New Delhi, July 7
The power bill of Delhiites is set to remain the same for some time with the state government and distribution companies deciding to continue the subsidies announced by them to offset the hike in electricity rates effected last year.

A day after the Supreme Court fixed July 25 as the next date of hearing for Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission’s plea to release the new power tariff order, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit told reporters today, “It (subsidy) will go on as before”.

DERC sources said the regulatory body has already sent an official request to the Delhi Government seeking extension of the subsidy, which was otherwise going to expire on July 14. The discoms have also offered to continue with the subsidies till a court decision on the issue, the sources said. The state government had last year announced subsidy on the increased tariff to the tune of 50 per cent for the domestic consumers and 100 per cent for agricultural users.

Last time, there was an increase of 10 per cent and 19.1 per cent for domestic and agricultural consumers, respectively.

The discoms on their part had announced a rebate for the remainder five per cent hike in power rates for domestic consumers. The DERC has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking permission to announce the power tariff for the year 2006-07.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today disclosed that her government had “almost clinched a deal to get power from Gujarat and Orissa to overcome the existing shortage of around 500 MW power in Delhi”.

Spelling hope for the city, the Chief Minister said her government was well aware of difficulties being faced by Delhiites because of power shortage.

She said the Badarpur power station would be back in order by July 20 and taking into cognisance the waiting period for the station to become operational the government had approached Gujarat and Orissa to bail out the national Capital. Ms Dikshit said while the two states had been asked to “immediately make available power for Delhi”, this added supply could not, however, be “immediately added to the power supply of the city because of non-availability of transmission facility up to Delhi”.

The Delhi Government has taken up the matter with the Union Ministry of Power. The Union Power Secretary has called a meeting of the states concerned on July 8 to facilitate transmission of power up to Delhi. Expressing confidence that the power from these two states would be transmitted up to Delhi within the next couple of days, Ms Dikshit said Delhiites would get the much needed relief once the supply gets augmented.

In another development, Delhi Government has given the green light for setting up of power generation projects from municipal waste.

A presentation to this effect was today made at a meeting presided over by Ms Dikshit.

Speaking to mediapersons, Ms Dikshit said the commissioning of projects at Timarpur, Okhla, Gazipur, Dwarka, Coronation Pillar, Rithala, Kesopur and Nilothi had been suggested which would altogether consume around 6,000 metric tonnes municipal solid waste and 700 MGD sewage to produce 90 MW green power with no loss to environment.

The projects would also produce treated water to be diverted to the Yamuna and each project would generate around 8-10 MW power. It was pointed out that setting up of projects at different locations would also help in the disposal of entire garbage at the nearest place, thereby leading to a huge saving in terms of transportation cost for taking garbage up to landfill sites.

The concept of development of landfill sites would automatically become irrelevant after commissioning of green power projects.

Ms Dikshit instructed the agencies concerned to gradually make functional these projects which would go a long way in disposing garbage at the nearest sites.

The DJB, the DDA, the MCD and other agencies would provide land on lease for 25 years to these projects.

Faridabad, July 7
The safety of schoolchildren ‘made’ to take part in various rallies was compromised here last night when more than a dozen schoolchildren aged between 12 and 17 years received burn injuries ranging from 5 to 20 per cent while participating in a ‘torch rally’. Some of them had caught fire from the burning torches held by them.

The victims were taking part in a rally organized by the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghthan under the sponsorship of the Union Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs for creating awareness on HIV and AIDS. The campaign, started from New Delhi on June 27, was to conclude today after a rally in various parts of the NCR. Two of the seriously burnt children, which include a 14-year-old girl admitted to B.K Civil Hospital here, have been asked to be shifted to Escorts Hospital. They have received injuries from 17 to 20 per cent. The district administration has announced an aid of Rs 10,000 to two of the injured.

While the incident left several children injured, the organizers continued with the rally, causing chaos and mismanagement as the majority of the injured had to be shifted to private clinics before the administration woke up and got about nine of them admitted to the government-run civil hospital here. According to reports, there were about 300 children present at the spot when the ‘torch rally’ was flagged off by the Deputy Commissioner at Piyali Chowk in the NIT here. While nobody knows about the cause of mishap, it is reported that clothes of one of the girls caught fire from the burning torch at about 8.45 pm.

The situation turned serious when the organizers ignored the incident and decided to carry on the programme, claimed an eyewitness.

While the hospital authorities claimed that only nine children were admitted to civil hospital last night, attendants of some of the victims revealed that there were at least 13 children in the Burn Ward of the hospital last night.

The ward has a capacity of admitting only six patients at a time, said the hospital sources. The condition of the Burn Ward appears to be pitiable as its lone airconditioner has not been functioning and the patients are just exposed to hot winds outside, said an employee.

