New Delhi, August 9
The Uttar Pradesh police on Tuesday charged a Delhi Police constable with kidnapping and killing two people in a false gunfight.

The families of the victims, Zulfikar, 26, and Nazakat, 22 claimed that five Delhi Police personnel had frisked away the duo from a court in Ghaziabad, a satellite town of the national capital. However, in the first information report the families mentioned only Ashok, a constable who allegedly shot the duo dead in the Timarpur area north Delhi, a police official said.

“The district collector of Ghaziabad had ordered an inquiry after receiving an application from the family members of the two people who were killed,” said Ghaziabad police chief Govind Agarwal.

“We have registered a case on the basis of the complaint,” said Agarwal. He added that the magisterial probe was ordered on Aug 2.

“We had informed the Delhi Police about the inquiry and they have also started an independent inquiry in the incident,” said Agarwal.

“The investigations in the case is being conducted by the Crime Branch,” said Deependra Pathak, additional commissioner of Delhi Police.

Delhi Police had earlier claimed that the two alleged criminals were wanted in at least five cases of murder and loot. Police said that the shootout had taken place on July 31. An official of the Delhi Police had also said they had laid a trap to arrest the duo following a tip-off but when the police team tried to stop the duo, they started firing indiscriminately.

Police had said that them men were killed after the police team returned fire. Both were rushed to a nearby hospital where they succumbed to their wounds. Police had also claimed of recovering two country-made pistols and several live cartridges from them.

New Delhi, August 9
Huge crowds were witnessed on all three lines of the DMRC today on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

A heavy rush of commuters was seen at several Metro stations like Shahdara, Vishwavidyalaya, Central Secretariat, Rajiv Chowk, Karol Bagh, Seelampur, Kashmere Gate and Pitam Pura during the day. This was despite the DMRC increasing the frequency of its train services for the day on account of the festival.

Peak hour frequency of four minutes on lines 1 and 2 and five on line 3 was maintained during the day. Generally, peak hour frequency is maintained during office hours, from 8 am to 12 noon and again from 4.30 pm to 8.30 pm. The rest of the day the trains run every eight to 10 minutes.

A DMRC official said security at all Metro stations had been heightened today with sniffer dogs being employed at many stations. Last year, ridership had increased by almost one lakh passengers on Rakshabandhan day.

This year, the DMRC was expecting far more passengers with line 3 having been added to its network.

Gurgaon, August 9
A full-fledged city bus service would be provided by the Haryana Roadways in Gurgaon by October-end, according to the General Manager, Gurgaon unit of Haryana Roadways, Mr Jaibir Singh Arya.

Besides, 50 new buses have been ordered for the National Capital Region. They would be from Gurgaon to various parts of Delhi and NCR, to and fro.

All the buses to be pressed into service will be CNG-propelled.

Mr Aryana disclosed today that 15 buses, five each from Ashok Leyland, Tata Group and Swaraj Mazda will be procured. Each of the bus would cost about Rs 45 lakh. They would be AC-fitted having low flooring.

Spadework like identifying six routes for the city services have already been done.

The routes charted out will cover even the industrial belt of Manesar and Udyog Vihar. The number of routes and buses will be increased as per the demand in future.

The need for a proper city bus services was felt for long. Rather, it was proving to be the sore point of the city, considering the brisk rate of its industrialisation and growth, both in terms of geography and population. With a large number of industrial units and institutes coming up in the city, those related to them, especially the employees, were finding it hard to commute. Presently, office-goers jostle with villagers in three-wheelers and matadors, most of which do business illegally and whose services are erratic, to reach their work places. Women suffer most in the present arrangement.

The Haryna Roadways has decided to purchase 50 new buses from Haryana Roadways Engineering Corporation for interstate services, that is from Gurgaon to other parts of NCR, including various points of the national Capital. They would be deluxe buses, each costing about Rs 17 lakh.

The new buses would run under the mascot ‘Haryana Udai’ (Haryana Shining).

However, according to Mr Arya, the entire fleet of 50 buses for services to NCR areas from Gurgaon would be in place by this yearend.

The present buses in the fleet would be phased out after they completed seven years of life.

New Delhi, August 9
The MCD will check records of some buildings in Karol Bagh area after doubts were expressed by court-appointed monitors whether the illegal constructions in those properties came up before December 31, 2005, the cut-off date for being eligible for the one-year moratorium on demolitions and sealings.

The ‘court commissioner’ appointed by Supreme Court and the monitoring committee set up by Delhi High Court today visited Rama Road in the area and expressed doubts about whether a few buildings in the commercial lane had been built prior to December 31, 2005, a senior MCD official said.

