New Delhi, September 15
In a massive relief for traders in Delhi, living under the constant fear of sealing of their shops after the expiry of the September 16 deadline by the Supreme Court, the Delhi Government today notified nearly 2200 roads/streets in the Capital as either commercial or mixed land use streets.

As per the notification, which was cleared by Lt-Governor B. L. Joshi this afternoon, 2,000 roads or streets in E, F and G colonies and nearly 200 roads in C and D colonies were declared commercial, mixed land use or pedestrian shopping streets following their listing by the MCD earlier this week, a spokesperson for the Delhi Government said.

The notification by the Delhi Government comes after the Centre last night issued a corrigendum for relevant sections of the MCD Act, empowering the Delhi Government to notify modified land use norms.

The notification of these roads as commercial/mixed use streets is sure to bring tremendous relief to small traders of Delhi, who have been dreading sealing of their commercial establishments on the expiry of the September 16 deadline issued by the Supreme Court to the MCD for sealing of shops in residential areas.

The MCD had on September 11 notified 1969 roads in E, F and G colonies as commercial or mixed land use streets as per the September 7 notification of the Urban Development Ministry amending the 2001 Master Plan.

The list of roads pertaining to the E, F and G colonies in Delhi for which a flexible mixed land policy had been prescribed by the amended Master Plan, included 682 commercial streets i.e. streets with more than 70 per cent commercialisation, 573 mixed use streets (those with more than 50 per cent commercialisation), 599 pedestrian shopping streets (streets of less than 6 m ROW in E, F and G colonies) and 125 roads/streets already notified as mixed use streets and now identified as commercial streets.

The list was passed by the Standing Committee of the MCD at a specially convened meeting and then sent to the Delhi Government for its approval.

Subsequently, the MCD Standing Committee yesterday notified 204 roads, including 185 in C and D colonies, as commercial/mixed use areas.

Despite the MCD designating these roads as commercial/mixed use areas and sending the list to the Delhi Government for final notification, the state government had been dithering on the issue of notifying the roads despite the deadline set by the Supreme Court drawing near.

This was because under the MCD Act changing land use can only be done by the Centre.

Hence, it would have been legally difficult for the state government to issue a gazette notification on new commercial and mixed-use areas.

All this has, in the past few days, led to uncertainty over the likely fate of lakhs of shops in the Capital.

In fact, at the meeting of the Standing Committee yesterday, MCD councillors, cutting across party lines, urged the Delhi Government and Lt-Governor B. L. Joshi to notify the roads designated by the corporation as commercial or for mixed land use before September 16 to put the prevailing uncertainty at rest.

However, with the Centre issuing a corrigendum under the relevant Act last, the way was paved for notification by the state government of the commercial and mixed-use roads to provide relief to lakhs of small traders who have been dreading the sealing of their shops after September 16.

MCD leaders feel that the notification of the above roads as commercial/mixed use areas would bring relief to almost 90 per cent of traders in Delhi and their employees. Shops in areas designated as commercial in today’s notification would not be subject to any sealing by the MCD.

However, sealing operation in A and B, the so-called posh colonies, is likely to go on as usual with the September 7 notification by the Urban Development Ministry banning the commercial activities in these areas.

The notification of certain streets in these areas as commercial or mixed use will be considered only on a specific request of the RWA.

Further, sealing of shops falling under the negative list as mentioned in the amended Master Plan would also go on. The present list also does not cover rural areas as a special committee had been set up by the Delhi Government to deliberate on the issue of commercial activities in the areas.

Also, shops which had been already been sealed under the MCD sealing drive would be de-sealed. About all such shops would only be de-sealed after the permission of the Supreme Court appointed Monitoring Committee.

However, MCD leader, including Leader of the House Jitender Kochar and Standing committee Chairman Jai Kishen Sharma, have expressed the hope 40,000 traders whose shops had been sealed but who had submitted affidavits that they would shift to other professions would also get relief after the notification.

