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BJP for CBI probe into power privatisation
Demolition squad stoned by encroachers
MCD ordered to file status report on Ghazipur abattoir
Demand for reservation in education sector
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Shortage of councillors in east Delhi schools
High on free booze, two men kill sister-in-law
‘IGL overcharging for domestic gas’
Clear Chandni Chowk area of encroachments: SC
Man gets life for attempt to kill minor
Gangsters clash in Bhondsi jail, two hurt
Blood donation camp held at PNB head office
Three property agents held
Arms factory unearthed in Loni
Kirpal Singh Ji remembered
Complete scrutiny of applications by Sept 19: HC
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BJP for CBI probe into power privatisation
New Delhi, August 25 The party also demanded the dismissal of the Shiela Dikshit government immediately for the adverse remark made by the CAG in the matter that the state government seemed to have a hand in the ‘booty’. Addressing the media, the BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman, Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that the Union Government had “‘very promptly ordered a CBI inquiry into the sale of a public sector hotel in Mumbai, involving a deal of Rs 100 crore to Rs 125 crores. But here in the matter of privatisation of power distribution, it was keeping its eyes closed”. He said the Mid-Term Appraisal by the Planning Commission, the CAG report and the Standing Committee on Power had made negative remarks on the manner power distribution in Delhi had been privatised. The Planning Commission in its observation had gone to the extent to say that if Delhi formula was implemented in the rest of the country, it would result in forcing the people to pay about Rs 1,000 crore. The CAG had talked of a scam of Rs 8,426 crores involved in the deal, Prof. Malhotra said. He said there were three companies — one owned by Tata group and two by Reliance group. The NDMC had not hiked the rates even once as compared to a three to four fold increase effected by the private companies. It was also shocking that the NDPL owned by Tatas had not sought any increase this time but yet the people had been forced to pay 10 per cent extra. He claimed that the companies were not running into losses and the deficit of Rs 3,000 crore shown by them was fictitious. He said the Union Government must take into account the public resentment against the hike in power rates with more and more Residents Welfare Associations having come to declare they would not pay the hike. Unless some corrective measures were taken immediately, these protests would take the shape of a massive agitation, he warned.
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Demolition squad stoned by encroachers in Gurgaon
Gurgaon, August 25 With tension mounting in the face of a hostile crowd not willing to relent, the SDM and the DSP, Gurgaon, had to rush to the spot to control the situation. The demolitions had to be stopped with the authorities giving a week’s time to clear the illegal structures. The DTP had served notices on eight persons in connection with eight illegal structures for the demolition. Two of them got a stay order from the court. The demolition squad targeted a site of about four acres having about 73 hutments and commercial establishments. The demolition squad was on business on this site when residents and owners of illegal commercial sites near the area started raining stones on them. The area falls in the village of Baas Khusla. The squad had to cancel its operations on the other nearby sites on account of the tension in the area. According to the head of the DTP, Mr B. K. Saini, the owner of the land, who has set up the illegal structures, instigated the people of the area to resort to violence. The JCB machine used in the operation was partially damaged. Tension raged for about half an hour before the DSP and the SDM rushed to the site. According to eyewitnesses, more than 100 persons were in the crowd that pelted stones.
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MCD ordered to file status report on Ghazipur abattoir
New Delhi, August 25 In the last status report submitted before the court on August 18, the Commissioner had blamed Delhi Mayor Satbir Singh for stalling the work by summoning all files pertaining to the project for scrutiny by a seven-member committee. A bench comprising Mr Justice Ashok Bhan, Mr Justice S B Sinha and Mr Justice A K Mathur had directed the Mayor to return all the files so that the progress of the ambitious project was not hampered. The court had, however, allowed the Mayor to keep copies of the files for looking into the alleged objections raised with regard to the execution of the project. The status report said that consignments of the plant and machinery from Denmark had already arrived at ICD Tughlakabad, but could not be obtained in the absence of files and documents which had been with the Mayor since August 8. It submitted that the files were summoned by the Mayor after a series of objections, including the non-inclusion of MCD engineers in the project, were raised during a meeting of the Deliberative Wing of the Corporation. The report was filed before the bench, which is monitoring the progress of the project, during the resumed hearing of a petition by Buffalo Traders Welfare Association.
