New Delhi, September 30
With the onset of the festive season and plummeting temperatures, residents of the Capital is in high spirits despite the ever-looming terrorist threat.

Many localities in the sprawling metropolis come alive in the night with ‘Ramlila’ performances organized by local committees in various parts of the city.

The most well-known of these takes place in the Ramlila grounds next to the historical Red Fort. Organized by the Luv Kush Ramleela Committee, the Ramlila is being staged at the venue for the last several decades.

The event begins with a ‘akhand jyoti pooja’, preceded by a colourful ‘rath yatra’ in the Old Delhi area depicting the marriage between Lord Ram and Sita.

Along with the Ramlila, the Bengali community in the Capital is observing the Durga Puja with the usual fervour.

Adding colour to the festivities are a number of organisations showcasing the popular Gujarati dance form ‘Dandiya’.

For example, the International Institute of Fashion Technology is holding a Dandiya festival at the Garden of Five Senses in South Delhi. Being organised in association with Delhi Tourism and Team Spirit, ‘Rhythm 2006-Dandiya Festival’ was inaugurated on September 22 with a host of song and dance performances by various artistes trained in colourful dance forms like ‘garba’, ‘dandiya raas’, ‘heenal’ and ‘teen tal’. 

New Delhi, September 30
The Opposition BJP in the Municipa l Corporation of Delhi today alleged that contrary to the claims of the Congress, yesterday’s directions by the Supreme Court had failed to give any relief to traders in Delhi.

Instead, the court directions had put lakhs of traders under the purview of the sealing order who were hitherto out of it.

“Almost three lakh traders, who were running their shops at nearly 2200 roads notified as commercial/mixed land areas by Delhi Government on September 15, have to file an affidavit as well as a certificate from a registered architect on or before November 10. The misusers will be stopped if the Act is invalidated or the notification quashed, as per the directions of the Supreme Court,” member of the Standing Committee Vijender Gupta told mediapersons here.

Alleging that the Congress had never been serious about bringing the mixed land use shopkeepers under legal protection, he said, “The half-hearted so-called relief announced by the government, through notifications, have boomeranged. Now the apex court has ordered the government not to issue any more notifications in this matter without its approval,” he pointed out, and demanded that a special House of the Corporation be called immediately on the issue of sealing of shops in Delhi. —UNI

New Delhi, September 30
It was hard to ignore the stench and the squalor inside a decrepit multi-storey house in the city’s Shakti Nagar area where neighbours called in the police to “rescue a girl forced to live a life of confinement” by her two brothers.

Concerned that the family was “illegally confining their sister in the house for over two years”, the neighbours finally called in the police on Wednesday to rescue her.

Though the police have arranged for providing medical aid to the girl, who has not stepped out of the house for the last two years, her elder brother in turn accused the neighbours of “harassment”.

The family comprising two brothers, the younger brother’s wife and child alleged the neighbourhood had been “forcing the girl to stay indoors”. In her twenties, the girl initially denied being confined and said she has opted to stay indoors.

The police have now decided to provide her medical care that will help her come out of depression. “Taking cognisance of the family’s living conditions and after prolonged interaction with them, we have finally referred the girl for counselling,” police sources said, although the area DCP declined to comment.

Living the life of a recluse, the girl, who passed out of the prestigious Hansraj College, is a law graduate. Relatives speaking on condition of anonymity said she has been on a liquid diet for the last six months.

“She refuses to eat and is suffering from depression,” said a close relative.

The relative mentioned that the girl has been “confined to the house after the brothers refused to allow her to marry a boy from a different caste”.

When questioned, her older brother denied the allegations and said, “She has been depressed following the death of her mother”. The brother, who claims to be a timber merchant said, “She refused to undergo treatment and I cannot force her to go out, work or get married. As for her drinking oil and coconut water for the last six months…this is all part of Yoga Kriya that she does”.

The neighbours and the relatives are, however, not convinced. “The filth in the house, the unkempt appearance of the entire family and the fact that none of them step out of the house except the younger brother’s wife is proof enough that there is something wrong with these people,” they said.

“The girl needs long hours of counselling, care and attention to help her come out of the deep depression that she is in. The damage done in the last few years cannot be undone in a few days,” said sources in the police.

An advocate who had filed a complaint against the girl’s brothers with the Commissioner of Police said, “Even if the family claims that the girl is willingly confining herself and not eating, the police needs to take action. The law forbids anyone to stop eating even for religious purposes”. 

