 8 am. The animal had apparently strayed into the colony from the nearby fields where most of the donkeys are left for grazing by their owners living in an unauthorised cluster nearby. No one knows what triggered the animal into action, but the old spice peddler suddenly found his right foot in the mouth of the animal. His efforts to extricate his foot further aggravated the animal and tried to drag him away. Several residents of the area responded to the cries of help of the beleaguered spice peddler and armed with sticks attacked the animal hoping that he would let the old man loose. But true to its traits, the donkey refused to loosen its grip. By then a huge crowd had collected in the lane and the animal was finally overpowered, dragged to the electric police and tied to it so that it could not harm others. And then the police were informed. They arrived on the spot within minutes but could do little. The animal was finally taken away by the MCD officials.
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‘Best Academician Award’ presented
New Delhi, March 14 The award was presented by Mr C. P. Jain (Chairman, NTPC) in the presence of the Health and Welfare Minister, Mr Yoganand Shastri, at the ‘International Business Horizon-Inbush 2005
Dr Vernekar finished his Doctorate in 1999 from Shivaji University, Kolhapur and taught for 8 years before assuming the charge of Director, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Management,
Solapur, in 1992. Dr Vernekar has delivered over 200 speeches and organised eighty national and international seminars and conferences. He has to published twenty-two articles in national and international journals.
Campus placement at IIPM
The Indian Institute of Planning & Management has been successful in getting most of its students placed in good companies, said a spokesperson of the institute. The institute has its centres in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Delhi. The officials of the institute claimed that there were over 300 companies, which have selected their
students. — TNS
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Warehouse gutted in Kirti Nagar
New Delhi, March 14 No casualty has been reported so far, said the police. This is the second such incident that took place just in a span of two months. On December 31, a similar fire incident took place in the area killing around seven persons, including fire fighters of the Delhi Fire Service. During investigations, it was revealed that there was a violation of fire norms in the area. Immediate after the incident, the MCD took action against a number of traders violating the fire norms and also reportedly razed some illegal structure in the area.
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Plastic surgery clinic opens in Panchsheel
New Delhi, March 14 Dr Sunil Choudhary, has trained extensively in the field under the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the British Association of Plastic Surgeons in the UK. He brings home his rich and varied experience of over 8 years of working in the UK and New Zealand. He is a life member of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India.
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Power shutdown
New Delhi, March 14
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