New Delhi, February 11
Getting tough in its drive to collect house tax from defaulters, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi today attached the bank accounts of five colleges of Delhi University, including St Stephen’s College and Hindu College, a hospital and the industrial house Ballarpur Industries for non-payment of their house tax arrears running into crores.

Among the Delhi University colleges whose bank accounts were attached are Hansraj College (house tax arrears: Rs 59 lakh), St Stephen’s College (Rs 42.2 lakh arrears), Hindu college (Rs 20 lakh), Shri Ram College of Commerce (Rs 49 lakh) and Kirorimal college (Rs 47 lakh), Leader of the House, Mr Jitender Kochar said.

Besides, the MCD also attached the bank accounts of Ballarpur Industries, located in Sainik Farms (who owe it house tax arrears of Rs 23 lakh), Anand Health Care Centre in Preet Vihar (Rs 5 lakh) and Saroj Hospital (Rs 7 lakh).

Facing a huge shortfall in its revenues on account of house tax, the MCD has of late adopted a tough posture towards government as well as private bodies defaulting on account of payment of house tax, he said.

In an action taken report submitted recently before the Standing Committee, it was informed that the list of the government and private bodies having huge house tax arrears against them include the Delhi Jal Board (Rs 312 crore), NDPL and BSES (Rs 6.25 crore), Transco (Rs 22 crore), CPWD (Rs 4 crore), PWD (Rs 3 crore), Delhi Police (Rs 2.21 crore), Delhi University (Rs 15 cr), Jawaharlal Nehru University (Rs 10 cr), the Sports Authority of India (Rs 1.5 cr) and the India Habitat Centre (Rs 50 lakh).

The target for the house tax recovery in the MCD budget for 2005-2006 is Rs 1370.76 crore of which only Rs 467.11 crore has been recovered till January 31.

Under the recovery efforts, the MCD has been putting up the names of its house tax defaulters on notice boards in several areas of the Capital while the names of many has been publicised through the public address system. Newspaper advertisements have also been issued to urge the defaulters to pay up their pending tax, Mr. Jitender Kochar said.

New Delhi, February 11
The Delhi government has set up a committee to look into the complaints of poor patients turned away by private hospitals obliged to offer them free treatment.

This has been done following direction of the Delhi High Court after receiving a number of complaints that private hospitals, allotted land on concession basis, refused to treat poor patients, which was a pre-condition in the land lease agreement.

A senior officer of Health Department of the Delhi Government said that the department had selected five members and soon their contact numbers would be published so that anybody who had any complaints could contact them.

Besides a member from medical department of Delhi government, the other members will be from DDA and L&DO, he said, adding that the government will also soon publish terms and conditions for the free treatment of those who have less than Rs 2000 of income per month.

He said that all the hospitals, which had availed of government land at throwaway prices on the condition of treating poor patients free of cost, have been asked to put-up a board outside giving details of the free medicare available.

New Delhi, February 11
The MCD today carried out demolition action on 19 unauthorised structures in Delhi, including two properties in the posh South Extension area.

Among the properties where demolition action was taken were three each in the Shahdara (south) and the West Zones, two each in South, Najafgarh, Karol Bagh and Central zones and one each in city and civil lines. Of the 19 structures, 12 were residential and 7 were commercial constructions.

With this, the MCD has till now taken action on 1201 unauthorised properties of which 501 are residential while 700 are commercial constructions.

On December 7, the High Court directed the MCD to clear encroachments in the entire city within six weeks. The deadline for the MCD to submit a report on the demolitions to the court was fixed at January 18.

In the January 18 hearing, the High Court, setting a cut-off date of December 31, 2000, asked the MCD to remove all illegal constructions that had come thereafter and asked it to file a status report by February 16.

New Delhi, February 11
A team of experts led by Archaeological Survey of India will carry out a ground survey next week to check out four alternative routes suggested by Delhi Metro in place of taking the rail line beside the world heritage site of Qutub Minar.

A five-member team, led by ASI Director-General Babu Rajeev, will inspect the areas from where the proposed routes could pass, after which the routes would be finalised.

Doubts had been raised by ASI, Delhi Urban Arts Commission and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, over a proposed elevated Metro corridor that was to pass a few hundred metres from the historic monument, saying that it may detract its aesthetic beauty and also make UNESCO withdraw the world heritage status to the Qutub complex.

There have been cases in the past where UNESCO has withdrawn world heritage status to monuments.

The ASI and Metro officials, after inspecting the site next week, will send their recommendations to the Empowered Group of Ministers.

Of the four options, one is of taking the metro underground, while the other three were detours. 

