New Delhi, September 2
A sessions court today supplied the parties interested the report on the inspection of Uphaar Cinema complex in which 59 persons lost their lives on June 13, 1997 when a fire broke out during the screening of the Hindi blockbuster ‘Border’.

Additional Sessions Judge Mamta Sehgal handed the copies of the report of inspection conducted on August 19, 2006 to the CBI, the Association of Victims of the Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) and the accused side.

The report comprehensively covers the sightings made by the court inside the complex and the general layout of the three-storeyed building, the basement and the transformer room during the court’s visit to the site which had been preserved as “material evidence” for the past 9 years since the date of occurrence of the tragedy.

The inspection was conducted as per the orders of the Delhi High Court on September 12, 2003 to study the evidence. On the second floor balcony of the theatre, where victims were asphyxiated to death by the smoke from the blaze, the court observed that “the space provided for exhaust fans on the walls was found blocked with the help of a cardboard”.

The court has observed a “blackness on the roof and walls of the balcony”.

The High Court had compared the balcony of the theatre to a “gas chamber” in an August 28, 2001 order while dismissing a revision petition filed by two accused MCD officials - S.S. Sharma and N.D. Tiwari.

Regarding its inspection of the basement parking lot and transformer room, the court said that a vehicle was parked only a few inches from the electricity panel room giving hardly any space for emergency manoeuvers.

In another contradiction to the accused’s arguments during trial, the court observed that air conditioner ducts in the building were indeed in a burnt condition.

The case has been posted to September 4 for the hearing of the application of accused B M Satija, a former Delhi Fire Services official to re-examine defence witness - ex-DVB personnel R C Upadhyay.

The final arguments in the case will be opened by former Solicitor General Harish Salve on September 28.

New Delhi, September 2
The MCD today continued with its sealing drive in different residential localities even as the protests against its action continued in some areas from traders and common people.

The MCD sealing drive was faced with a brief protest in the Rajender Nagar area of Karol Bagh zone this afternoon with nearly 100 traders and common people opposing the sealing of shops.

However, the sealing drive continued after a brief disruption. Meanwhile, clearing the air of confusion prevailing in the Capital over categories of units to be sealed during the drive, the Supreme court-appointed Monitoring committee today released a list of categories of units which would come under the purview of the MCD action.

Sealing on banquet halls will begin from September 8 while commercial establishments in ‘A’ and ‘B’ category areas have been given a deadline of September 15 to close down and will be sealed from September 16.

Sealing deadline of banquet halls situated in the residential areas has already been extended to September 15. The August 31 deadline for closure of banquet halls was on Wednesday extended after a number of representations were received by the MCD as well as the Monitoring Committee highlighting difficulties in arranging alternative site for marriages and other functions at such a short notice.

Sealing in several commercial units in residential areas of Delhi began yesterday following an August 18 notification by the Urban Development Ministry withdrawing exemption granted to these categories under the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006.

Meanwhile, a large number of women of trader families today staged a dharna and demonstration in Chandni Chowk area of Delhi and posed several important questions concerning the disaster.

In the series of demonstrations, the children of trader families will sit on a hunger strike tomorrow at Karol Bagh. The demonstrators asked the government to follow the principle of governance by protecting business establishments from clutches of sealing.

They also regretted that the government utterly failed in suggesting any kind of rehabilitation package which ought to be prepared by the government prior to make any kind of sealing.

New Delhi, September 2
Days ahead of the DUSU polls, students’ organisations barring the AISA are yet to come out with their manifestos, yet it does not stop them from claiming that it is an election based on issues.

While the process of casting the vote for elections scheduled for September 8 has been spruced up, the canvassing has undergone little change. Even days before the polling, a large section of students remain unaware of what the issues are. The incumbent NSUI, which will release its manifesto on Monday, claims that unlike the previous years, the issues this year will cover “broader areas”.

“We have realised that the aspirations and the needs of the students have changed. They don’t just need more U Specials, but professional courses,” said a senior functionary of the party.

Providing a preview of the NSUI’s manifesto, she said, “We hope we can work with individual college unions and address their specific needs. Our aim is also to provide at least two-three computers to each college for the use of students”.

The United Students, which has fielded just one candidate, is also expected to release their manifesto on Sunday. “Our idea is not to create a manifesto that runs into pages. We will take up only so many issues and guarantee that we will deliver what we’ve promised. For instance, we have spoken about the issue of women’s safety, for this we have already submitted a memorandum to the Vice-Chancellor and met the Proctor to share our suggestions on how to make the campus safe for women,” said Aditya Raj Kaul of the United Students.

The AISA has promised to take up the issue of fee hike and commercialisation of education. “We need a DUSU that will resist the commercialisation of education. AISA is the only student organisation to have held a march to Parliament in the monsoon session demanding an end to the commercialisation of education,” said Suman, who is contesting for the post of President.

