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BJP insists on ouster of Sheila Dikshit govt
Delay in formation of Governing Bodies irks DU colleges
Tax cut on LPG, LNG must benefit consumers: Govt
Master Plan 2021 to solve all problems, reasserts Maken
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Servants flee with valuables worth lakhs
Raid on clinics conducting sex determination tests
Workshop on HIV-AIDS organised in Jamia
Capital continues to enjoy cool weather
Delhi trader lodges cheating case
Conference on industry-academia collaboration
Defaulting housing societies issued notices
Gang of auto lifters in custody
Bulandshahr man in list of world’s richest people
Firm hired for ‘Smart Cards’ tries damage control
Prohibitory orders clamped in Capital
Youth hangs himself to death
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BJP insists on ouster of Sheila Dikshit govt
New Delhi, March 11 After two indictments — one by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on electricity privatisation and another in a report related to issuing of ‘Smart Cards’ — the Delhi Government has been severely exposed and it should be dismissed immediately for the good of the people, state BJP chief Dr Harsh Vardhan told mediapersons today. “We are meeting the Lt Governor this evening to demand that the government be dismissed. We also plan to meet President A P J Abdul Kalam to ask for the Delhi government’s dismissal and apprise him on how it had become the hotbed of corruption,” he said. “A CBI probe was imperative to bring out the truth before the people on both the scams. Any probe would not be fair until the Sheila Dikshit government remains in place, hence it should be dismissed,” he added. Dr Harsh Vardhan also warned the government of ‘mass suicides’ like those by farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra if the interests of small shopkeepers in the Capital were overlooked. “Rendering ‘rehri-patri’ owners out of the pavement and sealing of shops in residential areas would lead to deaths by the dozen here,” he said. Already one small shopkeeper in Tilak Nagar has committed suicide a few days back and many more would be forced to take the extreme step if their livelihood was snatched by the “inaction” and “dual-faced attitude” of the Congress government, he said. “The MCD, controlled by the Congress, does not even go to the court to present a fair and balanced view of the issue which concerned 5 lakh shopkeepers and which would affect nearly 25 lakh people,” he said. It was the duty of the government to put before the court the reality and facts on the issue aggressively and impress upon it the implications of such a sensitive matter, said the BJP leader. “Even the Supreme Court has said it was not averse to the proposal if the ‘Trade Registration Plan 2004’ giving ad hoc licences for running shops in houses to house-owners to the maximum of 25 per cent of floor area or 30 sq mts to certain professions like provision stores, barber shops, or tuition centres,” he claimed. For this, the MCD should put the case in a positive manner before the court which could save the livelihood of lakhs, he said. “On mixed land use, we demand that shops on over roads be spared the hammer; on the issue of ‘rehri-patri’ owners being vacated from pavements, a human approach was needed to solve the problem as it involved the livelihood of lakhs,” he said. Delhi Pradesh BJP secretary Vijender Gupta said despite a proposal under Section 74 of the MCD Act being was moved to this effect yesterday, it was not included in the agenda under a “planned conspiracy”. “This showed that the livelihood of lakhs was not the concern of the Congress government,” he said.
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Delay in formation of Governing Bodies
New Delhi, March 11 The Delhi Government, which is responsible for nominating members to the 28 Governing Bodies, has failed to draw up the list on account of difference within the party. “The tenure of the 28 Governing Bodies (GB) for 32 colleges, of which 28 are morning shift and four are evening shift, ended on March 9, but the government is still struggling to put the list together,” said a source in the university. He pointed out that the university had written to Delhi Government to release a list of names by March 5 so that there is sufficient time for colleges to reconstitute their respective GBs. The government’s failure to meet the March 5 deadline is being attributed to “in-fighting” within the Congress. “When the list of nominees was released for the last term, there were many unhappy faces in the Congress. Leaders in the anti-Sheila camp were upset that the nominees included activists who are affiliated to the Left and, worse, the BJP,” sources said. Matters were further precipitated when a number of appointments for the post of principals and senior professors who were affiliated to the Left were made. “These leaders were particularly displeased that people aligned to the Left were appointed. They even wrote to Ms Sonia Gandhi complaining against Ms Dikshit’s indiscretion,” sources said. “These leaders want Ms Dikshit to send a list of nominees to the Congress High Command for approval. Their contention is that the Chief Minister cannot appoint nominees who are not sympathetic to the Congress. They want nominees to be neutral, even if they are not hardcore Congress supporters,” it was pointed out. Meanwhile, college authorities have expressed apprehension that if the nominations take too long, administrative procedures like appointments would get severely hampered. “There are colleges were appointments are to be made, there are colleges where action needs to be taken against inquiry reports, besides a host of other functions. The government needs to tackle this issue at the earliest ,” said a senior faculty member at Shivaji College.
