New Delhi, August 4
The business of selling pornographic CDs that is thriving in many areas of the Capital, especially Palika Bazar and Lajpat Rai market has come under the scanner of Delhi Police. The first raid was conducted by the Crime branch recently in which huge haul of pirated books and pornographic CDs were recovered from south district. There after every district police are now on their toes to nab sellers and makers of pornographic CDs.

In another such attempt, Delhi Police have arrested nine persons and have seized a huge number of pornographic CDs from their possession.

In the first incident, the South district police recovered 1970 CDs out which 181 were porn CDs and others were pirated. The police arrested two accused in this connection who have been identified as Ram Kumar and Pradeep Kumar, both residents of Sangam Vihar. The accused disclosed the police that they were into this illegal business for the last one year.

In another case, north district police seized 1480 pornographic CDs from a shop in Lajpat Rai market in a raid conducted today.

In a similar incident, the northwest district police have arrested seven persons and recovered 47 pornographic CDs from them. The accused have been identified as Rajinder Kumar, Ombir Singh, Ashok, Sanjay, Om Prakash, Mahinder and Aman.

On Wednesday too, Delhi Police claimed to have seized more than 3,200 obscene books and 350 blue films CDs in two different raids in two districts. They arrested seven persons in this connection.

In the first incident, the south district police arrested six persons and seized 850 obscene books and 350 blue films CDs from their possession. The accused were identified as Rajiv Gupta, Raju, Satya Narayan, Satish Kumar, Mohammed Guddu and Avdhesh Bihari. This was on the basis of a tip-off received by ACP, Kalkaji, Vijay Malik.

In the other case, the north district police seized 2400 obscene books from one Ajay Kumar, a native of Jharkhand currently residing in Tis Hazari area, from the Sabzi Mandi area.

New Delhi, August 4
The Delhi High Court today asked Delhi government to file an affidavit on consumers’ complaints about fast meters and other electricity-related problems.

Justice Mukul Mudgal, who had summoned Principal Power Secretary, gave five weeks to Delhi government to articulate its response.

In a large number of cases, it has been noticed that grievances had been raised by consumers about excessive electricity bills due to fast running of meters, non-redressal of grievances, excessive penalties and lack of detailed break-up of penalty in bills, the court had earlier said, while summoning the Principal Secretary (Power).

Delhi Chief Secretary S Reghunathan today appeared before the Delhi High Court as he was holding the charge of Principal Secretary (Power).

Special Secretary (Power) Arun Goel and BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd CEO Rakesh Aggarwal were also present in the court and the officials explained their stand. However, the court asked them to file affidavits.

The court had summoned Principal Power Secretary on July 29 in connection with a petition by a 63-year-old man alleging that BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd replaced his perfectly functioning electric meter by another one which ran faster.

Earlier, piqued over inordinate delay in issuance of a permanent electricity connection to a school in Dwarka area of the city by BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, the court had on July 22 sought his personal appearance.

Justice Mudgal had objected to a letter written by the Principal Secretary (Power) to BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd on October 29, 2003.

New Delhi, August 4
Holding the Delhi government and the private power companies directly responsible for the heavy load-shedding of power continuously for the last five days in Delhi, BJP Delhi Pradesh President Dr Harsh Vardhan has demanded that the private companies should compensate the consumers suffering from the same.

In a statement issued here today, he said that load-shedding of about 400 to 500 megawatts is being resorted to in Delhi for the last five days without any prior notice to citizens.

Due to this the routine and life style of the people have been adversely affected. The business has also been affected and the industries are suffering

There is provision for imposing penalty on the private power companies under the agreement with them. But the companies are holding the State government responsible for this.

The state government is showing its helplessness due to reduced power supply.

The BJP Pradesh President said that had the Delhi government been serious, it could have purchased power from Gujarat and Uttaranchal and could have made available sufficient power to Delhi.

Both these states have surplus power. Only 100 megawatt power has been purchased from Gujarat on the 4th day whereas the Gujarat government is ready for the supply of additional power.

Even the Uttaranchal government has sufficient energy.

The State government has not made any effort to purchase power from there.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said that there was load-shedding of 6 to 8 hours in Delhi and in the trans-Yamuna areas. Due to the scarcity of power, water supply has also stopped. People are running from pillar to post.

