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RI for fabricating evidence against Rajiv Gandhi
New Delhi, March 22
Almost after 20-years, a Delhi court today sentenced a person to rigorous imprisonment of two years for forgery and fabricating false evidence involving the name of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.

Govt accused of facilitating water privatisation
New Delhi, March 22
Strongly protesting the privatisation of water in the Capital, about 1,50,000 Delhiites have signed on a 500 metres white cloth to oppose the move.

Tech graduates among 6 held for auto-lifting
Five cars seized from their possession
New Delhi, March 22

With the arrest of six auto-lifters, including two engineering graduates in two different cases, the South district police claimed to have worked out several cases of auto-lifting and seized several cars from their possession.

UP Govt flayed for ‘communal politics’
Ghaziabad, March 22
The two former BJP chief ministers, Mr Kalyan Singh and Mr Raj Nath Singh, have taken the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, to task for his politics of communalism here. Both the senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party were in the city recently to attend the meeting of the local development council of the party.

Delhi in Parliament
Rs 82.50 cr spent on relocation of slum dwellers

New Delhi, March 22
The Delhi Development Authority has reported to the Lok Sabha today about the removal of 51 jhuggi clusters and relocation of 18,751 slum dwellers during the last three years for which an expenditure of approximately Rs 82.50 crore was incurred.

MCD to set up modern waste treatment facilities
New Delhi, March 22
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will shortly embark upon major eco-friendly and ultra modern solid waste treatment and disposal facilities. These schemes, to be implemented without incurring any expenditure by the MCD itself, will have far reaching impact upon solid waste management system in the city, said the Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta.





Police Commissioner Dr K. K. Paul coming out of the Assembly after appearing before the Vidhan Sabha on the issue of Hanuman Mandir rape case in Bavana in the Capital on Tuesday.
Police Commissioner Dr K. K. Paul coming out of the Assembly after appearing before the Vidhan Sabha on the issue of Hanuman Mandir rape case in Bavana in the Capital on Tuesday.
— Tribune photo by
Rajeev Tyagi

EARLIER STORIES

 
An activist of the Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Sangathan protesting against VAT at Jantar Mantar in the Capital on Tuesday.
An activist of the Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Sangathan protesting against VAT at Jantar Mantar in the Capital on Tuesday. — Tribune photo by Mukesh Aggarwal

Salwanians display their talents on sports day
New Delhi, March 22
It was indeed a splendid experience to witness little Salwanians mesmerise the guests with their proficiency on the Annual Sports Day of Salwan Montessori School, Rajinder Nagar.

Traders to protest against VAT
New Delhi, March 22
A delegation of traders, led by the former Union Minister and BJP leader, Mr Vijay Goel, today met the Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, and appealed to her to defer the implementation of VAT in Delhi in view of neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan deciding not to implement the new tax regime from April 1.

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RI for fabricating evidence against Rajiv Gandhi
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22
Almost after 20-years, a Delhi court today sentenced a person to rigorous imprisonment of two years for forgery and fabricating false evidence involving the name of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.

While pronouncing the verdict, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Manoj Jain, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the accused, Madhur Kishore Bhatnagar.

The judge said the convict had committed a great crime as he had tried to malign and slander the highest office of the country.

“Contents of the letter were awful and dreadful and could have even influenced the President to sack the Prime Minister had he believed in them,’’ he said.

The CBI, which investigated the case, said that some anonymous person had written a letter to the President of India enclosing a false and forged letter in the name of Mr Gandhi, showing that the then Prime Minister had demanded Rs 80 lakh from D. K. Jain, Inspector, State Bank of India, Vaishali, Bihar. The letters also tried to show that Mr Jain was working in complicity with Mr Gandhi in meeting his demand. Similar letters were also sent to the editor, Dainik Hindustan, New Delhi and the editor, Hind Samachar Group of papers at Jalandhar.