Gurgaon, February 11
A majority of residents of Mushedpur village, near here, today met the Deputy Commissioner, Mr R. P. Bhardwaj, alleging attempts by the land mafia to poach on 50 acres of the village panchayat’s land.

The Congress MLA of the area, Mr Bhupinder Chowdhary, accompanied the irate villagers to Mr Bhardwaj’s camp office here. The village falls in the Farukhnagar revenue block in the Pataudi assembly constituency.

The villagers expressed apprehensions before the Deputy Commissioner that the land mafia along with some other vested interests were trying to poach on the panchayat’s “common land” by misinterpreting a judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court passed in 2003.

Certain persons of the village had moved the court, saying that 50 acres of panchayat land in the village was in their possession. Hence, the title of the land should be mutated in their favour. The issue has been under litigation for the past few years. The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently directed the SDM, who presides over the local court (also known as court of the “1st Collectorate”), that the case be decided in light of its judgement of 2003 (petition no 5887). Deciding on a similar issue in the petition, the High Court had said the dispute over title relating to common land under the Punjab Village Common Law Act be settled by the lower court.

Residents of Mushedpur alleged that in a follow-up to the high court’s directive to the SDM, the latter referred the matter to the tehsildar concerned for “necessary action”. The Congress MLA, who has come out openly in favour of the irate villagers, interpreted the action of the SDM as unfair, saying that the role of the tehsildar in such cases is only to effect mutation. The tehsildar can effect mutation only after the decision of the lower court.

The MLA, voicing the grievances of the villagers, said ideally the SDM should have dismissed the case of the litigants outright as he was the presiding officer of the lower court concerned. The case cannot be dismissed by the tehsildar.

The reason for the wariness and suspicion among the villagers is not far to seek. They allege that in the past few days, the land mafia had been approaching the litigants (who have been claiming that the 50 acres of common land is in their possession and who are demanding mutation of title in their favour) to purchase the disputed land of
the panchayat.

According to them, the mafia have been assuring the litigants that they would get the issue ‘sorted out’ at all levels if the land was sold to it. Land sharks had already started quoting the move of the SDM to bolster their case and talk the litigants to enter into an agreement with them for sale of the land to them.

In fact, gobbling up the panchayat land in the villages is an organised racket in the state. It is more pronounced where land value had appreciated significantly. Gurgaon, in this context, is ahead of other places and thousands of acres of panchayat land has either been poached or is in the process of being so. It is now a well- defined modus operandi. The land sharks prop up some vested interests in the village to raise a bogus dispute on panchayat land and then take advantage of loopholes or grey areas in the law to win the cases. It is the mafia which laughs all the way to the bank as they enter into agreement with the litigant to sell the land at cheap prices.

There are umpteen number of cases suggesting that the mafia later developed the land and sold it at higher prices to the public.

New Delhi, February 11
After yesterday’s dense fog which led to the delay or diversion of many incoming and outgoing flights in the Capital, the weather cleared today and the bright sunlight that has characterised the weather in Delhi over the past ten days appeared, making it one of the warmest February in recent years.

With the mercury maintaining the high level it has been witnessing since the beginning of February — the minimum temperature recorded 11.3 degree Celsius, one degree above normal, and the maximum at around 28 degree Celsius, six degrees above normal – Delhi today continued its “fast movement” towards summer.

There is expected to be no let up from the scorching heat in the next few days, with weather experts predicting that mercury would continue to rise in the coming week. BBC forecast the maximum temperature to touch a high of 31 degree Celsius on February 14 while the minimum temperature could rise to as high as 15 degree Celsius.

With the scorching weather coming “too soon”, weathermen say it is the warmest February in the last many years. Such hot weather, they say, is quite unusual at this time of the year with most Delhiites already having cast away their woollens and blankets.

Researchers the world over attribute “unusually hot weather” to the phenomenon of ‘global warming’ having a greater affect during the past century than at any time over the past 1,200 years. 

New Delhi, February 11
The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) today announced awareness-cum-training programme for parents and family members of disabled children.

The training programme will deal with mental retardation, visual impairment and cerebral palsy, an IGNOU statement said.

The programme, in collaboration with the Rehabilitation Council of India, will be implemented through organisations, institutions and special schools. The University, which has posted details of the package on its website www.ignou.ac.in and www.rehabcouncil.nic.in, has invited applications from NGOs and organisations to implement the programme.—TNS

Gurgaon, February 11
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has decided to auction 31 commercial sites including a shopping mall in Sector-29 on February 16.