The Chief Medical Officer, whose office has two airconditioners, claimed that the ward’s airconditioner got dysfunctional a couple of days ago.

Though the Additional Deputy Commissioner visited the hospital today to enquire about the victims, he said the remaining two patients would be shifted to Escorts Hospital by this evening. He said the other seven children had been discharged already.

The Haryana Abhibhawak Ekta Manch has described the incident as unfortunate and said that it was unfair asking small children to take part in a ‘torch rally’.

A spokesperson of the organisation demanded a high-level enquiry and asked the government to ensure that children were kept away from such rallies in the future. 

New Delhi, July 7
Nine people were injured, one of them seriously, when a passenger train hit a jeep trailer near Shahdara in East Delhi today, police said.

Passengers clinging to the footboard of the passenger train suffered injuries in the accident and have been admitted to the Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital where the condition of one person is stated to be serious, they said.

The accident occurred when the train hit the MCD vehicle parked close to the railway track near Nathupura colony to remove carcasses of buffaloes. 

New Delhi, July 7
Delhi Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit has said that a City Development Plan (CDP) for Delhi under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JLNURM) would be finalised soon.

At the first meeting of state-level Steering Committee of the JLNURM that was convened today, Ms Dikshit instructed the departments concerned to finalise the CDP at the earliest to enable the Delhi Government to avail benefits out of JLNURM amounting to Rs 50,000 crore announced by the Prime Minister.

She has asked formulators of the CDP to keep in view multiplicity of authorities, NCR concept, in situ resettlement of poor families and development of villages.

The CM also stressed the need for common facilities of waste management, dumping of hazardous waste, transport requirements and availability of water and power for NCR states while giving the final touches.

The vision of the CDP would be development of Delhi as most liveable city. It was pointed out that Delhi was the sixth most populous city in the world with 15.3 million people where 26 per cent of the population lived in slums.

Instructing her officers to give a human face to the CDP, Ms Dikshit added that her government wanted the entire Delhi to shine. The CDP would most probably have special mention of the housing needs of construction labour and safai mazdoor.

She has further asked to highlight better sanitation and equitable distribution of water. The PWD, the MCD, the DJB, the DSIDC, the Slum and JJ Department and the DDA have submitted proposals amounting to Rs 10,936 crore. Under the JLNURM, financial pattern, the Centre would be sharing 35 per cent, the state government 15 per cent and the agencies concerned will have to bear the rest of the 50 per cent of the project.

At today’s meeting, a consensus emerged on providing more powers to elected representatives in Delhi. While Mr Sajjan Kumar sought more powers for the Delhi Government, requested the setting up of Slum Development Board and Delhi Housing Board, Mr Sandeep Dikshit raised a demand for bringing the subject of land under the Delhi Government. He added that habitation for the poor should be the first priority of the CDP.

Dr Narendra Nath was in favour of bringing the DDA under the control of the Delhi Government. Dr Kiran Walia said the Delhi Government would be able to effectively implement JLNURM if it got statehood. 

New Delhi, July 7
The Science and Technology Ministry is working on a plan to ease the problem of water scarcity in Delhi by linking through a project the best practices and water management strategies of the Capital with Mexico City.

Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who visited Mexico, the USA and the UK last month, has discussed the water management project with Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. Mexico City has a population of 20 million while about 13 million people live in Delhi.

Mr Sibal said a mega city project on water in the context of needs of residents of Mexico city and Delhi would be jointly implemented. “It would involve a range of stakeholders with the objective of delivering water to all,” he said.

He said a plan of action would be ready in the next few months with inputs from experts and non-government organisations.

The minister said it was unfortunate that the poor had to pay high water user charges.

He said there was a need to develop technology to prevent wastage of water estimated at around 40 per cent.

“If we can plug the leakages and save this 40 per cent of wasted water, the problem of water scarcity can be solved to a great extent,” he said.

Mr Sibal said collaboration was being done with a 
US university on water management problems in rural areas.

New Delhi, July 7
A day after clouds and easterly winds brought some relief to Delhiites from the scorching heat, a rise in humidity to more than 70 per cent today led to sultry conditions.

Though the sky continued to be cloudy, which the weatherman said was 
a result of South West monsoon moving towards Delhi, the high humidity level led to a rise in 
maximum temperature to 38 degrees Celsius 
from yesterday’s 37.5 degrees C.

The Met Office, however, says the rise in humidity is a natural phenomenon in the build-up to the monsoon clouds.

Even as Delhi still awaits its first monsoon showers, the weatherman says the first rains of the South West monsoon would be here by tomorrow evening or Saturday.

