An aerial view of the Central Park in Connaught Place which was opened on Thursday after being redeveloped by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. — Tribune photo by Mukesh Aggarwal

CPWD asked for report on illegal structures
New Delhi, December 14
The Delhi High Court today directed the CPWD to file an action taken report (ATR) with regard to illegal construction in some bungalows in Lutyens’ Zone of the Capital.

New Delhi, December 14
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has asked the Union government and the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers to work out a definite road map for implementing integrated goods and services tax scheduled to be introduced in the country from fiscal year 2010.

The CAIT demanded that traders should also be invited in annual exercise of pre-budget discussions.

The trade body also demanded to spell deadline to phase out central sales tax and reduce rate of tax to two per cent and eliminate ‘C’ Form which was causing a lot of concern to trade and industry, Mr Parvin Khandelwal, the CAIT secretary general, said.

He also sought to know the formula or parameters by which tax rate was derived on different commodities. “The mechanism of refund under the VAT system needs to be refined in a very transparent manner as traders across the country are facing lot of hardships at the hands of taxmen. A huge amount of working capital of small shopkeepers in all states has been detained by the VAT department,” he claimed.

The traders association has strongly opposed the proposal to increase VAT rates on bicycles, readymade garments, edible oil, hosiery, flour and various other essential items from four per cent to a new VAT slab of six per cent.

Such a move by some states will be in contravention of the agreed terms of the VAT system, which is yet to be stabilised and also proved to be an infringement of accepted principle that ‘lower the tax, higher the compliance’, traders claim.

Instead of de-stabilising the current structure of the VAT rate, the Empowered Committee should insist on uniform rate of the VAT in all states to avoid trade diversions, they demanded. Proposing one more schedule of six per cent VAT will be against the interest of common man and business at large, they allege.

Meanwhile, trade leaders of several states are meeting at New Delhi on December 17 to discuss future course of action on FDI in internal trade and simplification and rationalisation of tax structure. 

New Delhi, December 14
The Delhi High Court today directed the CPWD to file an action taken report (ATR) with regard to illegal construction in some bungalows in Lutyens’ Zone of the Capital.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice M. K. Sharma and Ms Justice Hema Kohli directed the CPWD to file its report by February 14 with details, including the action taken by it against those who had not removed illegal constructions in bungalows despite the court order.

Amicus curiae Rekha Palli informed the court a survey was conducted and it was found out of 218 bungalows in the zone illegal construction had been done in 90 of them.

After the court order, eight of 90 had removed illegal constructions but the CPWD had not taken any action against the rest of them, she said.

The court had taken suo motu cognisance in 2004 on a media report that illegal constructions in some of the bungalows had come up violating building bylaws. 

New Delhi, December 14
The Bharatiya Janata Party today reiterated its demand that the government should bring out a legislation to provide one time amnesty for all unauthorised constructions in the national Capital.

He said, “The magnitude of the problem is very big, involving four lakh shops and 10 lakh residence. The Urban Development Minister had failed to keep his word that the government would provide some relief to these people,” BJP parliamentary party spokesman, Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said.

“This parliament session has three more days to go. If the government proposes to bring any such legislation, the BJP will fully support it,” he assured. Regretting the notification on regularising unauthorised constructions in authorised areas issued by the government, he said, “It provided no relief. In fact, in some cases the penalty for regularising such constructions was very high ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4 lakh, depending on the size of land and area.”

Meanwhile, the BJP’s Delhi unit president Dr Harsh Vardhan alleged that the Congress government led by Ms Sheila Dikshit had “broken all records of corruption”. “The Chief Minister is not accepting any of the recommendations of the committees constituted by the government itself,” he claimed.

New Delhi, December 14
The Cathedral Church of the Redemption today continued its platinum jubilee celebrations with a musical evening. The evening began with an enchanting performance by sitar maestro Shujaat Hussain Khan, seventh generation musician from the Imdad Khan Gharana who, for the first time ever, performed in a cathedral. Members of the diplomatic corps, artists and musicians graced the event with their presence.

The ‘spiritually uplifting’ musical experience within the serene settings of the cathedral left the audience enthralled. Shujaat also played the famous Christmas carol, “Silent Night, Holy Night,” on his sitar. 
The Cathedral Church of the Redemption is very special in its own ways. The social outreach programme of the cathedral, extended to both members and non-members, takes care of children whose parents are the victims of leprosy. The Cathedral Church, as a part of its social initiatives, provides free education and vocational training to these children, a majority of whom are non-Christians. It also runs a nursery school, which is called Cathedral Nursery School.

Every year, the Cathedral Church organises a garden fete in February to raise money for the less fortunate children of the society.