The HUDA administrator, Mr S. P. Gupta, informed that the prestigious sector, spread over 480 acres of land would be the biggest commercial centre in Asia. Ideally located in the heart of the city on the National Highway no. 8, sector-29 has been christened ‘City Centre’ and would be a favourite destination for big corporates and multi-national companies, said Mr Gupta.

We have planned the sector keeping in mind the future requirement of infrastructure such as roads, water, sewerage, parking etc, he added.

We are going to auction one shopping mall and 30
small hotels and shop-cum-office sites on February 16, Mr Gupta said. “We have also planned to shift our Gurgaon HUDA office from Sector 14 to Sector 29,” he added.

Ghaziabad, February 11
A TV sting operation has exposed five UP policemen, who had agreed to contract killing of innocent persons in fake encounters. The five cops of Ghaziabad police, who have been identified as SO Anil Somanya, SIs Mahavir Singh, M.D Dixit, Amar Singh Yadav and Satyapal Singh, have brought disgrace to the police uniform in a shocking exposure by a TV channel.

Three of these policemen, including S.I. Mahavir Singh in CO II’s office were shown by a news channel in a sting operation accepting money for staging encounters to kill innocent people.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Rajkumar Vishwakarma, said SO, Nauchandi, Satyapal Singh, posted in Meerut and Anil Somanya, SO, Sambhawali in Ghaziabad, SO Indirapuram Police Station M. D. Dixit have been suspended.

Inspector Amar Singh Yadav currently with CBCID, Agra and ex-steno to Ghaziabad CO, Mahabir Singh, are currently posted with Mathura border police.

When the news channel had contacted former SI Mahavir Singh in a Ghaziabad police station for a contract killing through fake encounter, he said it could be done.

In case a person is not a criminal it would require involving him in a fake case and then eliminating him through an encounter, he said. “Normally, we kill four but show only one,” he said.

Some cops merely kill people in fake encounters to get awards and medals and want to build a reputation for being an encounter specialist. S.O. Anil Somanya said he does not kill people for money but to build reputation.

Somanya had said all this on camera when he was SO, Kavi Nagar police station, Ghaziabad, the TV channel claimed. Meanwhile, CM Mulayam Singh Yadav castigated the media for highlighting minor events and ignoring major national problems. 

Noida, February 11
Friday was again a robbers’ day in Noida. After breaking the lock of a house in Sector 53, robbers decamped with Rs 90,000 in cash and jewellery worth lakhs.

In the second event, bandits robbed a bag containing Rs 3.5 lakh from a car parked in the Sector 18 market. Elsewhere, three vehicles were stolen.

The first robbery took place in C-52 in Sector 53 on Tuesday night where the inmates, Mohinder Prasad and his family, had gone out of the city to attend the marriage of a relative. The lock on the house seemed to have served as an invitation for the robbers. They took out Rs 90,000 in cash from the cupboard of a bedroom and jewellery from a steel almirah and walked away.

On returning from outstation, Mohinder Prasad lodged a report with the Sector 24 police station.

In the Sector 18 incident, the car of Janak Bhatia from Sector 12 was parked on the road. His driver, Tarlok Sharma, was standing near the car. Mr Bhatia came back from Sector 18 and proceeded to his office in Delhi. He realised his briefcase was not there after he reached his office in Karol Bagh.

He immediately informed the Sector 20 police station here, saying that the briefcase contained Rs 3.5 lakh which had been robbed with the driver’s complicity. Driver Tarlok Sharma has been taken into custody for interrogation, but the police have failed to get any breakthrough in the case.

Besides, three vehicles had been lifted from Noida. Karana Singh of E-724, Sector 20, had gone to PNB in Sector 27 where his Maruti car was stolen from outside the bank. Karan Singh has informed the Sector 20 police about the car theft.

Sayed Izzizurehman of D-69, Sector 20, had informed the Sector 20 police station that the Travera car of a friend of his had been stolen from opposite his house.

The third vehicle, a motorbike, was lifted from Reliance Crossing under the Sector 24 police station. It belonged to Surinder Kumar of E-221, Sector 20. The police have registered the theft report.

Ghaziabad, February 11
Chhutva, a history-sheeter of the Mundali police station wanted for murder and other heinous crimes, was at last nabbed by the Mussori police last night.

The police had been trying to trace him for about six months. He was overpowered in the jungle of Nahal village.

The police claim to have seized a pistol from him which he had used in one Talib’s murder.

On August 30 last year, Chhutva, obsessed with his sister-in-law, had murdered her husband Talib with the help of his criminal friends. Talib was asleep on the terrace along with his wife Razya when he was shot dead.

According to the Mussori police, Chhutva had gone with eight to 10 assailants to the terrace. On hearing bullets being fired, Razya had raised the alarm. But Chhutva and his companions had gagged Razya and fled from the scene after forcibly taking Razya along with him.