The build-up of clouds over the Delhi skyline since yesterday was also a pre-monsoon phenomenon.

The weather office has forecast light rains and thundershowers accompanied by squalls during the next 24 hours.

The Capital could witness heavy rains by late tomorrow evening or the morning of July 8. 

Gurgaon, July 7
The Chief Vigilance Officer-cum-Enforcement Officer, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), has started investigating all cases of transfer of property carried out by the Estate Officer (EO) in March and April this year.

According to highly placed sources, the Gurgaon office received a total of 485 transfer applications in March and around 500 cases in April.

It is pertinent to mention here that a number of residents have complained to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Chief Administrator, HUDA that the concerned officials were harassing the applicants for personal gain. As per the guidelines of the department, the permission for transfer of property should be granted to the applicants within 15 days. And after giving the permission for transfer of property, the re-allotment letter should be issued within three days of application.

However, property dealers claim that there are hundreds of cases where rules and regulations were thrown to winds by officials on one pretext or another. There are cases where the permissions and re-allotment letters were given in five days. And there are cases which are kept pending for more than three months in the department.

Manish Verma, a house owner who had to run from pillar to post to get permission for transfer, said that if investigated properly, it would be disclosed that the cases were not taken up by the officials serial-wise.

An affected residents alleged on the condition of anonymity that one has to cough up between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 for getting the permission for transfer and Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 for re-allotment letter to different officials of the department.

After much persuasion, the Administrator, Gurgaon Zone, HUDA, Mr S P Gupta, conceded that the Chief Vigilance Officer had started checking the disposal of transfer of property applications for March and April.

He claimed that it is a routine exercise of the department and had nothing to do with the allegation of corruption charges against the officials.

The Chief Vigilance Officer would complete the investigation within a couple of days and submit the report to the Chief Administrator, HUDA.

He refused to divulge the outcome of his investigation.

New Delhi, July 7
It was a lesson on electricity that left the students charged.

As part of its ongoing initiative to strengthen consumer interface, the BSES had launched a unique programme, the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) Darshan for students and RWAs. Under this programme, students of Vidya Niketan School, Saket, spent time at the BSES SCADA Centre today, learning all about electricity and its suppliers.

These students of classes 9, 10 and 11, led by a teacher and their director, said the exercise was not just fun, but educative as well. “It was a good experience and this made us realise that it is not the government that cheats us but we who cheat them,” said Manish Gupta.

For Jyoti Rathore it was “an amazing and wonderful experience” that has prompted her to make “best efforts to conserve electricity”.

Besides giving them a hands-on experience of SCADA functioning, the students and teachers also got an opportunity to interact with SCADA experts who answered all their power related queries.

The students were taken through the entire process of electricity generation, transmission and distribution, said Mr Sajjad Rizvi, Head, Systems and Operations, BSES.

The students were explained the reasons behind the current power shortage and how can they could contribute at their individual level to alleviate the problem

The SCADA Darshan for students and RWAs is aimed at making consumers aware of the company’s recent initiatives, allowing them to experience first hand the business and management of electricity in the BSES licensed area.

The programme, launched on June 12 this year, has so far witnessed over 60 RWA members from more than 20 South Delhi and East Delhi RWAs visiting the SCADA Centre.

The commissioning of SCADA in Delhi makes it join the league of cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Stockholm and London, it was mentioned. 

Meerut, July 7
In another major haul of suspected war scrap, police have stumbled upon over 200 rocket launchers, hand grenades and missiles in Mawana area of the district.

The recoveries were made in Rajvaha area on the outskirts of Meerut yesterday, Mawana Deputy Superintendent of Police, BP Singh said, adding that the ‘anti-bomb squad’ has been summoned to examine the artillery.

“We suspect that most of the shells are empty but have still called the squad as a precautionary measure,” he said.

The haul has been buried and the area sealed off until the arrival of the squad, Singh said.

In 2004, a cache of explosives believed to be war scrap of Gulf War-II was recovered from Bhushan Steel Factory in Ghaziabad after which similar hauls were made in many places in north India. 

Ghaziabad, July 7
Demanding the arrest of the policeman who allegedly shot dead an advocate in Meerut 10 days ago, lawyers have threatened that agitation across Uttar Pradesh and will intensify and spill over to other states unless a CBI probe is ordered into the killing.

Advocate Satbir Malik was killed on June 27 when constable Pradeep Kumar Yadav allegedly opened fire with his AK-47 assault rifle. “There are at least 40 bullet holes in his Jagriti Vihar house in Meerut,” Meerut Bar Association president Rohtas Kumar Aggarwal said here today.

He also accused the Meerut police of shielding the constable and demanded his immediate arrest, besides reiterating that the investigation of the incident be handed over to the CBI.