New Delhi, September 15
The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) is worried about the fate of private medical care facilities in the national Capital following notification of certain modifications in the Delhi Master Plan 2001.

Both the Indian Medical Association and the Delhi Medical Association are of the view that the notification, which comes into effect from tomorrow, will lead to closure of more than 40,000 clinics here. Annoyed with the government for overlooking their demands, the IMA and the DMA have threatened a nationwide agitation along with doctors from other systems of medicine if the government does not look into their representation in the next 72 hours. The IMA has demanded that all pre-registered medical services be allowed to maintain status quo.

Dr Sanjiv Malik, president, Indian Medical Association, said, “In the past three months, our members have handed in representations to Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken, Delhi Finance Minister A. K. Walia and Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri. We have exhausted all possibilities and would not hesitate in taking recourse to the law of the land for relief.”

He said that certain provisions were absolutely contrary to the government’s own stand. “Now they are saying that the minimum area for a nursing home should be 200 square metre on a road width of 60 feet. The DDA till as recently as two years back had auctioned 150 square metres and less sized plots earmarked as nursing homes. Where do we get a road width of 60 feet? Does the government mean that they are only looking at setting up nursing homes on Pandara Road, Prithviraj Road, Race Course Road and Akbar Road?” he queried.

Faridabad, September 15
A Member of Parliament and an MLA have been named as accused in a criminal complaint filed in the local court in connection with an incident of firing and violence that took place in the district court complex here in March. 

The complainant, Mr Ajay Kumar Singh, himself a practicing lawyer, has named as many as 37 persons, including the two politicians, and about 20 other lawyers practicing here as the accused in the complaint filed under Section 307, 148, 149, 120-B of the IPC and 25, 27 54 and 59 of the Arms Act. 

The complainant has accused the politicians of supporting and patronising anti-social elements and creating terror in the complex.

One advocate was injured in the firing in broad daylight on March 31. 

The complainant has appealed to the court to begin the trial, especially against the politicians and some advocates who had allegedly been spared by the police in the original FIR “due to their influence”. 

Gurgaon, September 15
Buoyed by the success of its earlier experiment, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board has decided to hold another round of camps at regional levels for on the spot disposal of “consent” licences to the industrial units.

According to the Board’s Regional Officer, Gurgaon, the next round of camps would be held next month.

A few days back, the Board had organised its camps at Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ballabgarh, Bahadurgarh, Panipat, Sonipat, Yamunanagar, Panchkula and Hisar regional centres. In the Gurgoan region, encompassing Gurgaon, Rewari, Mewat and Mahendergarh districts, on the spot consent licenses were granted to about 750 industrial units that accounted for about 50 per cent of the licenses granted in the state.

As per the new experiment, the entire headquarters staff of the Board led by its Chairman visits the region and following an interface with the units-applicants for the licenses disposes of the cases on the spot. 

Earlier, the captains of industry had to make visits to Chandigarh for the purpose, which was time consuming and tedious affair. 

The new experiment, according to the RO, takes the Board virtually to the doorsteps of the units making the entire process speedy.

Every unit has to procure the consent licence on quality of air and water discharge and its impact on the environment, on an annual basis. However, as per the liberalised rule, the units can also procure it for the period of two years, five years or 10 years after paying the requisite fees.

An industrialist claimed that the new experiment had made life easy for the industry. Also, it has cut down the chances of harassment of the industrial units by the inspectors of the Board, he said.

According to reports, the Board has already received several requests for holding another round of camps at the centres for grant of the consent licenses from Gurgoan and Faridabad regions as many of the cases are yet to be decided.

New Delhi, September 15
They may agree on the need to save children as young as four from the trauma that interviews have turned out to be, but they are still disagreeing on how to do that. Even as a committee appointed by the Delhi High Court is readying a common admission procedure, principals of public schools are yet to reach a consensus on the admission formula.