After investigations, it was found that the accused was an agent of Janta Deposit Scheme of the State Bank of India, Muradabad, U P and D. K. Jain, Inspector of main branch, had made a complaint against him regarding his misconduct in the deposit scheme, following which the agency was withdrawn from him.

The accused was having a feeling of resentment against D. K. Jain and in order to teach him a lesson he forged these letters. Earlier, the accused had sent a greeting to Rajiv Gandhi when he was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India and such a letter was acknowledged by the Prime Minister on the official letter head.

Stolen goods worth Rs 11 lakh seized

With the arrest of two persons, including a receiver of the stolen property, the North district police today claimed to have seized stolen goods worth Rs 11 lakh from their possession. While the burglar has been identified as Chandan Kumar Mishra, alias Mohan Yadav, resident of Sarai Pipal Thala, the receiver has been identified as Mohammad Mahboob, resident of Swaroop Nagar.

The arrest of the two accused persons comes after two burglary incidents that took place on March 1 and 8 in Timarpur area, where huge quantity of readymade garments were stolen from shops.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (North), Mr Rajesh Khurana, said that a police team apprehended one person identified as Chandan Kumar Mishra near the Barf Khana Chowk while he was found carrying two colour television sets in a rickshaw.

During interrogation, Chandan confessed that he had stolen the television sets from a shop and was also involved in murder, hurt and burglary cases in Adarsh Nagar area. Subsequently, the police also recovered stolen goods from a godown in Sarai Pipal Thala.

The accused told the police that the goods were stolen from Narela, Rithala, Nathu Pura and Burari.

Chandan also said that he had stolen these goods with the help of his maternal uncles, identified as Chander Kant Jha and Sadanand Jha, who were absconding. — TNS

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Govt accused of facilitating water privatisation
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22
Strongly protesting the privatisation of water in the Capital, about 1,50,000 Delhiites have signed on a 500 metres white cloth to oppose the move.

Criticising the recent floating of tenders for two zones in South Delhi, Dr Vandana Shiva of Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, said after a protest ‘’Water March’’ to Parliament today, ‘’The government claims it is reforming and not privatising but what else is floating of tenders for distribution networks, revenue collection and billing, metering and leakage detection. They have even set up a regulatory authority, Delhi Water Regulatory Commission (DWCC), a precursor to most privatisations.”

‘’We demand more transparency in all deals and contracts being signed with the MNCs about the Sonia Vihar plant and other matter so that the public knows the plans of the government.’’

According to Dr Shiva, ‘’We surely can manage our own water system and so where is the need to look outside. Why is the government going that direction if not because of World Bank dictates.’’

Mr S. A. Naqvi, who also addressed the Press, said, ‘’The Delhi Government plans to privatise two zones by October this year, then five zones by October 2006 and in this way seven of the total 21 zones in the Capital will be totally in the hands of MNCs like Suez Ondeo Degremont, Vivendi and Thames Water, which is unacceptable to us.’’

He said water is life and today being World Water Day, the Citizen Front for Water Democracy and Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology and the Water Worker’s Alliance have come together to observe it as a ‘’Protest Day’’ against the fast track privatization move of the Delhi Government.

‘’The people of Delhi have given their mandate. Several hundreds came to the Jantar Mantar today and are worried as they feel the need to protect their fundamental right to water, which once privatised will be exploited by the MNCs,’’ he added.

He said the recent letter of the CEO, DJB, Mr Rakesh Mohan, to Dr Shiva saying they were not privatising was a mere ploy to mislead the people and disrupt the week-long ‘’Jan Swaraj Rath’’ or ‘Water Awareness Journey’, which was launched by the three organisations last week.

Dr Shiva said the recent increase in water tariffs by seven to 15 per cent is also from an international perspective meant to facilitate privatisation, which is a violation of every democratic norm and human rights principle.

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Tech graduates among 6 held for auto-lifting
Five cars seized from their possession
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22
With the arrest of six auto-lifters, including two engineering graduates in two different cases, the South district police claimed to have worked out several cases of auto-lifting and seized several cars from their possession.

