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Uphaar victims urge HC to cancel Ansal’s bail
Thirty thousand families below poverty line
Candlelight marches
in memory of Meerut fire victims
Sealing drive: BJP men court arrest in Rohini
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No cases of dengue reported in city: Minister
RLD activist among two gunned down in Hapur
Govt rationalises conversion system of property
Tehri, NTPC to supply power to city
‘Police soft-pedalling investigation’
Man held under Wildlife Protection Act
Greenpeace activists granted bail
National conference on research in AIDS
Some areas may have squalls today: Met dept
Special health camps to be held
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Uphaar victims urge HC to cancel Ansal’s bail
New Delhi, April 18 Senior counsel K T S Tulsi appearing for AVUT before Mr Justice R C Jain said that tampering of evidence was a serious offence and the probe instituted by the district court had held the ahlmad (record keeper) responsible for the missing documents from the court records. The documents, which were missing from the records were vital as these were relied upon by the High Court while framing charges against Sushil and his relatives, said Mr Tulsi. Additional solicitor general P P Malhotra appearing for the CBI submitted that the court should look into the angle of conspiracy behind the missing documents and order a thorough probe. The missing documents pertained to minutes of board meetings of Uphaar cinema, cheques issued by Sushil Ansal and documents relating to sanction by the Delhi Fire Authorities. Mr Tulsi said the clerk could not have destroyed the documents on his own and there was a deeper conspiracy into the episode. However, counsel R K Naseem appearing for Ansals argued that they did not tamper with the documents and the trial might not have any impact had the documents gone missing. The court records had been reconstituted and the arguments were at the final stage in the district court, he said. On April 5, the High Court had summoned the Report of Inquiry conducted by an Additional Session Judge on the tampering of evidence of Uphaar tragedy case. The clerk was dismissed from service for deliberately destroying the court papers. It was a serious offence and the bail of the accused should be rejected as he might further tamper with the evidence, the petition said. The trial court had framed charges against 16 accused, including proprietors of Ansals Properties Sushil Ansal and Gopal Ansal, for their alleged involvement in the Uphaar fire tragedy on June 13, 1997 which left 59 dead and more than 100 injured. The other accused in the case include PWD engineer S N Dandona, cinema hall director R M Puri, hall managers K L Malhotra, R K Sharma, N S Chopra and Ajit Chaudhary, DVB officials A K Gera, B M Satija and Beer Singh, MCD officials N D Tiwari and Shyam Sunder Sharma, Delhi Fire Service officials H S Panwar and Surinder Dutt, besides balcony usher Manmohan Unniyal.
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Thirty thousand families below poverty line
Faridabad, April 18 Another 12,980 families have been included in the poorest category and given food items at a rate lower than that of the BPL. Giving this information, the deputy commissioner said here today that the families falling in the Above Poverty Line (APL) category have been given green-coloured ration cards. People under the BPL category are charged Rs 4.84 for one kg wheat. The beneficiaries of the lowest category, called Antyodaya, have been allotted wheat at a rate of just Rs 2 per kg and the maximum amount one family can take is 35 kg per card. The families under the APL and BPL have been allotted a maximum 25 kg per card. It is reported that there were a total of over 5.20 lakh families included in the APL category in the district, which consists of over 3.72 lakh in the urban areas. The colour of the BPL card is yellow while that of the Antyodaya category is pink. A total of over 16,000 families included in the BPL category reside in rural parts. The district has a total of 1,076 fair price shops, of which 667 shops have been located in urban areas. Under the poorest category, a total of 7,253 families who have ration cards reside in urban areas. According to the department concerned, as many as 125 women have been allotted ration depots. More than 11 physically challenged persons have also been given such shops. The officials checked about 13 ration shops in March and April and got an FIR registered against four shops on charges of various irregularities. Licences of another six shops were cancelled and a fine of Rs 1,000 imposed on the owners of three shops. The authorities also impounded about five gas cylinders on charges of misuse. It may be recalled that the total population in the district is around 22 lakh, of which about 14 lakh reside in urban areas.