New Delhi, September 30
The Anti Land and Building Racket Section of Economic Offence Wing (EOW), Delhi Police, today claimed to have arrested a Junior Engineer (JE) of the DDA Ataur Rehman (44) for duping an old couple whose retirement benefits were swindled by the accused by misrepresentation of facts that he could provide DDA flat to them.

He was arrested on the complaint of Ms Noor Bano after a vigorous search. He was even found absent from his present job at DDA and from all his known addresses including the flat which was allotted by the DDA to him.

During the investigation, it was also revealed that he had even cheated his co-workers. The accused was declared a proclaimed offender by different courts and his photograph was also published in all leading newspapers 2-3 times. To evade arrest, he used to sleep in different government hospitals posing as attendant of patients, said the DCP, EOW.

New Delhi, September 30
Delhi Minister of Finance and Planning Dr A. K. Walia has instructed Sales Tax officials not to ‘harass’ traders during the festival season.

He has asked Department of VAT to issue necessary instructions to its field staff to be more ‘soft’ and courteous with traders.

The inspectors will not visit any shops or conduct raids without the Commissioner’s prior permission in view of the ‘cooperative’ attitude of trading commodity, he said.

Dr Walia has also appealed to all traders to issue receipts of each and every sale and transaction. This is helpful in maintaining mutual trust between the department and traders, he said, adding that the department will try to be more ‘trader-friendly’.

He claimed that there has been appreciable increase in tax revenue over the last few months after implementation of the VAT. This revenue is much required for the constant development of the city, he said.

The Minister expressed confidence that traders would concentrate on increasing their profits, and hence contribute to higher tax collection.

Faridabad, September 30
The Government Railway Police (GRP) in Haryana has launched a special campaign starting from tomorrow to ascertain the identity of the deceased with the help of clothes and other articles recovered from them. The kin of persons reported to be missing during the past five years have been asked to report at the GRP headquarters at Ambala during the period. The campaign will be on till October 1.

The GRP has recovered 2,149 unidentified or unclaimed bodies in the past five years. The bodies were recovered near the rail tracks in the state. It is suspected most deaths occurred as a result of the victims being overrun by trains.

A GRP spokesperson says the residents can contact the office during the period mentioned to seek information. A photograph of the missing person and other records will help in confirming the deceased’s identity.

Admittedly, the dead could include victims of murder. The bodies might have been thrown on the track after the crime was committed to create confusion about the cause of death.

The issue of unclaimed bodies came up during a meeting of senior officials here recently. The Divisional Railway Manager had come here in connection with the forcible halt of the Mumbai- Delhi Rajdhani train and the resultant violence by local commuters.

Certain residents, including commuters, have complained the GRP has been handling the recovery of unclaimed bodies in a poor manner. The bodies often become food for stray animals and eagles. Besides, there is no proper place to keep such bodies till their identification or cremation.

The police often complain of the absence of a mortuary and dearth of funds to take measures to identify bodies or perform cremation. The bodies keep lying in the open for days together.

GRP sources said 30 to 40 bodies were found from the tracks between Old Faridabad and Hodal stations in the district each month and many of these did not get identified. The police had no way of publicising the recovery of bodies except disclosing the information to mediapersons.

Meanwhile, the bodies of two persons have been found at rail tracks in the city in the past 24 hours. 

Gurgaon, September 30
Encouraged by public-private efforts in reviving certain parks here, the Municipal Council has decided to extend the experiment for the remaining ones.

The Municipal Council claims to have revived 23 out of the 40 parks in the areas falling in its jurisdiction, thanks to the public-private endeavour. These parks once enjoyed good health, but had lost the green cover as a fallout of negligence by the municipality as well as the public.

Municipality officials elaborate that as part of the public-private measure the former develops the park and hands it over to the residents welfare association (RWA) for maintenance. The cost of maintenance is borne by the municipality.

Certain developed parks which have been recently brought in shape include Kamala Nehru Park and those in Shivaji Nagar, Old DLF, Jacompura, New Colony and Pratap Nagar. The areas falling in the municipal limits are part of Old Gurgaon.

The Executive Officer of the Municipal Council claims Rs 23 lakh was spent on reviving the green cover and developing the parks.

Now, the authorities have focussed their attention on the remaining 17 parks, including those in Feroze Gandhi Colony, Subash Nagar, Madanpuri, 4-8 Marla and Ram Nagar. A sum of Rs 60 lakh is estimated to be the cost of the project. The municipal personnel justify the huge cost on the ground that these parks are in a worse shape than the 23 parks taken up in the first phase.

Officials claim the park revival project will be completed within two months.

However, the feeling among residents is that the apparent remedial measures undertaken by the municipal council have to be complemented by the people.

