New Delhi, January 8
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Mr Ram Babu Sharma today demanded from the Central government that all unauthorised colonies in the national Capital be regularised in the Master Plan 2021.

Speaking on the last day today of the special session called to discuss the Draft Master Plan and make suggestions, Mr Ram Babu Sharma appealed to the Union Urban Development Ministry and the Delhi Development Authority to regularise the unauthorised colonies without any condition.

“Balconies in the buildings should also be allowed as it has already been permitted by the MCD after charging some tax. The provision of marriage hall should be included in the Master Plan. Besides, professional activities should also be allowed in the basement,” he demanded.

The Delhi Minister of Industries, Mr Mangat Ram Singhal, also appealed to the Central government that commerce and industrial activities be encouraged in Delhi and in the new Master Plan commercial and industrial areas should be demarcated. “Shifting wholesale market from the walled city is not a solution to the problem. If government wants to develop new market for wholesale trading, it should allot land on rent instead of giving ownership to traders,” he said.

Ms Anjali Rai, former chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women, suggested that banking activities should also be allowed in residential areas.

People have their accounts in banks located nearest to their residents. Senior citizens and women face difficulty going to banks located in far off areas. “In the proposed Master Plan draft, it is not mentioned that banks will be opened in residential areas,” she said.

MLA Mukesh Sharma has also emphasised on regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

The Delhi unit of the BJP president Dr Harsh Vardhan claimed that if the new Master Plan was implemented without any amendment, it would severely affect the social facilities like education, health, housing and employment.

“It will also lead to migration on a large scale. The social fabric of Delhi will also be destroyed,” he claimed.

He suggested the regularisation of unauthorised colonies, permission for running school and private health centres and construction of banquet halls in residential areas.

All the BJP MLAs like Sahib Singh Chauhan, Mohan Singh Bisht, Subhash Sachdeva, Moti Lal Sodhi, Kulwant Rana and Vijay Jolly emphasised on the need for regularising unauthorised areas. But they lashed out at the DDA alleging that it had prepared the draft Master Plan without consulting local people. They said that officers of the DDA did not understand the requirements of local people.

“This power should be given to Delhi Government as it would do better work for the welfare of citizens of the Capital,” they claimed.

Noida, January 8
The Noida police are interrogating the parents who have come to Noida in search of their missing children. This is being done to segregate the bogus claimants. After certain reports in the press, the government had instructed the authorities, including police officers that plots and a job or other relief to the victims’ families will be admissible only after DNA tests confirm their identity.

But the government, in its haste to distribute relief to the victims’ families seems to have forgotten these orders issued to the officers in the past as the Chairman, UP Development Council and general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, Amar Singh handed over the allotment letters of 17 plots to the parents of the children today.

Apparently the DNA tests have been done away with in the interest of expediency and publicity.

After DNA tests even a detailed enquiry was supposed to have been conducted by the police.

The Noida police, who were under pressure from such parents, were making the claimants fill up forms so that they could be verified from their original districts or police stations. An entry of this was reportedly being recorded in a register along with filling the forms in Sector-20 police station Noida. Since a number of fake claimants had surfaced, the administration and local police were taking this precaution. But now things seem to have changed suddenly because the state government wanted to be seen to have provided the relief to the victims speedily. 

New Delhi, January 8
During a session on education at the ongoing ‘Pravasi Bhartiya Divas’ meet here the NRIs raised a hue and cry over the issue of reservation in educational institutions today. They expressed their dissatisfaction with the UPA government’s move to provide reservation in institutes imparting higher education on the grounds that it would have an adverse impact on the overall quality of education imparted.

Expressing their discontentment over government’s decision to provide 27 per cent reservation to backward classes, they demanded that their quota be enhanced at centres of excellence like IITs.

The NRIs argued that the current reservation policy would curtail opportunities for students from general categories and would hamper the growth of talent in the country. However, the UGC chairperson Mr Sukhdev Thorat pointed out that the government would raise the number of seats by 50 per cent so that general students are not be affected.

He added the government would consider the demand for increasing the quota intake for NRI students. Further, the union Minister for Urban Development Mr S. Jaipal Reddy said, “India is a land of contradictions and dichotomies and this extends to the area of education too. On one hand we have institutes like- the IIT’s and IIM’s while, on the other hand we have teacher-less schools. To correct these imbalances, India needs to strengthen linkages with its diaspora.” 

New Delhi, January 8
The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructural Development Corporation (HSIDC) is developing three Industrial Model Townships (IMT) at Sonepat, Faridabad and Kharkhoda, along the longest access controlled expressway in the country–the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway.

The KMP Expressway Ltd, the special purpose vehicle executing the 135.6-km project, is building the Rs 1,915-crore KMP Expressway, also known as the western peripheral expressway. The expressway will provide high-speed link to northern Haryana with its southern districts such as Sonepat, Jhajjar, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

The work on the project has already started and is scheduled to be completed by July 2009, well before the 2010 Commonwealth Games. More than 98 per cent of the land has already been acquired by the HSIDC and handed over to the concessionaire — KMP Expressways Ltd.

The HSIDC Managing Director, Mr Rajeev Arora said the development of the global urban corridor would give impetus to real estate, SEZs, independent townships and cities, industrial model townships, food processing units, tourist resorts and education.