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Candlelight marches
in memory of Meerut fire victims
Meerut, April 18 Paying tributes to the men, women and children who died in the horrific blaze during the Brand India Consumer Goods fair on the opening day itself, people from all walks of life lit candles and marched through the streets in silent homage to the dead. Bhavi Mehta, a sales girl from Mavi village near Modinagar, who survived the tragedy and marched in solidarity with the others, said she alerted 22 other sales girls at the stall as soon as she saw the fire. “Reacting quickly to this, we all rushed to the entry gate and saved our lives,” she said. Another survivor, Dr S C Gupta, said he owed his life to a Rs 500 note. He and two of his relatives could not enter the fair on that day as they gave a Rs 500 note at the ticket counter and were sent away as the man at the window did not have change. Meerut District Magistrate Mukehs Meshram has appealed to the people to contribute liberally to a fund for the victims of the tragedy. The official list of the dead is: Jaishri, wife of Surendra Singh, Ajai Gupta, son of Prakash Gupta, Sangeeta, wife of Ajai Gupta, Anisa Gupta, daughter of Sanjay Gupta, Anishka Gupta, daughter of Sanjay Gupta, Mrs Babbar, wife of Chander Babbar, Satyam Babbar,
son of Chander Babbar, Ajesh Garg, son of Ramesh Garg, Suman Garg, wife of Ajesh Garg, Manoj Rana, son of Sohanpal, Shashi Bala, wife of Dharampal, Ramesh Chandra Tayal, son of Banwari Lal, Kanta Saluja, wife of Dharampal, Sanjay Garg, son of Shiva Narayan, Rahul Garg, son of Sanjay Garg, Gayatri Gupta, wife Ramanand Gupta, Sanjay Gaur, son of Shivadhar Gaur, Urmila Gaur, wife of Sanjay Gaur, Asima Gaur, daughter of Sanjay Gaur, Vanshaj Gaur, son of Sanjay Gaur, Mehak Luthra, daughter of Sukhbir Luthra, Saroj Bala, wife of Rajkumar, Manoj Jain, son of Munna Lal Jain, Y P Singh, son of Avtar Singh, Geeta, wife of Sanjay Gupta, Inam Ahmad, son of Manzoor, Radhey Krishan Gupta, son of Atar Sain, Imana Siddiqui, wife Rajiuddin, Kala Gupta, wife of Radha Krishan, Gurmeet Singh, son of Fakir Singh, Manik Chand Jain, son of Prakash Chand Jain, Rakesh, wife of Ravinder alias Rabin, Rajendra Singh son of Ajit Singh, Tarushri, daughter of Rajesh Dhingra, Savita Dhingra, wife of Rajesh Dhingra, Sandeep Singhal, son of Rajkumar Singhal, Prachi Garg, daughter of Ajesh Garg, Krishna Gupta, wife of Ram Kumar Gupta, Javed, son of Azij, Parshava Paruthi, daughter of Naresh Paruthi, Alka Paruthi, wife of Naresh Paruthi, Athar Jafri, son of Shariful Jafri, Ram Kumar Garg, son of Tulsi Ram, Nitin Agrawal, son of Gopichand and Puneet Raj. The list of missing persons is: Malti Tayal, wife of Ramesh Chand Tayal, Adesh Yadav, son of P N Yadav, Vandana Girdhar, wife of Rajesh Girdhar, Ramanand Gupta, son of Ramasre Gupta.
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Sealing drive: BJP men court arrest in Rohini
New Delhi, April 18 Mr Garg, along with the BJP Bawana district president Sansar Singh, led the BJP workers who courted arrest at the Avantika Chowk in Rohini demanding a halt to sealing of shops. Also present on the occasion were BJP Delhi Pradesh president Dr Harshvardhan, general secretary Pawan Sharma and legislator Kulwant Rana. Earlier, addressing the BJP workers, Dr Harshvardhan, demanding the dismissal of the Sheila Dikshit government in Delhi, said: “Ms Dikshit has no moral or constitutional right to continue as chief minister as she has lost the trust of her minister, MPs, legislators, councillors and the people of Delhi.” He declared that the BJP workers would continue with their ‘Jail Bharo Abhiyan’ till the sealing was not stopped completely. Yesterday, BJP workers, led by BJP National secretary and former Union Minister Vijay Goel courted arrest at Town hall in Chandni Chowk. Addressing the BJP workers, Mr Goel demanded dissolution of the MCD and the DDA saying that “both the civic bodies have become dens of corruption and miserably failed to execute the mandate for which they were created”. Tomorrow, BJP workers will court arrest at Nangloi Chowk. Meanwhile, agitating traders today lambasted the ruling Congress in Delhi for its failure to take a clear and firm action on the sealing issue and alleged that the inability of the state government to pressurise the Centre to bring an ordinance to halt the sealing action showed a lack of will on its part. “Why the Delhi leaders of Congress party are unable to mount pressure on Union Government when they are ruling the MCD, Assembly and Centre as well. The Delhi MPs must take inspiration from Gujarat MPs who went to the PM leaving aside their political affiliations on the Narmada issue. They are just keeping their fingers crossed,” they said.