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Tax cut on LPG, LNG must benefit consumers: Govt
New Delhi, March 11 “It is the state government’s right to impose or reduce VAT; oil companies have nothing to do in it,” Delhi Finance Minister, Dr A K Walia said here today. Speaking on the sidelines of a VAT panel meeting here, Dr Walia said that earlier the government was receiving more revenue from VAT on LPG and foregoing part of it would give relief to customers. He said the state government would lose Rs 80-90 crore due to tax cuts on LPG and PNG. Delhi government has reduced VAT on LPG from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent in the state budget for 2006-07. Some oil companies have reportedly said that they would not pass on the tax-cut benefit to customers to make up for their losses. Delhi government has also reduced VAT on piped natural gas (PNG) from 20 to 4 per cent.—TNS
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Master Plan 2021 to solve all problems,
New Delhi, March 11 Permanent solutions would be arrived at for many problems like demolition/sealing drives of unauthorised structures, illegal commercialisation, unauthorised colonies and applicability of building bylaws to urban and rural villages, he said at a reception hosted by Delhi Mayor Satbir Singh last night. The minister indicated that extensions made by people in their own homes could be made compoundable while 50 per cent commercialisation could be allowed in buildings along broad roads. However, encroachments on government land would not be tolerated. The Supreme Court would be briefed about the government’s plan, he said. A meeting of all Delhi MPs, leaders of all parties in Delhi Assembly and Municipal Council of Delhi would be convened by the Ministry where all issues would be discussed before the plan was finalised and notified. A similar meeting was held on February 27. No effort would be spared to make the city world class, he added.
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Servants flee with valuables worth lakhs
Noida, March 11 A house in Sector-14 was ransacked by a servant, who fled with valuables including jewellery. The servant had been employed only a day earlier. The owner of the house, Sanjit Singh Rekhi, had employed Ajit Kumar, who had been recommended by Laxman Placement Services of Shakurpur in Delhi. Ajit Kumar was a native of Muzzafarpur in Bihar. On the fateful day, Sanjit Singh found that the cash and jewellery kept in the cupboard missing. Two days earlier, another house in Sector-34 was ransacked by a servant recommended by a placement agency. To make matters worse, the police have been slow to react to these incidents. There is panic among the residents here, who blame the police for the deteriorating law and order situation in the district. However, the police have asked the residents to get their servants verified before employing them.
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Raid on clinics conducting sex determination tests
Noida, March 11 The raid was conducted after a sting operation by a TV channel, which showed that sex determination tests were being conducted in these clinics. The Chief Medical Officer, Dr G. P. Sharma, said that the raid was conducted on the orders of the District Magistrate after the sting operations had exposed them. According to reports, one of the doctors was running a clinic in Nav Jeevan Hospital in sector-22 Noida. A team under the Additional CMO, Dr A K Mitra, was constituted to conduct the raids on the clinics of both these doctors, the CMO said. It is learnt that the CMO had issued notices to all hospitals and clinics to give information regarding the tests being conducted on their ultrasound machines.
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Workshop on HIV-AIDS organised in Jamia
New Delhi, March 11 The aim behind effort was to highlight the strengths, skills, attitude and information required by professionals while working on the field on this issue. The inaugural address was given by Mr S.M. Afsar, Technical Specialist and Programme Coordinator with the International Labout Organisation (ILO) in New Delhi. Afsar emphasized the importance of HIV-AIDS as a workplace issue and the importance of capacity building. He informed the gathering that the welfare sector was an extremely challenging area to work in and advised students to update themselves and acquire the relevant skills needed to work in this area. The first session involved brainstorming and experience-sharing among the participants. The representative of Delhi Public School (DPS) highlighted the importance of creating AIDS awareness among school-going students. In the second session, experience-sharing and re-assessment was undertaken by representatives of different industries and corporates. There were representatives from SARD, Power Grid, Thompson Press and NIS, amont others. Presentations were especially made on the work undertaken in this field by the organizations and on the need to integrate HIV-AIDS in the workplace. Discussion especially revolved around the need to integrate HIV patients in the workplace in a better manner than is being done currently. Discussions were also held on the migrant populations and their susceptibility to HIV-AIDS. A large part of this discussion centered around tackling the growing problem of migrant communities contracting this disease and spreading them to various cities. The seminar cum workshop provided an impetus to sustainable work on tackling HIV-AIDS. It provided a much-needed platform on the issue bringing a variety of experts together from NGOs, industry and corporates to discuss the modalities of working with the AIDS-afflicted and in designing and implementing AIDS prevention programmes.
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Capital continues to enjoy cool weather
New Delhi, March 11 The heavy rainfall, which began at 12.30 a.m., brought the minimum temperature in the Capital to 15 degrees Celsius, four degrees less than the 19 degrees Celsius recorded yesterday. About 0.6 mm of rainfall was recorded till 5.30 p.m., the Met office said. Unlike yesterday, when the sky was overcast by clouds, the city did manage to soak in the sun in the morning today. The forecast for the next 24 hours is partly-clouded skies, with light rain and thundershowers in some areas. The Capital has witnessed a sudden turnaround in the weather since Wednesday.