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Demand for reservation in education sector
Faridabad, August 25 A joint memorandum was submitted to the Prime Minister through the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) here yesterday. According to the memorandum, any move to end the reservation in professional and educational colleges would deprive a large number of students belonging to underprivileged sections of opportunity to pursue higher education. Mr Subhash Lamba of the Sarva Karamchari Sangh said that by deciding their own fee structure the private colleges and training institutes would deny admission to large number of poor students. He said past experience had proved that the privately managed institutes charge exorbitant amount in the name of donation for the NRI quota. This practice “had lured many business houses to open professional colleges in the past few decades’. Claiming that this type of policy had “promoted the commercialisation of the higher education in the country”, he said “we cannot afford to give a free hand to such colleges by scrapping reservation.” According to Mr O. P. Sharma, president of the Faridabad Abhibhawak Ekta Manch, the government should bring a bill in the Parliament to ensure proper reservation to the weaker sections of the society in professional and technical institutes of the country. Mr Shiv Kumar Joshi, district general secretary of the All India Lawyers Association, claimed that the higher education could become out of reach for the poor and underprivileged if reservation in education and training was withdrawn. Mr Rajender Singh, secretary of Haryana Rajkiya Adhyapak Sangh, Mr Dheeraj Thakur, district coordinator of the Students Federation of India, Mr Ramashre Yadav, Mr Vijay Dev Tewatia and Mr Chattar Singh also took part in the meeting and signed the memorandum.
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CM visits Okhla sewage plant
New Delhi, August 25 The visit of Ms Dikshit and senior officials of Jal Board was preceded by a day-long workshop organised by USAEP on new sewage treatment technologies especially MBR. The pilot project at DJB has been set up to evaluate the performance of the MBR technology in treating and reusing sewage water for multiple applications like use in cooling towers at malls, restaurants, hotels and factories.
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Shortage of councillors in east Delhi schools
New Delhi, August 25 Of the 13 counsellors 11 are for 114 government schools in east Delhi district and only two for 125 government schools in the north-east Delhi district. Sources said that most of these teachers have nothing to do with career counselling. They are forced to teach other subjects in the school where they are posted. Their help is sought once a year by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) free of cost at the time of board examinations. This is the stark reality of a unique scheme “Educational Vocational Guidance Counselling (EVGC)” introduced by the Directorate of Education, government of Delhi way back in 1968. The main objective behind introducing the scheme was to provide proper career counselling to the students so that they were able to choose their respective careers. At that time, one counsellor was appointed for every six government schools. After some time, one such teacher was appointed for every three schools. In 1984, one such teacher was appointed for every school. At that time, 45 such teachers were deployed for 45 government schools all over Delhi. Since then, the number of schools has increased many fold but the counselling teachers have remained virtually static. One such teacher confessed on the condition of anonymity that they were not treated as counselling teacher in the school. “We are like all other teachers in the school. Leave other facilities, we are even deprived of a separate room where we could do counselling to the students,” he said. When contacted, a senior officer of the directorate of education clarified that they had shortage of teachers. “So we have no other option than to utilise their services for the teaching assignments.” This, however, he added, was only a temporary arrangement and efforts were being made to hire qualified counsellors for the schools.
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DU polls: ABVP focuses on education reforms
New Delhi, August 25 The party claims it will push for a new hostel for the visually-challenged and also an increase in the amount given as scholarship. State secretary Nakul Bhardwaj said the party is concerned that the money meant for the amanuensis has not been increased for the last two decades. “The money that the students get for helping the visually challenged write their exams has not been increased. We want the university to revise that amount and also keeping in mind the inflation, increase the number and the amount of scholarships for the disabled,” he said. The party, which faced defeat in the last two elections, has bifurcated its agenda into “long-term and short-term plans”. It claims it will work towards “reforms in education”. So while there is a demand for “more transparency”, there is a proposal for “putting up the answersheets of toppers in all college libraries for other students to learn from”. The issues of more hostels and DTC passes, which form the core of all electioneering in the university, may be old, but still cannot be ignored. The party is making an effort to ensure that their wish list reads different from the hackneyed. It has tried to downplay these and top their list with the issues, which the students can identify with. Rollback in the fee hike, scrapping Internal Assessment, a single-window assistance booth to help students apart from a placement bureau and introduction of more professional courses, formation of east and west campuses and upgradation of the South Campus are the promises the party is making. Alongside a seemingly impossible demand for introducing concessional passes for students in the Metro, the party has also sought a rollback in the examination fee and called for more accountability of teachers. Reiterating the pledge of “ushering in educational reforms”, the party pointed out, “We also want the university to make provision for allowing students to take entrance exams for various Master’s programmes in Hindi and also allow the teaching of these programmes in Hindi.” Riding high on the “successful implementation of the campaign against eve-teasing”, which the party claims were started by them, there is a proposal to intensify the process of ensuring safety for women. “It was because of our efforts that the vulnerable areas on the main campus today are restricted areas. Elected representatives of the ABVP in collaboration with the Delhi Police have always given priority to the safety of women on campus,” said Bhardwaj, also a former DUSU president. But even as the party intensifies its “struggle”, it braces itself to face competition from the Progressive Students Organisation, a unit that boasts of a “large number of students who have severed ties with the ABVP”. “The ABVP has failed to allow students from outside Delhi to represent the students. When it comes to deciding the names of contenders, students from the Hindi heartland are often given a miss,” said Vijay Kumar Misra, who is contesting for the post of secretary from the PSO.