Defence Colony, Greater Kailash, East of Kailash, Kalkaji, Friends Colony, Hauz Khas Lajpat Nagar, Green park, South Extension, Chittaranjan Park, Nizammuddin, Nehru Place, Janak Puri, Uttam Nagar, Nangloi, Najafgarh, Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Rohini, Shalimar Bagh, Pitampura, Ashok Vihar, Laxmi Nagar, Shakarpur, Mother Dairy, Swasthya Vihar, Patpar Ganj, Anand Vihar, Vivek Vihar, Dilshad Colony, Dilshad Garden, Seemapuri, Loni border areas are also suffering from the scarcity of power and water.

The studies of the children have also been adversely affected, Dr Vardhan said.

New Delhi, August 4
At last, after almost a fortnight-long no-rain situation in Delhi and its neighbourhood, the rain gods finally smiled, giving Delhiites the much-needed respite from hot and humid conditions prevailing in the region.

Term it a vagary of monsoon or nature as a whole, but while monsoon managed to bring India’s commercial capital on its knees in the past one week, people up north, particularly in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, witnessed its rather subdued “avtaar”, with scattered rainfall reported from most north-western parts in the past 15 days.

In fact, till yesterday, Delhi received only 263.1 mm rainfall, a deficiency of 48.8 mm.

But today, as heavy monsoon showers drenched the Capital, the temperature also dropped. While the maximum temperature recorded today was 37.2 degrees C, following the rains, it cooled down to a pleasant 28 degrees C.

As per the met office, 35.88 mm rainfall was recorded this afternoon and more rains are likely during the next couple of days. Moreover, whatever deficiency is there was also likely to be made up by rain this month and in September.

In comparison to other parts of the country, the north-west has been experiencing rather scattered rains.

Now the situation is improving and as per the technical jargon pelted out by the met department, most of which is in any case incomprehensive to the common man, the low pressure area over north-west Madhya Pradesh and neighbourhood has weakened.

This increased flow of winds over the north-westerly parts of the country, leading to an improvement in situation. Today’s showers have been attributed to a low pressure system over Rajasthan, which was expected to move northwards in the next couple of days, bringing more rains to the Capital.

New Delhi, August 4
The Delhi High Court today passed an innovative order to rid the city of stray cattle by asking the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to pay Rs 2000 for each cow brought to the Malaviya Nagar cattle pound by any member of the public.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, which is monitoring the civic bodies’ efforts to remove stray cattle from the capital, passed several directions.

The money given to a member of the public for catching a stray cattle would be recovered by auctioning the cattle. Later, this experiment would be replicated in other zones of the Capital too.

Piqued over MCD’s failure to remove stray cattle from the capital, the court had yesterday asked the civic body’s South Zone Deputy Commissioner Ajay Kumar to appear before it today.

The court directed Kumar, Veterinary Officer Dr Pradeep and two Veterinary Inspectors to launch an intensive campaign against stray cattle in South Zone.

If there was no visible change in the situation, these officers would be personally held responsible, the Bench said while fixing August 17 for further hearing.

It also directed MCD to publish advertisements in local newspapers giving mobile phone numbers of these officials and two dedicated landline numbers on which members of the public could give information on stray cattle to MCD anytime.

MCD counsel Najmi Waziri submitted a list of 72 unauthorised dairies and the court asked the Delhi Police to take appropriate action against them.

Yesterday, the court wanted the Deputy Commissioner to show cause why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for willful non-compliance of its order.

Lamenting that MCD had failed to remove stray cattle from the city despite an order passed in December 2002, the court had said “we are monitoring it only to see that the orders are implemented”.

Justice Kaul had said that he himself counted 16 cows while driving on the road from Lady Sri Ram College to East of Kailash in the heart of the city. “Same is the situation near AIIMS,” he had observed and warned MCD officers not to take the issue in a light manner.

Earlier, the court had set up a six-member panel which would file status reports after every two weeks before it. Those on the panel are: Delhi Government’s Urban Development Secretary, its Divisional Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Delhi Chairman, New Delhi Municipal Council Chairperson, Delhi Police Joint Commissioner (Traffic) and Vice Chairman of Delhi Development Authority.

New Delhi, August 4
Ircon International Ltd today signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Monorail Malaysia Tech (MMT) to undertake feasibility study and execution of the Monorail project in Delhi.

The MOA was signed by Malaysian Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy and Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia R L Narayan at Kuala Lumpur, a statement said here.

Ircon, a public sector undertaking under the Railway Ministry, is a leading construction company and has undertaken large value infrastructure projects in transport sector in various countries.

MMT had been successfully operating Kuala Lumpur Monorail since August 2003.

Ircon had also been actively involved in various railway projects in Malaysia since 1988. On July 20, the two companies had given a presentation to the Delhi Government on running Monorail in the capital. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Finance Minister A K Walia and Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf were present on the occasion.