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Delhi trader lodges cheating case
Noida, March 11 The two brothers had a firm ‘Global Technology’ in Ocean
Plaza building in Sector-18. While Rs 5 lakh was paid in cash, the cheque for the balance amount of Rs 38 lakh could not be encashed. When Kulwant Singh demanded the balance amount, he refused to pay. Subsequently, a case of cheating was registered against the two brothers by the Sector-20 police and an inquiry ordered.
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Conference on industry-academia collaboration
New Delhi, March 11 The theme of the conference on the first two days was on ‘Industry-academia collaboration: Opportunities and challenges’, while the workshop on the next two days focused on ‘Emerging areas of information and communication technology (ICT)’. The conference was supported by the Department of Information Technology, the Ministry of Communications and IT. The conference focused on issues related to higher education in India to meet the demands of industry and society in the changing global economic scenario. It brought eminent professionals from the corporate and the academic fields from India and abroad, including from US, UK, Australia, France and Taiwan. Among those who participated in the conference included Prof S K Dube, Director, IIT, Kharagpur, Mr Subodh Bhargava, Chairman, VSNL, Prof Gary Smith, Dean, NDSU, USA, Mr Brijesh Kumar, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Prof Ashok Chandra, former Special Secretary (Technical Education), Ministry of HRD, Prof Mathew Warren, Deakin University, Australia, Mr Adnan Siddiqi, Chairman, USEFI, Dr D P S Seth, Member, TRAI, Prof Sudhir Mehta, Associate Vice-President, NDSU, USA, Dr B N Satpathy, Economic Advisor, Dept of Information Technology, Prof M Mukhopadhyay, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration and Prof Ranjit Singh, Director, Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology, Dwarka.
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Defaulting housing societies issued notices
Noida, March 11 The Chief Finance and Accounts Officer of the Noida Authority, Mr Lorik Yadav, said the defaulting societies have been served with a second notice so that they can deposit their balance within the time limit. The group housing societies, which had failed to get their documents examined in a recently held camp, will not be given any rebate on the due amount. The Noida Authority will determine the due amounts as per its own records, Mr Yadav said. However, some officials of these societies claimed that their names are still listed among the defaulters though they have cleared all their dues.
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Gang of auto lifters in custody
New Delhi, March 11 The police said that the vehicles were stolen from different parts of the city including Gokul Puri, Nizamuddin, Pashchim Vihar and Noida. The Anti Auto Theft squad of east district arrested the accused after a tip-off. Police said that the accused used to steal the vehicles with two accomplices, Burney and Ikram. All the accused are residents of Ghaziabad. In another case, the north-east district police have nabbed one Mohammed Gayas (28) for his alleged involvement in auto lifting. The police claimed to
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Bulandshahr man in list of world’s richest people
Noida, March 11 He is the son of the son of a former public prosecutor of the district, Mukhtar Singh, who had shifted to Moti Bagh village in Bulandshahr from Khandera village under Jarcha police station of Gautam Budh Nagar while he was still a child. Mr Singh has been placed at number 114 among the richest by Forbes Magazine in its latest compilation of world’s wealthiest persons. Almost a self-made man, Singh, the elder among his two brothers, has made the residents of his native village proud by his achievements. He has given a new dimension to the business of real estate by being a pioneer in establishing modern townships, particularly in the NCR.
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Firm hired for ‘Smart Cards’ tries damage control
New Delhi, March 11 Speaking at a press conference, Navneet Gulati, chairman of Shonkh Technologies Ltd., claimed that the allegations that the firm was untested and the technology used was a monopoly of the firm were baseless. “The company is completely tested and has undergone many trials. Smart optical card can be seen and read through the 4 KV microprocessor chip at any place across the country. There is also allegation that the company has monopoly in hybrid technology. But the fact is that our technology is already in practice in the network of at least 12 top companies in this field,” he said. He claimed that the charges for issuing the smart card — Rs 370 — were justifiable as per the Central Vehicles Act. “The fee for issuing the same card is Rs 440 in Uttar Pradesh and Rs 385 in Kerala. We also give additional benefits to the cardholders. Our project has been dragged in the controversy without showing any valid reason at the time of filling tender forms,” he alleged.
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Prohibitory orders clamped in Capital
New Delhi, March 11 The balloons being sold should not exceed more than two inches in size when uninflated, said the order. Besides this, the order states, nothing should be done to cause annoyance to the public.
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Youth hangs himself to death
Noida, March 11 Vipin’s parents and brother were out when the incident happened. It was discovered by the latter when he returned from a tuition class, who called neighbours for help when the doorbell went unanswered. When they broke open the door, Vipin’s dead body was found hanging from a ceiling fan.
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