“The monitoring committee and the court commissioner both pointed out that the affidavits given by the building owners was not sufficient proof of when the buildings had come up,” he said.

The records of the buildings pointed out by the court monitors will be checked, and if they are found to be have been constructed before the cut-off date, action will be taken against them, the official said.

Checking the building records will take two to three days time, he said.

Meanwhile, the MCD officials in the area complained of shortage of staff in dealing with illegal constructions.

Noida, August 9
With the cooperation of town’s institutions and organizations, Citizens Forum Noida has started a signature campaign to make Noida a dream city. “Publicity hype is being mounted to popularize Noida as dream city, but actually there is hardly anything dream-like here”, says Convener of Citizens Forum Rear Admiral (retd.) H.C. Malhotra.

According to Mr Malhotra, the main objective of the signature campaign, in which about three thousand campaigns have been collected, is to make Noida Authority aware of the problems of the area. “If Noida Authority sincerely makes efforts, Noida can indeed be converted into a dream city with the cooperation of all these organizations.

The known purpose of holding public meeting once a month or at bimonthly intervals is to enable the representatives of all organizations, institutions and common residents to make suggestions for the development of the town.

Admiral Malhorta said in a number of meetings with the Noida authority and CEO, the main issues had been repeatedly thrashed, but still it yielded little result.

“Disregarding the legitimate concerns of the citizens, Noida Authority perhaps backed by the political powers that be, is not showing responsibility for the existing sectors and their concerns. Instead the authorities are showing interest in going ahead with the further sale of lands to earn huge profits for itself,” Admiral Malhotra said.

City’s main institutions and organizations like Arun Vihar Resident Association, Federation of Resident Welfare Associations, NEA, Noida Lok Manch, Women Entrepreneurs Association, and Sector-18 Traders Association etc have all joined hands with the Noida Citizen’s Forum in this campaign. A core group is also planned to be constituted with the representatives of all welfare groups and the industrial, commercial and professional bodies so that the action process for the citizen’s consolidation and solidarity is steered for the widest possible participation to make the requisite impact on all concerned.

The main issues listed by Citizens Forum are power crisis, water supply problems, sanitation and hygiene, roads, traffic, law and order, encroachment and stray cattle. All these need to be tackled by the Noida authority and the district administration on war-footing, Admiral Malhotra said.

“We also feel that the decision-making process for sustained town planning should be made more transparent,” he added.

New Delhi, August 9
After experiencing a power crisis during the last week which saw various areas of Delhi being subjected to heavy loadshedding, the power situation in the capital somewhat normalised today with the discoms being able to successfully meet the power demand of 2900 MW during the peak demand period.

However, a loadshedding of 100 to 200 MW had to be affected in the forenoon, official sources said.

The comfortable power situation today follows a grim power supply scenario last week which saw various areas in the capital being subjected to 400 MW to 500 MW of loadshedding to meet the shortage in supply caused by inadequate power generation by Salal, Chamera I and Chamera II plants. — TNS

Noida, August 9
One cheat having sold a plot a number of times, again sold it to a trader for Rs 16 lakh. When the trader could not get possession of the plot, he demanded his money back. At this stage, the trader was kidnapped.

On Sunday evening, the dubious property dealer was arrested from Barola village. As the police pressure increased, the accused set the trader free at Bulandshahr and himself returned to Barola from where he was picked up by police.

To avoid returning the trader’s money, the property dealer made a murderous attack on his brother. While Praveen Madan was going home after closing his shop at 11.30 pm on Sunday, he was kidnapped by four persons in an Indica car. The criminals had even beaten up a security guard. Police who were informed soon, barricaded the road and started a vehicle check. But the criminals could not be found. Police learnt that Praveen Madan had a dispute with property dealer Jeet Pal Singh of Barola over return of money. While the police had not come back from Jeet Pal’s house yet, trader was recovered from Gulawatti town of Bulandshahr.

SP City Soumitra Yadav said accused was nabbed by a police team. He had earlier also cheated many people by palming off plots already sold.

Rajinder, Madan’s brother said, they had given Rs 16 lakh as advance to Jeet Pal for buying a plot in Sector 71 on Expressway. They had complained to the City Magistrate too. SP City said accused Jeet Pal had cheated many people in property deals. The police have recovered a licensed pistol, some cartridges and an Accent car, SP City added.

New Delhi, August 9
A proposal to pay homage to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by installing his statue in the University of Delhi, put forth by the National Students’ Union of India has resulted in a row.