“There is a strong possibility that the schools will eventually shift to the neighbourhood school system. Some schools have proposed giving weightage to those students whose elder sibling is already enrolled in the school or whose parents are the alumni,” said advocate Ashok Agarwal of the Social Jurist, who has filed the petition against interviews for admission.

Mr Agarwal was part of a meeting called by the committee appointed by the high court to devise common admission criteria for admission to nursery in unaided private schools. He said, “The court has specified that admission at the entry level should not be based on the interview of the child or of the parents. The discretion which the schools exercise in issuing admission cards or interview cards has to be completely stopped”.

His demand for seeking transparency in the admission process is echoed by Ms Usha Ram, Principal of Laxman Public School. “We have also been seeking a transparent admission process, which will have interaction instead of interviews”, she held.

Mr Agarwal has suggested eradicating the discretion of the management in admitting students to ensure more transparency.

“The objectives of making admissions child-friendly and transparent can be achieved by applying the neighbourhood school policy strictly. Parents living within the radius of 8 km should be entitled to apply for admission and schools should divide the applications into eight parts on the basis of distance formula,” he points out.

He has further suggested exhibiting the entire list of the applicants on the notice board of the school before granting admission and inviting objections, if any, within three days.

In the first phase, admission should be granted to those who come within a radius of one kilometre. Subsequently, this should be expanded up to 8 km, he contended.

“In this process, at any stage, if the number of applicants in a particular list is found more than the available seats a draw of lots can be used to settle the matter,” he added.

New Delhi, September 15
Jamia Millia Islamia is organising a five-day workshop on forced migration at the Academy of Third World Studies from September 18 to 22. The workshop is a joint collaboration between Jamia and the Calcutta Research Group (CRG), Kolkata. The programme is intended for young students, researchers, academicians and activists working in the field of forced migration.

The workshop will deal with issues concerning forced migration and what impels, moves, causes and sustains it, such as nationalism, ethnicity, partition, refugees, national regimes and the international regime of protection, political issues relating to regional trends in migration in South Asia, internal displacement, the gendered nature of forced migration, international humanitarian law and other protection framework, resource politics, environmental degradation and forced migration

It targets at laying special emphasis on the experiences of forced displacement, creative writing on refugee life, nature of internal displacement, critical legal analysis, analysis of notions of vulnerability, care risk, protection and settlement, attention on gender concerns as an internal part of the course, issues of human rights and humanitarian law and action for the victims of displacement. The workshop also aims at multiple objectives like study, training, capacity building and pooling of available resources in displacement studies.

Planned course activities include writing assignments, workshop assignments, group discussions, creative sessions and face-to-face sessions with resource persons experienced in related areas. The courses necessarily include visual studies. Major thinkers and activists in the field of human rights and humanitarian activities have been invited to form the faculty of the course.

The faculty will be drawn from Jamia Millia Islamia, the CRG, people with recognised background in refugee studies, studies on internal displacement, university teaching and research, humanitarian work in NGOs and legal studies, UN functionaries, particularly UNHCR and ICRC functionaries, public policy analysis, journalism, human rights activism and humanitarian work. Attention will be paid to diversity of background and region to bring out diversity in experiences.

Participants in the programme need to have a background in humanities and social sciences, law, social and humanitarian work and human rights work. Preference is being given to women participants and the target is to include at least 50 per cent women participants in the programme.

New Delhi, September 15
BYPL Chief Executive Officer Arun Kanchan has issued a statement detailing the reasons that have affected “normal functioning” at the company.

In a statement, he said on September 13 Mr Anurag Gupta, Assistant Manager, was physically assaulted by Mr M. D. Gautam, district secretary of the union, in the office of Mr Bhupinder Notey, Business Manager, Yamuna Vihar. 

Both Mr Gupta and Mr Notey then submitted a written complaint to the management, which in turn asked Mr P. C. Jain, AGM (Business) East, to conduct a preliminary inquiry. Mr Gautam was found guilty and therefore suspended, the statement reads. 