The party will also raise a demand for the setting up of an apex body against sexual harassment in DU.

The ABVP, which is also likely to release its manifesto on Monday, wants to resume work on its proposal to make the campus “compact”.

“When we won in 1999, our President Ritu Verma got a map drawn by the administration that proposed to make the campus compact. When the NSUI took over, the work was put on the back burner. In 2002, we tried to resume work on it, but again it was left half way. This is an issue that we will take up this year,” said Subhash Sharma, media coordinator, ABVP.

The ABVP has also included a demand for new colleges and hostels for women in all co-ed colleges in their agenda. Reforms in internal assessment, examinations and timely declaration of results are some of the issues which are being projected by several other factions. 

New Delhi, September 2
The Prime Minister’s Media Advisor, Dr Sanjaya Baru, today assured that he would look into the problems being faced by journalists in covering the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

He told a delegation of the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) which had met him to apprise him of the difficulties the journalists were facing while gaining access to the PMO as the entry to it has been restricted to the accredited newspersons only.

The delegation was led by DUJ president S.K. Pande and comprised among others general secretary Javed Faridi.

The delegation submitted a memorandum to Dr Baru which demanded, among other things, that the quota of accredited correspondents to various newspapers, news agencies, magazines and TV channels be increased.

They also reminded Dr Baru of the long-standing demand of the journalists for the constitution of a wage board.

Dr Baru informed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is already seized of the matter as he has been receiving representations in this connection from all over India, a DUJ press release said.

Noida, September 2
Noida Board has provided a big relief to Noida allottees by restoring the provision of one-time lease rent, which was stopped by the Board in February.

Resident Welfare Associations and various political parties had opposed the February decision very strongly. Allottees are now feeling relief with the restoration of this facility.

In February, Noida had made a provision that those who had been allotted plots before February 18, 2006 could, if they so decided, take advantage by depositing a one-time lease rent up to May 31, which was later extended to June 30 and then up to July 31.

The allottees were to deposit lease rent with the Noida Authority for 90 years. A concession was given to the allottees that in case they deposited lease rent for 10 years, they would get a relief for 3 years.

But the allottees were losing lakhs of rupees under this system.

This had seen BJP MLA Nawab Singh Nagar, Samajwadi Party MLA Ashok Chauhan, Noida Entrepreneurs Association and Resident Welfare Associations open a joint front against Noida Authority.

While addressing a public meeting of the traders in Sector-18 on August 2, after formally starting of Metro work in Noida, Amar Singh, chairman of UP development council had declared that a one-time lease rent facility will continue in Noida.

The Noida Board in its meeting yesterday had formally restored the facility.

There have been two systems of depositing lease rent in Noida Authority. As per the first option, allottees by depositing 10 years’ lease rent get the benefit for 90 years. As per the second option, allottees can deposit lease rent with the Noida Authority annually or every month for 90 years.

Each allottee could select the option convenient to him.

New Delhi, September 2
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s project to start new landfill sites for dumping of municipal solid waste has not been completed, even after the civic body consulted experts to finalise it. The project was cleared by the Standing Committee of the MCD to identify new landfill sites before the existing sites exhausted their life span.

The existing landfill sites are located in Ghazipur in trans-Yamuna area, Bhalsawa Jahangirpuri in North Delhi and Okhla in South Delhi. These sites are now packed to their capacity.

Sources said the authorities had also consulted a US-based company to develop a landfill site at Jaitpur near Badarpur in South Delhi. They also chose two other such sites – on Bawana-Najafgarh Road and Bhatti Mines. However, no final decision has yet been taken about these sites, though a number of meetings have been held in this connection.

Having seen the poor condition of existing landfill sites, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) warned the MCD that all the three sites had exhausted their life span and underlined the urgent need of identifying new sites.

About six thousands metric tonnes of the waste is generated in the national Capital. Around 40 per cent of the total waste remains uncollected as the civic body follows the traditional method of collecting waste from ‘dhalaos’. While loading the waste from dhalaos, the labourers leave 40 per cent of the garbage.

Of the total garbage generated every day, only 700 metric tonnes is processed for composting per day and even the performance of three composting plants is not satisfactory.

When contacted, Director (Information) of the MCD said the civic body had already identified new landfill sites at Jaitpur, Bawana and Bhatti Mines. Environment Impact Assessment by experts was in process, he added. Once these got clearance from the Environment Department of the Central government, the dumping of municipal solid waste at these sites would begin, he said. There was opposition from local residents in these areas, but they had been convinced that dumping of garbage would not affect the environment of their place, he said. 

Faridabad, September 2
The panchayat sarpanches have been asked to organize meetings of the gram sabhas regularly and take consensus of the members of the elected bodies before using funds for any scheme.