While the NSUI claims that the opposition to the proposal is meaningless and unnecessary, their opponents the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad have raised the issue with the University authorities, claiming the move is “illegal and smacks of sycophancy”.

ABVP activist who staged a protest over the move here today alleged that Ragini Nayak, former President of the Delhi University Students’ Union, has violated norms by trying to install statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in the office premises without taking permission from the University authorities.

Delhi State Secretary, ABVP Nakul Bhardwaj said, “Ragini Nayak has shown total disregard to rules, she is trying to install statues in the DUSU office even though her tenure as President DUSU is over. She claims she has notified the authorities, but there is no official document to prove that. We do have anything against Gandhiji’s statue being installed in the University, but are against the way it is being done”.

The ABVP activists are also up in arms against the installation of Rajiv Gandhi’s statue in the DUSU office. “He was a former Prime Minister whose name was involved in the Bofors Scam. We see no reasons why there should be his statue. There have been so many other former PM’s who have made considerable contribution to the country, why not choose all of them then,” Nakul questioned.

New Delhi, August 9
Former Delhi Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana today said he would launch a 15-day campaign to highlight various problems, like shortage of power, water and price rise, being faced by Delhiites.

Talking to newspersons, Mr Khurana said he would be devoting more time now to take up the problems of the people of Delhi and, therefore, had decided to launch a mass contact programme from September 1 to 15 to get a first-hand knowledge of the situation. He would then press for the redressal of the people’s grievances, Mr Khurana said.—TNS

New Delhi, August 9
Indian Youth Congress chief Ashok Tanwar today said the Youth Congress day would be commemorated as `Yuva jaago abhiyan’ in which IYC activists would reach out to people to tell them about various social evils plaguiing the society.

Mr Tanwar who today hoisted the IYC flag to celebrate Youth Congress Day, said the day coincided with the anniversary of Quit India movement.

He said the call to celebrate this day as Youth Congress Day was given by former Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru.

The IYC activists celebrated Raksha Bandhan by offering sweets to the students of Janta Adarsh Andh Vidyalaya, Sadiq Nagar, who tied them rakhis.

The IYC workers promised to look after their needs and concerns.

Noida, August 9
For lack of any worthwhile arrangements by district administration to deal with flood furry, people living in villages along the Yamuna bank are a worried lot. If any villager is caught in flood furry or meets an accident while crossing the river in a boat, there would be no one to come to his rescue, as the district administration has not made any arrangement so far to prevent casualties in such situation.

With Yamuna water level continuously rising, not a single steamer has been put on duty in the river. About 41 villages are situated on both the banks of Yamuna in Gautam Budh Nagar district of the Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad district of Haryana.

Being on the Yamuna bank, the risk of floods in the surrounding areas is always there during these days. But the district authorities have so far not prepared to face the emerging situation for the help and rescue of people.

According to Additional DM, in charge of arrangements to meet natural calamities, special watch posts had been set in 32 villages, including Chhagarsi, Kondli, Gulawatii, Aurangabad, Patehpur and Atta, facing the flood threat. An employee each of revenue and irrigation departments has been put on duty in these posts. They are all in touch with Saharanpur and Hardwar and in case of alarming rise in water level in the river, they alert the official machinery. Seven people have drowned in Yamuna in Ballabhgarh, but Faridabad has not requested for any help so far, the ADM said.

New Delhi, August 9
With a view to stem conflict and foster a culture of peace, Bharat Soka Gakkai organised a symposium on Dr Daisaku Ikeda’s 2006 Peace Proposal, ‘A new era of the people: forging a global network of robust individuals’.

Held for the third consecutive year, the symposium is part of the BSG’s ongoing efforts to engage with peace activists and work towards creating a climate of mutual respect and understanding.—TNS

Noida, August 9
Krishi Mishra, a resident of area under Sector-24 police station, who was gored by a stray bull in Sector-11 yesterday, succumbed to
his injuries in Metro hospital here.

The victim was on his way to home from his office yesterday when the stray bull attacked him near Jhandpura. The bull’s horn had embedded into Krishi’s stomach. Some passersby shooed away the bull and rushed the victim to Metro hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Police CO (Traffic) K.K Gautam said the area was haunted by the menace of stray bulls, which were a terror on road. Apart from being big traffic hazard, they always caused accidents, he added. The Noida authority had been asked umpteen times in waiting for taking proper action.

Since 2003 more than 6 persons have lost their life in attack by stray bulls. One of the victims was a child in 2005. The official car of SP City was among numerous vehicles damaged by stray bulls in Noida.