It further goes on to say, “Now, this is an internal matter of the company. Being a public utility company, our effort is to provide the best possible service to all our esteemed customers. This can be achieved only if we remain a disciplined organisation. You will appreciate that no organisation can and will tolerate indiscipline”.

New Delhi, September 15
With just two more days to go for the inauguration of the Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plant, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today visited the water facility to inspect the preparations.

The water treatment plant had started functioning in August, but it will be officially dedicated to the denizens by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on September 18.

The Chief Minister was accompanied by senior DJB officials during the inspection of the work at the water treatment plant, officials said.

New Delhi, September 15
Students aspiring to study in the United States will have the opportunity to meet representatives of 28 American institutions at the US University Fair here on Saturday.

The fair, at the Taj Palace Hotel, is being organised by the Washington-based Linden Educational Services. “The fair is free of charge and open to the public. The first hour of the fair is for undergraduates only,” the US embassy statement said. 

The participating schools represent the full offering of the US education system, including large state institutions, private universities and liberal arts colleges. Many schools offer distinguished undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programmes in business management, computer science and engineering.—TNS

New Delhi, September 15
Avantika and Shahla won the declamation contest in English and Hindi, respectively, organised by the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (Regional), Western Air Command, for wards of Air Force personnel at Subroto Park here today. The contest was chaired by the president of the AFWWA (R), Western Air Command, Ms Priya Singh.

As many as 14 boys and girls from different Air Force stations under the Western Air Command took part in the contest.

New Delhi, September 15 
The British School has announced its best International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) result so far in the past 10 years. 

A record 92 per cent of the IGCSE grades are from Grade A* to Grade C. Of these, 20 per cent are A*, which is the highest grade in IGCSE. Two students scored A* in all subjects they gave examinations for, the school has claimed.

IGCSE is a broad-based and stimulating programme aimed at children between 14 and 16, which provides an internationally recognised qualification. The British School offers IGCSE courses by two examination boards -Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) and EDEXCEL (London University). It is the examination centre for both too.—TNS

New Delhi, September 15
Delhi BJP leader O. P. Babbar today condoled the death of a 20-year-old girl who allegedly jumped to her death from the CBSE building in East Delhi yesterday after she failed in the class X exam for the third time, particularly in mathematics.

In a statement here, Mr Babbar demanded that mathematics be made an optional subject. “All students are not cut out for mathematics. The subject may be made optional,” he said, adding that the students had to remain at the mercy of schools or teachers because parents were unable to teach modern maths.—OC

New Delhi, September 15
A city consumer court has directed Citi Bank to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to a private company for the bank's failure to provide certain details of the loan disbursed to the latter.

Holding the bank responsible for deficiency in service, the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has asked it to pay the compensation amount within a month.

The Commission Bench headed by Justice J D Kapoor and Member Rumnitta Mittal, however, allowed the plea of the Citi Bank that the consumer South-Delhi based M/s M P Bhargava and Co Pvt Ltd cannot be exempted from making the re-payment of loan amount at the agreed rate of interest on the ground of non-removal of discrepancies.

Earlier, a District Consumer Forum, deciding the complaint of the loanee company, had ruled that the bank was not entitled for charging the interest on the loan amount after August 15, 1998, as it failed to provide certain information.

A loan of Rs 12 lakh was granted to the company on October 5, 1995 by the bank. But, it found certain irregularities regarding the date of loan and charging of booking fees and name of the loanee upon the receipt of statement for the period ending December 13 that year.—TNS

New Delhi, September 15
Nineteen hospitals and 18 schools in the city have been challaned for mosquito breeding in view of the dengue menace.

Stepping up its drive to detect and control breeding of the Aedes mosquito that spreads dengue, the MCD has served challans on 19 hospitals, including Apollo, Balaji Max, Vimhans, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Deen Dyal Upadhyay, official sources said today.