While addressing the sarpanches and the elected representatives at a meeting of the Ballabhgarh subdivision here in the morning, on Friday, the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), issued a warning to them against fraud at any level. He said strict action would be taken if any irregularity was detected.

He announced that the village panchayats in Haryana would be able to spend funds up to Rs 3 lakh for development without needing sanction from the district or state administrations.

However, this proposal is currently only to projects which are yet to be launched. The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj has taken away the decision-making authority from officials such as executive engineers and delegated the authority to the elected body of villages.

There would be no change in the work process of the ongoing schemes, the representatives are told.

A meeting of the state government officials was held recently in which the Additional Deputy Commissioners and the District Development and Panchayat Officers (DDPO) took part. They were asked to implement the move to empower the gram panchayats in each subdivision or block. It was stated that the success of this programme would pave the way for launching it around the country afterwards.

The DDPO said that since it was a bold step to empower the village bodies, it would check the delay in the launch and completion of various projects.

He said there should be no scope of misuse of the authority by the village head.

The district officials also sought the involvement of the village and local bodies in carrying out the campaigns like total sanitation in villages, plantation drive, diversification in agriculture and the pulse polio drive in rural areas.

It may be recalled that the success rate of various schemes, including the literacy programme known as ‘Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’ has been poor so far despite spending huge funds.

Noida, September 2
In yet another case of death in police custody, a young man taken into custody last night for suspected involvement in a robbery case, was found hanging from a window grill of the toilet attached to his cell today morning at the Sector 20 police station.

Giving details of the incident, the SSP Gautam Budh Nagar said he had placed the staff officer incharge of the police station and four other policemen under suspension for dereliction of duty.

He said death or suicide by an accused in police lock-up was a serious matter.

The SSP said that Sonu, son of Dalveer, a resident of Hazratpur under Khurja police station, had been picked up by the police last night for interrogation in connection with a robbery in house No J-108, Sector 41 here on August 1.

The owner had lodged a complaint at the Sector 39 police post that some criminals had barged into his house and looted cash, jewellery and other valuables. The SSP said Sonu was picked up and brought to the Sector 20 police station last night.

There were eight other occupants in the cell in which he was locked up. At 4 am today, someone raised the alarm that Sonu was hanging from the window grill in the toilet. He was taken to Kailash Hospital where he was declared brought dead. His parents have been informed, he said.

The SSP said the District Magistrate was being requested to order a magisterial enquiry while he had ordered a departmental enquiry at his level. 

Gurgaon, September 2
The district police must immediately investigate and arrest all culprits who threw stones at the demolition squad injuring three senior officials, the HUDA administrator has demanded.

District Town Planner (Enforcement) Ms Gurmeet Kaur, Duty Magistrate Jitender Kumar (Tehsildar) and Junior Engineer Ram Gopal Mittal were injured when a strong mob of around 500 persons threw stones at the team when they were demolishing the illegal colony near Sheetla Mata Mandir yesterday.

The mob also damaged the official Tata Suma and JCB machine there. Addressing the mediapersons, the administrator, HUDA, Mr S P Gupta said that the department is surprised to note that 22 police personnel who were present officially with the team did nothing to protect senior officials from the mob.

Mr Gupta also revealed that the police department was earlier told to provide at least a couple of woman police constables so that the lady officer (Ms Gurmeet Kaur) could be protected in case of any untoward incident. But yesterday there was no female constable with the team, lamented the officer. To cap it, the policemen on duty were not carrying tear-gas, helmets and other required paraphernalia to meet such situation, alleged the HUDA administrator.

However, as usually done while demolishing any illegal structures, the DTP (E) had also recorded the video film of the whole incident yesterday and handed a copy to the police department so that all real culprits could be easily identified and arrested, informed the officer.

Confirming the HUDA’s version, the local Tehsildar, Mr Jitender Kumar, told The Tribune that while the mob was pelting stones at the official team, the police personnel present on the spot did nothing and rather disappeared from the scene. He himself called the area Station House Officer, Sector 5 to seek police help but the SHO could not be contacted, added Mr Kumar, who was acting as Duty Magistrate on the spot.

A large number of broken pieces of glasses injured his body and he along with Mr Gurmeet Kaur had to rush to save their lives, revealed the Tehsildar.

New Delhi, September 2
An 18-year-old nursing student of the Moolchand Hospital in South Delhi, who was apparently depressed after failing in her first year examination, reportedly committed suicide by jumping from the seventh floor of the hostel building last night.

The police have recovered two suicide notes from the spot – one was addressed to her mother and another to friends, a police official said.

“It is a clear cut case of suicide and there is no need of any further investigation. The body has been sent to the AIIMS for autopsy,” he said.