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High on free booze, two men kill sister-in-law
Greater Noida, August 25 A woman was beaten to death with iron rods and lathis by her drunk brothers-in-law whom she had reprimanded for consuming too much liquor. The police are on the lookout for the four accused named in the report lodged by the woman’s father-in-law. Brothers Attar Singh and Ajab Singh of Lakhanwali village had started consuming free liquor rather liberally. When they went home fully drunk, their sister-in-law, Ashrafi, 40, rebuked them. This infuriated Ajab and Attar who pounced upon her with iron rods and lathis. Their sons, Manoj and Raju, also reportedly joined in thrashing their middle-aged aunt. Ashrafi sustained head injuries. Soon, family members and villagers gathered there. SO Sudesh Gupta soon came with his cops. Ashrafi was rushed to Kailash Hospital in Greater Noida where she succumbed to her wounds after some time. Ashrafi’s father-in-law, Ram Prasad, has filed a report with the police against his sons Ajab and Attar and their sons, Manoj and Raju, who are all absconding. The police, however, feel the woman was killed due to some family dispute. Villagers feel it was manipulated by one of the candidates for the panchayat elections to overawe the poor voters.
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Baba Sehgal returns in a new avatar after a
New Delhi, August 25 After a hiatus of nearly a decade, Baba Sehgal today made a formal announcement at a press conference that he is very much in business. Engineer turned rap singer, Harjit Singh Sehgal, popularly known as Baba Sehgal, carved a niche for himself with his whacky lyrics, wild sense of humour and earthy rhythms. Baba shot into limelight wth his album ‘Thanda Thanda Pani’ (1992) and ‘Main Bhi Madonna’ (1993). His other albums include ‘Baba Bachaona’ (1993), ‘Dr Dhingra’ (1994), ‘Indian Romya’ (1995), ‘Ms Loomba Loomba’ (1996) and ‘Lion King’ (1997) which had the superhit song ‘Hakuna Matata’. After staying away from media glare for the last few years, Baba is all set to bounce back into action with new albums and television serials. Armed with a new album, for which talks are at a conclusive stage with two leading music companies, Baba’s never-say-die attitude and whacky sense of humour was at its best display. Stating that this was the age of remixes, he disclosed that his new albums would have remixes of his own old hits and also some new numbers that would redfine the meaning of ‘hip-hop’. Baba Sehgal also announced a formal tie up with Delhi-based entertainment group Amigos Entertainment that will bring out yet another album with Baba very soon. In fact, the auditions to select the dancers for the album would be held in Delhi the coming weekend. Amigos Entertainment has made its foray into the world of television with a new comedy serial on Sony called ‘Banke Bihari Superstar’. He was also excited about the fact that he would be the lead character in Star Plus serial ‘Le Jayenge Le Jayenge’ while he has already been featured in the Star News’ programme ‘Saas Bahu Aur Saazish’. Apart from this, Baba is also going to be anchoring ‘Sare Ga Ma Pa’ music show on Zee Punjabi which he hoped would give other similar programmes a run for their money. The big announcement was about his forthcoming film ‘Thodi Masti Thodi Dhoom’ with Hrishita Bhatt, Sanjay Kapur and Sharad Saxena. Baba said that he is enjoying playing the role of the villain in the film for which shooting has already commenced and is being directed by Vicky Ranawat. He also talked about his recent Punjabi release ‘Nalayak’ which had been a box office grosser in the UK and USA.
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‘IGL overcharging for domestic gas’
New Delhi, August 25 Mr Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary-General of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), and Mr Suresh Bindal, Founder of IPEX Resident Welfare Association, informed today the IGL, which was supplying domestic gas to various colonies in Delhi through pipelines, had charged VAT at 20 per cent in its bills recently sent to consumers, which was a clear violation of VAT law. Mr Khandelwal informed that under the fourth schedule of Delhi VAT law petroleum products (excluding CNG and LPG) were be taxed at 20 per cent. It was established that under any circumstances domestic gas could not be charged VAT more than 12.5 per cent and if it was CNG then it was tax exempted. Mr Khandelwal described it as a gross violation of VAT law and has asked the Delhi Government for an inquiry and also strict action against the company for overcharging VAT. He informed that the trade association and the RWA would take this matter to the Delhi Finance Minister, Dr A. K. Walia, and the Commissioner, VAT, Mr R. K. Verma. Both leaders said that overcharging of VAT by a government company was a serious matter, which had caused undue harassment to consumers and had also exposed the careless working of government companies.