As many as 18 schools, most of them run by the Delhi Government and the MCD, were also challaned after the dengue mosquito was found to be breeding on their premises, these sources said.

More than 100 cases of dengue have been reported in the Capital this year, with the disease claiming six lives. In view of the dengue threat, the Delhi Government has issued instructions to the authorities concerned to intensify the drive against breeding of the mosquito and take strict action against the defaulters. This includes registering a police case against them.

The Delhi Government has also asked the MCD and the NDMC to depute more staff to survey houses, high-rise buildings, public places and schools to check mosquito breeding.— PTI

New Delhi, September 15
With the arrest of Jamshed Malik (25), the South district police today claimed to have solved about one dozen cases of cheating.

Santosh Devi, wife of Sub-Inspector Raj Singh in the communications department of the Delhi Police, had reported to the Kalkaji police that Jamshed had cheated her of Rs 30,000 on the pretext of restoring harmony in her family. After the unexpected demise of her son, her aggrieved husband had been under tremendous stress since the past few months.

Upon seeing an advertisement in a newspaper, she approached the self-proclaimed Baba Jamshed. He started exploiting her fragile emotional status and extracted money from her on the pretext of performing some pujas. Despite that, there was no perceptible improvement in her family life. This aroused her suspicion and she reported the matter to the police.

During interrogation, he accepted he had so far duped more than 20 such persons in the past five months, said a police officer.

New Delhi, September 15
The Delhi High Court today pulled up the police for not arresting an advocate against whom the court had issued bailable warrants for allegedly threatening a woman advocate appearing for the Defence Ministry inside the court room.

When the matter came up for hearing, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the area submitted that the police could not trace advocate Gulshan Bajwa.

A Division Bench headed by Mr Justice Swatanter Kumar immediately called for New Delhi DCP Anand Mohan to appear before the court after two hours.

Mr Mohan appeared and assured the court that he would make efforts to nab Bajwa in three days while complying with the court order.

The court observed that if the accused was not arrested in three days the Commissioner of Police would have to appear to explain the reasons for non-execution of the order.

The police submitted Bajwa had given all false addresses in the petitions and was evading arrest.

In August last week, the court had issued bailable warrants against Bajwa for allegedly showing disregard to a fellow advocate and acting in an unprofessional manner.

Serving the show-cause notice returnable on September 5, the court had asked Bajwa to state the reasons of such unprofessional behaviour against an advocate.

The court said there was prima facie evidence of contempt of court which undermined the administration of justice delivery system.

While appearing in a matter for a client on August 17, Bajwa allegedly threatened the advocate for opposing his arguments before the Bench.

New Delhi, September 15
With the arrest of two notorious criminals Pradeep (23) and Vijay (22), the South-West Delhi Police today claimed to have solved at least six cases of attempt to murder and robbery. One stolen Pulser motorcycle and two spring-controlled knives have been recovered from their possession.

After receiving a tip-off that two criminals would come on Pulser motorcycle, they were signalled to stop. As they tried to speed up the motorcycle, they were apprehended after a brief chase. They did not produce any document which could show that they were the owners of the motorcycle. On their search, two spring-actuated knives were recovered.

“During the course of interrogation, it was revealed that both were notorious criminals,” said a police officer. 

New Delhi, September 15
With the arrest of three persons, namely Manoj (20), Dharmendra (25) and Dinesh (20), the South district police today claimed to have busted a gang of robbers. They allegedly struck in Malviya Nagar, Sangam Vihar and Mehrauli. Two countrymade pistol, a knife, a stolen motor cycle and a robbed mobile phone have been recovered from their possession.

Acting on a tip-off, the police team intercepted three boys riding on a motor cycle near Pushp Vihar. A search yielded two countrymade pistols and a knife.

The accused revealed they had been targeting pedestrians at isolated places, said a police officer.