The monorail would be going to places in the city that would not be connected by the metro. As a pilot project, the companies suggested an 8 to 10 km stretch that could be ready in two or two-and-half years. The per km cost for constructing Monorail was put at 17 to 20 million dollars.

The state government, however, wanted the cost to be half of what was spent on the metro rail.

It would be reviewing presentations by some other companies across the globe, including one from Japan. Global tenders would be called for executing the project once it was found to be feasible.

New Delhi, August 4
With the arrest of three persons, Delhi Police claimed to have recovered a child who had been kidnapped by some persons in east district.

The accused have been identified as Shahnawaz Khan alias Tinku, Kuldeep Aggarwal and Albert James alias Raja. Another two accused Shabir and his wife Salma (a Bangladeshi), who actually kidnapped the child, are still at large.

On July 28, a-five-year old Shivanshu was kidnapped from Guru Angad Nagar in Shakarpur area in east district. The case was registered in Shakarpur police station and the investigations were started under the supervision of Additional DCP (east) Ajay Chaudhary, ACP Preet Vihar, Satinder Nath and SHO Shakarpur, Mahipal Singh.

Police sources said that the main accused who kidnapped the child was Shabir Chaudhary who was present with the parents of the kidnapped child during the entire investigations done by the police. It was Shabir’s wife Salma who picked up the child from the staircase of the house and kept him in Shabir’s rented house.

Shabir then contacted his brother Shahnawaz and his friend Albert James, both working as stewards at Red Coffee House near Mehrauli. They are well educated and fluent in English speaking. Both are diploma holders in Hotel Management from a reputed institution.

Shabir hired them for Rs 30,000 to make calls demanding ransom from Sushil Kumar Singh. Both youths in their 20s were apparently unaware that their brother had actually kidnapped a child for ransom.

The two accused made several calls of ransom to Sushil Kumar but Shabir never came to pick up the money as the police had already laid a trap and being with them, he knew that fact. When Shabir found that the police would not leave the case, he and his wife planned to abandon the child near Shyam Lal College. The police recovered the child from there. 

Faridabad, August 4
Some unidentified persons broke into a house in the posh locality of Sector-14 here last night and decamped with the cash and valuables worth Rs 80,000. This is the second such incident in the town during the past week.

According to complaint, the theft took place in house No. 595, around midnight when all were sleeping. The family came to know about the theft this morning when they found the door open and the items strewn all around in the adjoining room.

It is reported that the room where the thieves entered had been unoccupied and the accused stole about Rs 20,000 and other valuables, including some jewellery, whose total worth was about Rs 80,000. A case has been booked. Earlier, one person was killed after a gang of dacoits made their way into a house in Sainik Colony near Sector-49 here, a few days ago. The accused who had decamped with some jewellery had beaten up the youth identified as Yogender and his mother before fleeing. Yogender died in the hospital a couple of hours later.

Ghaziabad, August 4
A shopkeeper in Zila Panchayat Market, Muradnagar, was shot dead by some assailants who barged into his house in Kot Mohalla at 11 last night. The shopkeepers closed the whole market in protest against 22-year-old Suttan’s murder. The accused has been arrested. Earlier in the day, Suttan had clashed with one Aas Mohammad, brother of Panchayat chief Wahl Chaudhry. At that time, they were separated by other shopkeepers.

But at 11 pm, some people intruded into his house and shot 22-year-old Suttan, who had been recently engaged and was to be married soon. Bleeding profusely, Suttan was rushed by his father Haleenuddin and bother to Jeewan Hospitals, Muradnagar. But the doctor declared him brought dead.

Aas Mohammad has been arrested and on his information, the police have recovered the revolver and two empties used in the crime.

The murderer is among top ten criminals wanted in over a dozen cases of murders etc.

New Delhi, August 4
The Urban Development and PWD Minister of Delhi Dr. A. K. Walia today announced the construction of six foot-over bridges on some major roads where road crossing is difficult and dangerous due to extraordinary quantum of vehicular traffic. The foot-over bridges will be constructed near Moti Bagh fly over, Venkateshwara College and AIIMS, ISBT, Maharani Bagh and Dhaula Kuan fly over. The construction of foot-over bridge near AIIMS is likely to start by end of this month and will be completed by November. — TNS

New Delhi, August 4
Mega shopping malls are coming up near six metro stations in the Capital over the next six months. The malls will be located at Inderlok, Pratap Nagar, Tis Hazari, Khyber Pass, Seelam Pur and Shahdara stations. — TNS