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No cases of dengue reported in city: Minister
New Delhi, April 18 “Officers concerned have been instructed to take all necessary preventive actions to check on the cases related to malaria, cholera and dengue in the Capital,” Dr Shastri said after chairing a meeting on ‘Water and Vector Borne Diseases’ here. Stressing on creating awareness among the people about the dangers of mosquito breeding in houses, he said the government would take all possible preventive measures to check malaria. He asked the officials to issue legal notices and challans to owners of buildings for non-compliance of anti-larval measures. Dr Shastri said in the reported week, 12,504 blood slides were collected and 7,251 houses sprayed. “In the capital, 1,12,476 houses were inspected for domestic breeding out of which 106 houses were found positive for breeding, whereas during anti-malaria operations, 202 legal notices were issued and 28 cases launched for prosecution,” he added. The minister said that from April 1 to 14, 22 cases of cholera were reported whereas a total of 85 cases of the same disease were reported this year across the Capital. “Twenty six cases were reported from unauthorised colonies, 20 from regularised colonies, 17 from urbanised villages, 16 from JJ clusters and slums, two cases each from NDMC and other states and one case each from resettlement colonies,” he added. The government would ensure that there is a proper distribution of chlorine tablets in each part of the Capital, he said. Dr Shastri said that as a preventive measure, 704 water samples were tested by the MCD this week out of which 21 were found unfit whereas 2,96,319 chlorine tablets and 2,444 packets ORS were distributed in the Capital. He said government agencies would start a special drive against illegal water trolleys and sugarcane juice vendors in the Capital. Up to April 14, 992 raids were conducted and action was taken against 319 water trolleys, 27 sugarcane crushers, 2,089 rehris and 9,724 other items were seized, he said.
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RLD activist among two gunned down in Hapur
Ghaziabad, April 18 Ten shells of cartridges were recovered from the crime spot which left the entire area in panic. Later, RLD workers jammed the road, raising slogans against the police. A report naming two persons was lodged with the Hapur police, while three assailants were said to be unidentified. Verinder, alias Bubbli Tyagi, of Utterada village under Kharkhoda police station, Meerut, had come to the Sanjay Vihar stop of the school bus to see off his daughter, Subi where he was joined by his neighbour Mukesh Tyagi in Sabli village. Soon five miscreants atop two bikes stopped there. Two men alighted from the bikes near Tyagi and Verinder. They pulled out a pistol and a local revolver, and started firing at Verinder who tried to flee towards his house. He was hit on the foot and fell down near the overhead water tank. As he fell, the assailants rained bullets on him. Meanwhile, two criminals felled Mukesh with indiscriminate firing. After committing the crime, the criminals sped towards Meerut. While Mukesh died on the spot, Verinder was declared brought dead at Madhu Hospital. Bubbly Tyagi was hit by four bullets while Mukesh had three gunshots.
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Govt rationalises conversion system of property
New Delhi, April 18 “Property sold through regular sale deed can now be converted into freehold by paying only a conversion fee and a surcharge of 33.3 per cent as applicable to general power of attorney holders,” Science and Technology Minister Mr Kapil Sibal said after a Cabinet meeting today. Till now, registered sale deed owners had to pay stamp duty and other charges besides conversion fee and surcharge, while all lessees staying in a building had to give a single sale deed. Mr Sibal said the Cabinet decision would permit conversion of flats and floors as well as shops and spaces in multi-storeyed buildings developed on leasehold plots if the purchasers have valid registered sale deeds or registered general power of attorney agreement to sell after recovery of proportionate share of dues payable by the lessee. It will also permit conversion of institutional properties sold at commercial rates, benefiting a large number of persons. But the decision will avoid giving undue financial benefits to private persons who were handed over government properties through the process of disinvestment, Mr Sibal added.
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Tehri, NTPC to supply power to city
New Delhi, April 18 The PPA would be signed between the Delhi Transco Ltd and Tehri and NTPC in the presence of Delhi chief minister Ms Sheila Dikshit and power minister Mr Haroon Yusuf, official sources said. However, the agreements would take effect from next year and continue till the 2010 Commonwealth Games. 1030 MW power would be sourced from five different power stations belonging to Tehri and NTPC, more than half of which would come from Tehri alone. Delhi Government has four power plants — Indraprastha Power Plant, Rajghat Power Plant, Gas Turbine Power Plant and Pragati Power Plant — with installed capacities of more than 900 MW but they produce about 750 MW. The city had an average peak demand of 2,500 MW. Another four power plants — conversion of IP Power Plant to 1,000 MW Gas based Plant, 1,000 MW Plant at Bawana, 330 MW Plant at Pragati Phase II and a 1,000 MW Plant to be set up by New Delhi Power Ltd at Kanjhawala – have been in the Delhi Government’s pipeline for some time.