In the first case, the police arrested three persons, including two engineering graduates and claimed to have solved at least 47 cases and recovered five cars from their possession.

The police also claimed to have seized forged documents, duplicate keys and other implements from their possession.

They were identified as Amanjeet Singh, alias Aman (26), resident of Defence Colony, Harpreet Singh, alias Mani (25), resident of Rohini and Gurdas, alias Ravi (27), resident of Ropar, Punjab. Acting on a tip-off that the suspects would be coming near Ansal Plaza in a stolen Honda City car, the police laid a trap and nabbed the suspects.

During interrogation, both Amandeep and Harpreet confessed that they had completed their engineering degree from Guru Nanak College of Engineering, Bidar, Karnataka.

After taking cough syrups regularly during the college days, they became addict and started consuming at least 4-8 bottles a day. In order to meet the demand, they started stealing luxury cars.

Since they were also staying in hotels at Paharganj and had to clear the bills everyday, they used the money to meet their demands. The accused persons also said that they used to dispose the stolen vehicles through one Gulshan, resident of Mukherjee Nagar.

In the second case, with the arrest of two persons, the police claimed to have worked out at least 36 cases and recovered three stolen vehicles, blank RC books, stamps and 500 grams of narcotics substance from their possession.

The accused persons arrested have been identified as Vikas Chauhan, alias Vicky (30), resident of Ghaziabad and Harpreet, alias Happy (29), resident of Vikas Puri.

With a spurt in vehicle thefts in South district and its adjoining areas, the police during a special drive received a tip-off that some gang members would be coming near Mool Chand Flyover and accordingly, Harpreet was nabbed.

During interrogation, Harpreet told the police that Vikas is their gang leader and he had stolen several. Based on this information, the police later arrested Vikas.

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UP Govt flayed for ‘communal politics’
Our Correspondent

Ghaziabad, March 22
The two former BJP chief ministers, Mr Kalyan Singh and Mr Raj Nath Singh, have taken the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, to task for his politics of communalism here. Both the senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party were in the city recently to attend the meeting of the local development council of the party.

Even while criticising the Samajwadi Party for its various policies in the state, they held the Congress party responsible for the wrong policies of the Samajwadi Party led-UP Government.

“It is a very unusual scenario where the Congress party is supporting the Samajwadi Party-led government in UP and the Samajwadi Party has extended support to Congress at the Centre. On the other hand, both the parties are behaving like sworn enemies outside the Parliament and the state Assembly. If the Congress is sincere in ending the problems in UP, it should withdraw its support to the Samajwadi Party-led government in the state and simultaneously refuse to take the support of the Samajwadi Party at the Centre,” said Rajnath Singh.

Highlighting the law and order problem, Mr Kalyan Singh said, “Ever since Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav assumed power in UP, the rule of law has been replaced by ‘Jungle Raj’.”

“The state administration and the bureaucracy was feeling demoralised. Everything here is in an eternal state of suspense,” alleged Mr Raj Nath Singh.

The people of UP and elsewhere in the country were evaluating the functioning of the BJP and the non-BJP governments, and the BJP is bound to benefit in the next elections due to the unsatisfactory performance of the non-BJP governments, Mr Raj Nath Singh added.

Mr Kalyan Singh strongly denounced the setting up of the Johar Urdu University in Rampur and the construction of a Haj House in Ghaziabad. It was sheer vote bank politics in its ugliest form, he added. He said the Samajwadi government is trying to inject the poison of communalism in the state by setting up the Johar University and a Haj House.

He said both the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party are responsible for the increasing criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crime.

He appealed to the Election Commission that the parties, which are violating election code, should be derecognised. Mr Kalyan Singh said that the Ram Mandir issue was connected with nationalism and national prestige of India and all those opposing it are spreading communalism in the country.

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Delhi in Parliament
Rs 82.50 cr spent on relocation of slum dwellers
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has reported to the Lok Sabha today about the removal of 51 jhuggi clusters and relocation of 18,751 slum dwellers during the last three years for which an expenditure of approximately Rs 82.50 crore was incurred.