It is commonplace to find the parks being used as dumping grounds for garbage. Also, at a number of places, the land grabbers, in connivance with residents, have poached on the park areas, thus shrinking the green lungs of the old city, which already suffers because of being densely populated.

Noida/Ghaziabad, September 30
With over 2.97 lakh jobs, Ghaziabad is ranked third position in providing employment opportunities in the state, while capital Lucknow is the leader followed by Kanpur.

According to a report by the Economic and Statistics Department of the State Planning Institute, Noida, the most developed district (Gautam Budh Nagar), is, however, fifth in the state and the western UP accounts for six of the top 10 job providing districts in the state.

But Noida tops the 10 districts from the point of view of job generation per thousand population, while Ghaziabad is at fifth place.

The report also claims that the Western UP is in the fore-front in revenue collection as well in providing employment in the state as compared to other regions.

Although industrial units have been closed in Ghaziabad, which is being considered among the world’s five best cities, it still leads in offering jobs.

Conducted during 2005, the economic survey found that UP ranked fifth in the country in employment generation after, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh in that order. Some 85.40 lakh people are employed in UP.

In UP, Lucknow with 4,33,733, Kanpur — 3,83,051, Ghaziabad — 2,97,410, and Aligarh — 2,87,484 are ahead of Gautam Budh Nagar with 2,83,952, which is followed by Varanasi — 2,77,058, Meerut — 2,62,752, Allahabad — 2,60,33 and Muradabad — 2,27,112. Manipuri and Sidharth Nagar have the least number of jobs in the state. Gautam Budh Nagar district with over 214 jobs per thousand population tops the state, while Ghaziabad is at fifth place in this category. 

Gurgaon, September 30
Although various departments here including district administration, police, electricity, vigilance etc have launched IT-related services for better public interaction, the services have remained underutilised so far.

Around six months ago, the local Deputy Commissioner made an appeal to citizens to send their complaints and suggestions to his official email address dcgrg@hry.nic.in.

He informed ‘The Tribune’ that his office received around 15-20 emails a day concerning various departments, with the number steadily increasing. Most of these are related to day-to-day problems faced by the public.

These include poor road conditions, overflowing sewerage, unavailability of drinking water, traffic jams and parking woes, police inefficiency and illegal constructions.

The police department, on its part, started a Short Message Service (SMS) on mobile number 9871333100 and email service on spggn@dataone.in at the beginning of the year. But the public response to these services for lodging of complaints is far below expectations, said the district Senior Superintendent of Police.

The department has received only around 100 emails and 50 SMS complaints so far. Around 10 per cent of these were found to be bogus. The police cannot lodge an FIR on the basis of email as it does not carry the signature of the complainant, clarified the SSP.

The new technology can be used even for minor complaints relating to traffic jams, absence of police force at a particular place, suggestions for improvements etc, the SSP said.

The State Vigilance Bureau has, meanwhile, gone public with mobile numbers of its senior officers, including the DG (09876795090), IG (09805799777), SP (09818163970), DSPs (09891773421, 09813016117, 09811422223) and appealed to the public to inform the department about any instance of corruption in state government offices. The local Superintendent of Police, SVB, claimed that they had got a tremendous response from the public. The officers get around ten calls related to corruption in various departments every day, he claimed, helping curb this omnipresent menace.

Encouraged by the response, the SVB recently also launched a toll free help line (18001802022), he said.

Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited has also opened a customer care centre for lodging complaints related to power problems, but residents complain that the lines are either perpetually busy or no one attends to the phone.

In general, they feel that Gurgaon, which is home to dozens of international calls centres, BPOs and software companies, has certainly gone ‘high-tech’, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

New Delhi, September 30
Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, said on Friday that the Delhi Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act would soon be amended and a Committee had already been constituted for this purpose.

Speaking on the occasion of foundation stone laying ceremony of HRD Complex, to be constructed by the National Horticulture Board of Union Agriculture Ministry at Nangloi, Ms Dikshit said the new complex would prove to be beneficial to farmers and function as a centre for their better future.

Small farmers would be able to get information and useful training relating to production and preservation of their vegetables, fruits and flowers, she pointed out, adding that this would also help them enhance their earnings apart from providing a helping hand to horticulturists and their federations.

The CM added that around 30 per cent of agricultural products got wasted only because of insufficient refrigeration facilities. Describing it as a ‘national loss’, she expressed confidence that the new complex would be able to provide suitable training on preservation of fruits and vegetables to keep them fresh for longer periods of time.