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‘Police soft-pedalling investigation’
Gurgaon, April 18 He told a section of mediapersons that the police were giving a long rope to the manager of the restaurant, Geerart Groom, who had picked up his daughter, Sonish Javed from the Palam airport and brought her to the Addiction restaurant in MGF Mall late Saturday evening. It may be recalled that Rajput is alleged to have thrown Sonish from the third floor of the Mall resulting in her death. Mr Javed said that it was the manager who informed the household of the falling of her daughter from the third floor of the Mall. His grouse is that the manager knows the whereabouts of Rajput, who has been absconding after the incident. Hence, the police should have made him co-accused in the case. On the other hand, the police say they are investigating the case and would soon ferret out Rajput.
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Man held under Wildlife Protection Act
New Delhi, April 18 Preetam Singh was arrested near the Dilshad Garden flyover last night where he was selling nails of a lion and owls paw to a ‘People For Animals (PFA)’ activist, according to police sources. Police said that there were three accused of which two managed to escape from the scene of crime. Singh, posing as a ‘sadhu’, had asked the activist to wear the ‘nails’ as his stars were not favourable. Police also carried out raids at several places to nab the other two accused. Meanwhile, a city court has sent a woman to jail for possessing 89 live Indian Soft Shelled Turtles. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Jain remanded Omwati to judicial custody till May 1 for being in possession of the endangered species. The court also ordered that the turtles be released in the Yamuna river. Omwati was arrested from Najafgarh area in South West Delhi yesterday and charged under the provisions of Wildlife Protection Act.
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Greenpeace activists granted bail
New Delhi, April 18 Bail was granted to Imran, Ashish Fernandes and V C Singh after they fulfilled the requisite bail conditions yesterday. On April 15, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Jain had sent the three to judicial custody till April 29 after he had given them bail but the activists could not fulfill the requisite bail conditions. The court said though the intention of the activists was good but their means to protest was not. One could not use wildlife parts in any way, which were the state’s property, it held. The city police had arrested the three while they were protesting outside the Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s residence in the Capital on April 14. Three of the 12 activists, participating in the demonstration on April 14, were booked under the Wildlife Protection Act and held overnight at the Tughlaq Road police station.
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National conference on research in AIDS
New Delhi, April 18 A press release issued here today by the Resource Centre for Sexual Health and HIV AIDS said that NACO expects the meet to identify blank areas of research. The conference is being organised by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) with support from the UK Government’s Department for International Development. Dr M.K. Bhan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology will inaugurate the conference. Prominent among those who are expected to attend the meet are K. Sujatha Rao, Director General, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and N.K. Ganguly, Director General, Indian Council for Medical Research. Dr Altaf A. Lal, Co Chair, Organising Committee of the conference in India says that the idea behind the conference is to showcase laboratory, clinical, epidemiological, operational, pragmatic and social research so that each understands the others’ needs.
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Some areas may have squalls today: Met dept
New Delhi, April 18 The strong breeze also resulted in the minimum temperature dropping to 17.1 degree C, four degrees below normal, from 18.6 degrees yesterday. The fall in mercury today is a continuation of the trend in the Capital since the second week of April. The relief in weather is likely to continue tomorrow with the weather office forecasting a partly cloudy sky with the possibility of thunderstorms. They have also predicted a high-speed squall in some areas. The maximum temperature could, however, rise to 35 degree C tomorrow, the Met office said. — TNS
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Special health camps to be held
New Delhi, April 18 The event will cover 35 residential societies, 20 parks, 4 malls, 4 stores and 4 clubs over a period of 8 weeks starting from April 19. A team of Aquaguard RO experts will check blood pressure, pulse, chest congestion and advise people on minimum water intake required for human body based on the calculated BMI (Body Mass Index).
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Kyrgyz team visits sites of Gurgaon firms
Gurgaon, April 18 The delegation was led by the Governor of Talas region of the Republic, Mr Djeenbekov. The firms that the delegation visited are Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India, Orient Crafts Ltd and Maruti Udyog Ltd.
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