New Delhi, December 14
The police today claimed to have busted a betting racket that was being run from a house at Adarsh Nagar in North-West Delhi, with the arrest of three persons – Deepak Kumar (34), Vinod Kumar (36) and Anil Kumar (30).

The accused were apprehended red-handed while betting on Pakistan-West Indies one day international match to be held tomorrow.

A TV set, a laptop, six mobile phones, two recorder phones, four landline phones and calculator have allegedly been recovered from the house.

The accused had even installed CCTVs on their entrance gates to keep watch on the activities of every person entering the building, especially police.—OC

New Delhi, December 14
Acting on information developed by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), investigators from the IPR Division of the Delhi Police arrested Naseem Ahmed and seized 18 DVD burners, more than 1,700 pirated films in DVD and DVD-R format and more than 3,300 inlay cards.

The police charged Ahmed with illegally infringing on the copyright of the latest Hollywood and Indian films in DVD and DVD-R format and with making false statements to the police. The accused was remanded in judicial custody.

“DVD-R labs are extremely difficult to detect and a handful of burners can manufacture pirated DVDs on a large scale,” said Mr Chander M. Lall, Head of Operations and legal counsel for the MPA in India.

“The Motion Picture Association and our member companies greatly appreciate the continued efforts of the Indian Government and the Delhi Police to fight copyright theft and protect intellectual property rights,” he added.

The MPA works closely with the law enforcement authorities throughout India to curb the country’s piracy rate. The recently launched MPA Burner Reward Programme provides significant cash rewards for people who provide information that leads to successful raids on illegal or unauthorised CD-R/DVD-R labs or any other operations by infringers.

New Delhi, December 14
A large number of journalists and workers of media organisations today staged a demonstration in front of the Labour Ministry here demanding immediate constitution of a new wage board.

The demonstration was organised by the Confederation of Newspaper and News Agency Organisations.

Mr M S Yadav, General Secretary of the Confederation, addressing the protestors, said, “If the government does not take steps towards fulfilling our demands, we will intensify our agitation.” The confederation also raised the issue of “illegal” transfer of shares of UNI as well as the dismissal of hundreds of employees of a newspaper.—PTI 

New Delhi, December 14
A Delhi court today adjourned its verdict in the four-year-old murder case of Congress councillor Atma Ram Gupta for December 21.

The Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Mr. Bharat Parashar, adjourned the pronouncement of judgement for December 21 in the case in which a woman concillor besides eight others faced trial.

The court had earlier posted the matter for order for today after the final arguments were completed on November 27, wrapping up hearing in the case.

A total of nine accused, including the then Keshavpuram councillor Sharda Jain, her brother Raj Kumar and three UP policemen, were named accused in the case of murder which took place on August 24, 2002.

According to the charge sheet, a conspiracy was hatched by Jain with her brother, one ex-village head Roshan Singh and one Rajender to eliminate Trinagar councillor Gupta after she became jealous of his growing affinity with another woman councillor.

On the fateful day, Gupta, who left with Jain and two others to attend a Congress rally at the Ferozshah Kotla ground, went missing after 4 pm. His body was later found from a canal in Bulandshahr district after six days. 

New Delhi, December 14
The CBSE has announced that the senior school certificate examination for class XII will commence from March 1, 2007 while the secondary school examination for class X will begin from March 2, 2007.

According to a CBSE circular, the class XII exams are going to be over by the second week of April and class X exam process will be completed by end March, 2007.

Date-sheet for both these exams would follow soon, it added.—TNS

Faridabad, December 14
Services of the several government departments were affected by the nationwide strike today in the district, which had been called by the Left trade unions across the country against the economic and anti-employee policies of the state and union governments. While the union leaders claimed that the strike had been total, the authorities claimed that the impact had been partial as all the employees did not take part in the strike.

Though the strike had spared the essential services like water and power supply and services at the government hospitals, the offices and departments where the effect of the strike was visible included the state transport, Excise and Taxation (Sales Tax) Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), banks, insurance, Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), tourism, health, irrigation, PWD (B&R), Public Health and Anganwadi.

Residents had to face inconvenience due to partial strike by bank staff. While some banks had been open, others had been closed. The effect of the strike by the Haryana Roadways staff also appeared partial as many buses did not ply. Though the spokespersons of the Sarva Karamchari Sangh, Haryana (SKS) and the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh here claimed a total strike by the roadways staff leading to a complete halt of the government buses, the General Manager of the Haryana Roadways, Faridabad, Mr Pradeep Godara said that the strike was only partial as almost 60 to 70 per cent of the buses plied on their routes.

He added that only buses on some of the routes including Agra, Aligarh and Bulandshahr did not ply while buses on other important routes, including Chandigarh and Delhi plied as usual.