Ms Dikshit claimed that her government was well aware of the problems and difficulties of farmers and had decided to amend the APMC Act for their benefit. While making amendments in the Act, all developments relating to Agriculture Science Advancements and requirements of farmers would be taken into account, she said. 

New Delhi, September 30
After a trial spanning 21 years, a Delhi court has convicted a man and his aunt for driving his wife to suicide for not bringing sufficient dowry.

An Additional Sessions Judge of Karkardooma courts, finding credible evidence against accused Rakesh Kumar Jain, awarded him seven years rigorous imprisonment while his 65-year-old aunt Ashok Kumari Jain was given a two-year term.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the husband while his aunt has been asked to pay Rs 10,000 after finding them guilty under section 498A (subjecting woman to cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC.

The court exonerated four other in-laws of Suman for want of evidence. In the judgment, the court relied upon the letters of Suman, in which she had narrated her sufferings at the hands of the accused to her parents.—OC

New Delhi, September 30
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today announced that cultural centres would be opened in all nine districts of the Capital to help disseminate cultural unity in diversity as people from all communities and states are settled in the metropolis.

The CM made this announcement while inaugurating a cultural centre at Janakpuri. The centre is a joint venture of Sahitya Kala Parishad and Delhi Public Library (DPL). Since the land belongs to DPL, the new building would be shared by both the organisations.

The centre is being constructed at a cost of Rs 2 crore. It has an auditorium on 1st and 2nd floor for Sahitya Kala Parishad for organising various cultural programmes or training workshops, interaction sessions and art competitions.

The main aim of District Cultural Centre is to provide a platform to young upcoming artistes of the area.

This would provide opportunity to different organisations to stage their programmes apart from enriching cultural talent. The CM called upon local people to make maximum use of the cultural centre and concentrate on its maintenance.

Speaking on the occasion, Delhi Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely expressed confidence that Delhi would become a ‘cultural hub’ and ‘best cultural capital in the world’ before commencement of the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Leader of Opposition Dr Jagdish Mukhi, who was also present on the occasion, said that with the opening of District Cultural Centre at Janakpuri, a dream of the local residents has been fulfilled. 

New Delhi, September 30
The Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) of the Delhi Government has cleared six projects – one each of Training and Technical Education Department, Tihar Central Jail, Irrigation and Flood Department, Directorate of Education, Health and Family Welfare Department and Law Department.

This includes a proposal by Department of Training and Technical Education relating to the construction of Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology Complex in Phase-III at Sector- 3, Dwarka at an estimated cost of Rs 41.63 crore.

The work under Phase-III includes construction of auditorium, guest-house, sports complex, shopping complex, three boys hostels and extension of library building and computer centre.

The proposed work is essential in order to develop the institute in a manner so as to take the role of a “Deemed to be University” in the near future as provided in the vision documents of the institute.

The institute, situated on 145 acres of land, presently caters to around 2,000 academic or research scholars, and this strength may be increased to 4,000 in the near future.

The proposal of Central Jail, Tihar relates to purchase of X-Ray Baggage Inspection System and 12 X-Ray Portable Scanners for setting up a control room to curb entry of undesirable items in the jail complex. This would cost Rs 4.25 crore.

Another proposal which received the nod of the EFC relates to a proposal of Irrigation and Flood Control Department for remodelling and reconstruction of 28 culverts or bridges on canals of Haryana Irrigation Department falling in the jurisdiction of Delhi. The entire work, aimed at smoother flow of traffic on these bridges, should be completed by March 2007 at an estimated cost of Rs 1.86 crore. All the bridges in question are reportedly in a dilapidated condition and were not remodelled even after widening of roads passing over them.

The EFC has also approved a proposal of the Directorate of Education for construction of a building to house a senior secondary school at Sector 6, Dwarka at an estimated cost of Rs 6.75 crore within 15 months of award of contract, which would give easier access to education of students of sector 6 and nearby areas of Dwarka.

An amount of Rs 3.17 crore would also be released for purchase of furniture for Dwarka Court Complex.

The EFC has also sanctioned an amount of Rs 1.21 crore for construction of a dispensary at PVC Market, Tikri Kalan, Rohtak Road. This would be commissioned within 18 months. 

Noida, September 30
Burglars ransacked the house of a medical practitioner here on Friday night and decamped with cash, jewellery and valuables worth lakhs of rupees.

Dr Dharminder Chaudhary said the thieves gained entry into his house by removing a window grill on Thursday night.

When the thieves were ransacking the house, the maid servant woke up and coughed loudly. Hearing the sound, the thieves fled away, but managed to take away a lap top, cell phone, Rs 8,000 in cash, jewellery and other valuables worth lakhs of rupees. —OC