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Clear Chandni Chowk area of encroachments: SC
New Delhi, August 25 The Apex court gave its direction after the Vyapar Mandal, the local traders’ association, moved the court to bring to its notice that the MCD and the Delhi Police had defied an earlier order by not removing the hawkers. During the court proceedings, the counsel for the MCD and Delhi Police kept on blaming each other for allowing the encroachments. The Delhi Police even blamed the MCD that it had issued receipts for running their illegal shops, which the MCD has denied in the court.
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Man gets life for attempt to kill minor
New Delhi, August 25 The convict Deepak Verma alias Goli had kidnapped Ankit, cousin of his wife, from a East Delhi Colony and was taken to Jaipur where he was strangulated and thrown into a jungle area on the presumption that he was dead. After four years of trial in which the minor also appeared as witness before the court, Additional Sessions Judge J M Malik held Verma guilty under section 364 (kidnapping) and 307 (attempt to murder) of Indian Penal Code. Relying on the statement of the victim, the court said “Ankit, who was barely four-years old, put his hair down and deposed each and every fact indicting the accused and this evidence is crucial”. “During the pendency of trial, accused did not show even the slightest of remorse. An offence of this nature has to be viewed with condign punishment,” the court said and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on convict. Prosecution had alleged that on August 5, 2001, Ankit was lured away by the accused on the pretext of getting an ice cream from his Bhikam Singh colony residence. The father of the victim had lodged a missing complaint with the police. The in-laws of the convict wanted him to divorce their daughter as the two were having differences.
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Gangsters clash in Bhondsi jail, two hurt
Gurgaon, August 25 The two injured were taken to the local Civil Hospital which referred them to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. The two gangs are headed by Ashok Rathee and Rakesh Banjara. The injured, Dharmendera and Harpreet, owe allegiance to the Banjara group. According to jail sources, the two groups clashed on account of a dispute as to who would take dinner first in the queue. The inmates have to form a queue to take food served in jail. At least 20 inmates from both sides took part in the clash. The inmates used spoons, whose handles had been sharpened to do the job of knives. Some had folded the tin plates and used them as weapons of attack. According to official sources, the two injured are being tried on several heinous crimes. They have received injuries on their neck and abdomen. They were referred to Safdarjung Hospital in a critical condition.
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Blood donation camp held at PNB head office
New Delhi, August 25 Speaking on the occasion, Mr Gupta said it was sad that less then 1 per cent of the eligible Indian population donates blood as compared to 5 per cent among their western counterparts. He said that blood donation helps an individual to become part of an exceptional group of people who are “dedicated to alleviating suffering”. The Punjab National Bank has regularly organized blood donation camps both at their offices as well as in the field. Further, the bank has organized some 629 different social activities through the year 2004-05 which includes 34 blood donation camps, 78 free medical check up camps, 4 camps to distribute artificial limbs and some 446 tree plantation camps. The bank also supports several societies, charitable institutions, organizations working for the weaker sections with orphans, spastics, handicapped children, mentally retarded children and women in shelter homes.
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Three property agents held
Noida, August 25 Three property dealers, identified as Ramji Pandey, Bhushan and Kishen Pandey, were handed over to Sector-20 police and The CEO, Noida Authority, Avnish Awasthi, himself “cornered” them at a property registration camp organised by the Noida Authority. When the members of the Noida Property Dealers Association learnt of this development, they created a commotion in the police station for a few hours. The president of the property dealers association alleged that the Noida Authority was “retaliating against them” after they had exposed a Noida official while accepting bribe. Hundreds of property owners had their property registered at the special camp oraganised by the Noida Authority.
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Arms factory unearthed in Loni
Ghaziabad, August 25 A police party was returning after conducting raid for criminals carrying reward on their heads, when they saw two suspicious looking men near Parm Hans Vihar. On seeing the cops, the two men tried to flee but were overpowered. The police unearthed an arms factory where dozens of 12 and .315 bore revolvers were being manufactured. Some gadgets and machines for manufacture of arms were also seized. They told the police that certain candidates for panchayat elections had placed orders for pistols which they had manufactured locally. They used to get raw materials from outside. The two identified themselves as Ram Gopal and Raju. SO Chauhan said the demand for arms was increasing during elections for spreading violence. The police team has been awarded Rs 2500 by SSP J. N. Singh.
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Kirpal Singh Ji remembered
New Delhi, August 25 Thousands of people were served food in his memory. Param Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj was president of the World Fellowship of Religion Conferences from 1957 to 1970 and also of the First Human Unity Conference in 1974. He showed the underlying spiritual truth at the foundation of each religion. He taught “Surat Shabd Yoga” or the way of meditation to devotees.
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Complete scrutiny of applications by Sept 19: HC
Noida, August 25 A bench comprising Justice B S Chauhan and Justice Dilip Gupta, while passing the above order, also said a list of eligible and ineligible applicants be prepared from amongst all the applications received within the court premises.
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