The union leaders, on the other hand, said no work was done in the offices of various departments like the HUDA, Sales Tax, DHBVN, Irrigation and the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF).

The Commissioner, MCF, Mr Mahtab Singh, however, claimed that all the technical and supervisory staff did their work as usual and there was no disruption of the civic services in the city. All the educational institutions had been open, though there had been reports that teachers of some government schools did not join the work. There was hardly any effect of the strike in a majority of the factories and commercial establishments and all the markets were open. The employees have been demanding an increase in the interest rate on the GPF, revival of the ex gratia policy, filling up all the vacant posts, giving up the privatization policy and outsourcing of government services, interim relief and continuation of the pension benefits to the government staff, regularization of ad hoc and part-time staff in the government and semi-government sector and raise in the income slab, among other issues. 

Ghaziabad, December 14
A man accused of having burnt alive his wife and son for dowry has been sentenced to life imprisonment. A fine of Rs 35,000 has also been imposed on him by the Sessions Court.

According to public prosecutor, Brijinder Tyagi, Devicharan, a resident of Mathura, had married his sister Santosh with Ajay Kumar of Loni. Though Devicharan had given dowry and gifts in the marriage, Santosh’s father-in-law Mahavir was not happy with the portion. As a result, Ajay used to harass Santosh almost daily. During this period, Ajay and Santosh were blessed with a son. Ajay built up a pressure on Santosh to bring Rs 50,000 from her parents. As she failed to do so, he is alleged to have burnt his wife Santosh and their son. Devicharan had registered a case in Loni police station.

Gurgaon, December 14
State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) has caught eight middlemen and confiscated a large number of national permits, registration certificates and other documents related to transport department.

The Superintendent of Police, SVB, Gurgaon Range, Mr Rajbir Deswal, said that the vigilance department got a tip-off that a large number of persons were engaged in issuing national permits and registration certificates from the transport department.

The SVB team raided a shop in the late evening, just opposite to the district courts and arrested eight persons and seized 36 national permits, 40 registration certificates (RCs) and 10 fresh applications from them. The SVB had also recovered Rs 80,000 from their possession.

The SP further revealed that Anil, the key man behind the scandal managed to run away. The SVB raided his residence, but he was not there, added the officer.

It may be recalled that District Transport Office (DTO) which used to issue permits and other documents for heavy vehicles was dismantled recently due to rampant corruption in the department. 

Gurgaon, December 14
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), Gurgaon zone, has cleared all oustee claims pending in the department for more than 12 years.

As per the HUDA oustee policy, the residential and industrial plots in the sector, being floated and developed by HUDA, are to be given to farmers in lieu of their land.

The Administrator, HUDA, Gurgaon, Mr S P Gupta, informed that out of the total 230 farmers who had applied for the plots, 96 farmers had already been allotted the plots in different sectors after scrutiny of their papers in Gurgaon, Rewari and Mahendragarh districts. Ninety-one claims were rejected on different reasons while the draw of 37 plots would be held on December 28. The remaining six applications had been forwarded to the headquarters for final approval, stated the officer.

The allotment of plots of varying sizes from four marla to one kanal had been made in different sectors: 42, 43, 38, 56, 46, 47, 52, said the officer.

The HUDA administrator added that Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ms Shakuntala Jakhu, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Town and Country Planning, took the initiative to resolve the long-pending issue of the farmers.

Mr Gupta added that 10 cases had been pending since 1995, 24 cases were of the year 2000, 29 cases of 2001, 42 cases of 2002, seven cases from 2003 and 118 cases since 2004.

Various departments had been passing the buck on the issue of allotting plots to farmers.

Commenting on the 91 rejected cases, the officer stated that some applications were rejected as (A) more than 75% land was not acquired from these farmers, (B) some land was released under Section 5 A under Land Acquisition Act to some farmers and (C) 10 per cent required payment was not deposited by the farmers, (D) the application was not submitted in time. HUDA had refunded their earnest money, added the officer.

All cases of Rewari and Mahendragarh districts had already been resolved, claimed the administrator.

There were some cases where the farmers had been told to complete the papers and other formalities. The revenue tehsildars and other officers concerned had also been directed to submit reports of the pending cases on a priority basis, added Mr Gupta.

A committee, headed by the Administrator and consisting of the Estate Officer, the Land Acquisition Officer, the District Town Planner and the ADA, was constituted for scrutinizing every case to check loopholes and curb corruption in the system, as a plot in Gurgaon attracts a good premium, informed the sources.

Mr Mukesh Yadav of Wazirabad village, who was recently allotted one kanal plot, told ‘The Tribune’ that his application had been pending in the department for the last seven years and he tried his best to get the plot in previous government but no concrete steps were taken to resolve the issue. He appreciated the present government’s move.