In a written reply to a question, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development Ghulam Nabi Azad said the draft - Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, prepared by the DDA, envisaged amelioration of existing slum and jhuggi clusters through a judicious mix of relocation.

As the MPD-2021 is at draft stage, no estimate of expenditure or land allotment has been prepared so far, he said.

In reply to another query, Azad said the HUDCO has earmarked Rs 2,000 crore for lending related to construction and rehabilitation works in the Tsunami-affected areas. HUDCO already contributed Rs 1 crore to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and has also earmarked additional Rs 1 crore for construction of relief shelters with disaster resistant technologies, he informed the House.

In reply to another question, the Minister said the government would review and revise the National Housing and Habitat Policy 1998 to accelerate supply of serviced land and housing to all categories, particularly for poor people and that a task force has also been constituted for the purpose.

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MCD to set up modern waste treatment facilities
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) will shortly embark upon major eco-friendly and ultra modern solid waste treatment and disposal facilities. These schemes, to be implemented without incurring any expenditure by the MCD itself, will have far reaching impact upon solid waste management system in the city, said the Municipal Commissioner, Mr Rakesh Mehta.

The treatment and disposal facilities envisage setting-up of two plants of 200 tonnes per day capacity each at Okhla and Burari. The Municipal Commissioner said that the MCD and the M/S Infrastructure Leasing and Financing Services (IL and FS) today signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of these facilities.

The UNOPS had got a study conducted through COWI for preparation of the Master Plan for optimal waste treatment and disposal for Delhi under the Public- Private Partnership (PPP) solutions as per the Master Plan for the years 2004-2005. The COWI report is proposed to be included in the new Master Plan for the national Capital.

The civic body attaches great importance to the proposal because it enables the corporation to implement the Master Plan from MSW Management without having direct financial implications on the MCD, while at the same time, creates a framework for enabling private finance and multilateral and bilateral funds to be provided for the implementation of the projects.

The IL and FS is one of the leading leasing and financing institutions in Delhi, having World Bank funding for promoting PPP in infrastructure.

The project advisory services include the bid process for identifying a suitable private sector entrepreneur for establishing various facilities.

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Salwanians display their talents on sports day
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22
It was indeed a splendid experience to witness little Salwanians mesmerise the guests with their proficiency on the Annual Sports Day of Salwan Montessori School, Rajinder Nagar.

Mr Justice Mukul Mudgasl, Judge, High Court, along with the Principal, Mrs P. Joglekar, and the Chairman, Mr Sushil Dutt Salwan, graced the occasion and encouraged the students. Addressing the gathering, Mrs Joglekar said, “It has been Salwan Montessori’s constant endeavor to focus on the over all development of the child and we lay equal emphasis on extra-curricular activities and academics. It gives me great pleasure to see my little budding students, enthused with excitement and talent put together a splendid performance on our Annual Sports Day.”

The children displayed their spirited and inspiring talents across a series of acts like aerobics, gymnastics, skating, fan drill and river crossing.

Culmination of folk dances of India and synchronisation of colour, music and movement brought out by the students spread energy across the school ground.

Their courage was evident when a 5-year-old gymnast jumped fearlessly through the fire ring. In another act, the little tornadoes stormed into the skating rink, balancing and moving in unison. The fan drill performance by the children emitted hues of radiance. Perfection in choreography of the traditional dances enthralled the audience. 

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Traders to protest against VAT
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22
A delegation of traders, led by the former Union Minister and BJP leader, Mr Vijay Goel, today met the Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, and appealed to her to defer the implementation of VAT in Delhi in view of neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan deciding not to implement the new tax regime from April 1.

The delegation of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) submitted a memorandum to Mrs Dikshit, claiming that if VAT is implemented in Delhi the traders would be put at a disadvantage as adjoining states were not implementing it. Mr Khandelwal said the traders have planned a massive agitation tomorrow to protest against the government’s move.

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