Chhutva and his friends had slipped away before the villagers could come to Talib’s help.

Till now, there was no news of Razya, the police said

Since then, there was no trace of Chhutva. But the Mussori police team engaged in his pursuit was able to pin Chhutva down in the jungle of Nahal village.

He had come to the jungle of Nahal village to destroy proof and eliminate his enemies, the police said.

Noida, February 11
The State Bank of India, which launched a ‘Spring Bonanza’ on February 9 at Community Centre, Sector 61, near Sai Mandir here, is offering special discount in rate of interest up to one per cent below the bank’s declared rates in house loans. The offer is on till February 12.

“Our schemes are more transparent than any other bank and in the past 200 years we have developed a level of trust amid our customers. That’s why they are coming from others banks to our bank”, said Mr Y. P. Soni, DGM, Meerut Zone.

He said one could plan changing one’s home loan accounts from other financial institutions where one was paying a higher rate of interest to the SBI’s lowest interest rate available only during this campaign. Visitors could also book their home loans for purchase of plots, flats, furnishing of house, extension and construction of house.

Other loans like personal loans, mortgage loans, education loans and various other commercial loans would also be available during this period. Mr Soni said, “SBI Freedom, a new scheme, was also being launched in a big way wherein the customer need not mortgage the property being acquired through this loan. The existing customers of the SBI had an edge in getting additional loan for furnishing without much hassles during this period. On the first day, requests for a total loan of Rs 80 crore were made”.

The ‘Spring Bonanza’ is designed to suit all age groups and especially the younger generation as lots of freebies like nail art, candy zone, shooting gallery, tattoo making etc are also available. A special kids’ zone is also available during these four days to give this entire event a festive air. A cultural evening for children and adults, a magic show, theatre, Rajasthani dance, Punjabi dance, puppet show and lots more have also been organised.

Some builders and corporate houses like Unitech, Gaursons, Parsvnath, Assotech, Supertech, ATS, Agrawal Associates, HRC, AHS, AJS Gulshan Homz, VXL, HCL and Maruti are also showcasing their existing and future projects during the ‘Spring Bonanza’.

Faridabad, February 11
Paithan may be a simple town in a remote area of Maharastra, but it has a unique and distinct identity.

A handful of artistes from this place have been known for producing one of the best hand-woven silk sarees in the country.

As Maharastra is the ‘theme state’ for 20th Surajkund Mela, visitors saw the live preparation of a traditional ‘Paithani’ saree.

The ‘Paithani’ saree has an interesting background. It has been produced for over 2000 years and it was perhaps the only saree where silk was ornamented with Zari pallav and border. An artiste is able to weave not more than half an inch in 12 hours period.

It takes at least a month and half to weave the most simplest of ‘Paithani’ saree and a period of another five to nine months to make it into an elaborate (brocade) one.

For the best of ‘Paithani’ sarees, the yarn is silk and the Zari is drawn from pure gold.

However, a cheaper ‘Paithani’ saree may be woven after substituting silver for gold and silk for silver. However, in recent years this art has been short of support in view of the technological changes taking place in the weaving industry. It has resulted in many craftsmen leaving this work and turning to other professions, said Durga Autade, one of the craftsperson.

She said though the government had been providing training to the craftsmen, the cost, time and changing technology had adversely affected the craftsmen.

Noida, February 11
Using the Noida toll bridge has become costlier now as the charges for cars and two-wheelers using the DND have been hiked by Re 1. Similarly, the rates for other vehicles and monthly passes have also been increased.

The two-wheeler users will have to shell out Rs 50 per month more now. Two-wheelers will have to pay Rs 9 while car users will pay Rs 18 every time they use the DND.

The Noida Toll Bridge Co Ltd has hiked these rates after reviewing the upkeep and operation of the bridge. A new agreement has been signed with Inter-Toll Management and Maintenance Services and Inter-Toll India Consultants Private Ltd to this effect, it is gathered. This agreement has come into force from February 8.

New Delhi, February 11
ChildCare-Rai Foundation, an NGO with support from the world’s top NGOs throughout the world, has just been launched for the care of the disadvantaged children in India.

Foundation’s co-founder and president David Ong, launched the NGO and its website on February 8.

He said India was now on the world map as an emerging super power and this initiative would be good for all concerned and would benefit vulnerable children in India.

Mr Ong also announced the ChildCare-Rai Foundations’ Gifted Girl and Genius Award (GGGA), a worldwide programme towards creating a renaissance in higher education exclusively for 60 girl students. —TNS