For the Rohtak IMT, which is located 15 km from the KMP, 900 acres of land have already been acquired by the HSIDC. Regarding the Faridabad IMT, 800 acres have been notified and as far as the IMT at Kharhauda is concerned, the HSIDC is awaiting the final development plan from the Department of Town and Country Planning. The HSIDC is planning another IMT at Jagadhari as well.

While these are the projects being directly undertaken by the government, a couple of special economic zones (SEZ), including the Unitech project at Sonepat and the DLF project beyond Manesar, are also been developed along the expressway.

Besides this, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is developing new townships along the corridor. Mr Arora said that once the expressway comes up, the backyard areas of the state in Mewat district will also be benefited socially as well as economically from the new high-speed connectivity.

According to Chairman KMP Expressway Mr H.S. Kohli, who today announced the financial closure of the project, the expressway will match international standards of quality infrastructure. Flyovers, overpasses, underpasses, pedestrian crossing passages and railway overbridges include the 493 main and cross drainage structures planned for the project.

New Delhi, January 8
Three doctors, accused of negligence in treating a nurse who lost her right eye after being assaulted and raped by a ward boy at a private hospital in East Delhi nearly three years ago, were discharged of the offence by a Delhi court today.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Jain, after finding insufficient evidence against the doctors, discharged O. P. Sharma, S. K. Singh and Mayank from the charges of not providing prompt medical care to the nurse who lost her vision in the right eye in the incident.

Another doctor, Saurabh Srivastava, entered into an out-of-court settlement with the victim’s father, P. V. Ramu.

All doctors were charged under various Sections, including 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 of the IPC.

Ramu had lodged a criminal complaint against the four doctors who allegedly did not take proper care of the victim after she suffered injuries at Shanti Mukund Hospital on the intervening night of December 7 and 8, 2003, when she was raped and assaulted by one Bhura who is undergoing life term at Tihar Jail here for the offence.

New Delhi, January 8
Mr Ashok Kumar Malhotra, the Chairman and Managing Director, MBD Group, was conferred the prestigious ‘Bharat Gaurav’ award by the India International Friendship Society.

Selected by the Society for his outstanding contribution in the development of the country, through the various ventures of the MBD group, Mr A K Malhotra is the personification of grace and dignity even while pursuing the highest goals towards the country’s development.

New Delhi, January 8
The South-West district police today claimed to have busted a gang of notorious cheats with the arrest of two of its members – Anil Kumar Sen (26) and Mahender Kumar (35).

A complaint was received from SBI credit card fraud control unit regarding cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy by misusing credit cards by some impersonators.

In the complaint, it was said that the duo used to procure credit cards by fraudulent means like fake documents such as Pan Cards, driving license, voter card on which they used to change the addresses for taking cards delivery at fictitious addresses acquired by them on rental basis.

On receipt of the cards, they used to misuse these for purchasing consumer goods and ATM cash withdrawals, etc and after misusing the cards, they used to leave the premises. 

New Delhi, January 8
Delhiites woke up to yet another cold day as the mercury today plummeted to the lowest so far this winter at 2.6 degree Celsius.

According to the Meteorological department officials, today’s temperature was four degrees below normal and said the temperatures in the night would hover around two degree Celsius, the Met Department said.

This was because of the cold winds from the plains of Punjab and the north-westerly winds.

The maximum temperature was 18.1 degree Celsius, three degree below normal, as compared to yesterday’s 18.7 degree Celsius.

Faridabad, January 8
The Electricity Employees Federation of India (EEFI), representing the employees’ organizations of the state electricity departments in the country, has announced to organize a march to Parliament in Delhi and ‘gherao’ it on March 14, in protest against the failure of the union government to review the Electricity Act- 2003 and the policy of carrying on with the privatization of the state electricity boards. This decision was taken in the recently concluded meeting of the national executive of the EEFI at Kolkata recently.

The Federation has decided to prepare a consensus on the issue in February by organizing meetings of the employees of the state electricity boards and the power corporations of the various states.

According to Subhash Lamba, the general secretary of the All Haryana Power Corporations Workers Union, who was a member of the team that took part in the Kolkata meeting, the union government had assured the Federation to review the controversial Electricity Act and its provisions after thousands of employees of the power departments of the states across the country had staged a demonstration in the national Capital and announced to go on strike, but the government did not act.

He said the Act provided the provisions of handing over the power supply network in private hands at various levels, including the cities having a population of 10 lakh or more under the scheme of the ‘Ultra Power Mega project’ proposed by the government.

This system, he claimed, would make power supply a costly commodity.

Questioning the move of the government, he said it appeared a destructive step for both the state government-owned power departments and the consumers, who would be left with no choice than to become the victim of the monopoly of private companies.

It is stated that while the government did not set up any committee to review the provisions of the Act, a panel was set up with the help of Federation comprising engineers and experts of the power sector, who submitted a detailed report on the matter to the Union Power Minister.

This report was then referred to a committee of the Indian Institute of Public Administration, but according to the Federation, the government did not care to study the report and take action.

New Delhi, January 8
With night temperatures plummeting to the season’s low amid reports of illegal tapping of electricity, the BSES is all set to launch a massive anti-power theft crackdown during night peak hours. The campaign will initially target the high power theft areas of East and Central Delhi. A total of 15 dedicated teams have been specially constituted for the purpose.

With the help of modern data mapping and capturing technologies, including the recently completed Distribution Metering (DT Metering), the BSES has identified pockets where the incidence of power theft is high.

“The anti-power theft crackdown during night peak hours will be in addition to the routine enforcement raids carried out on a daily basis. The need for constituting special teams for night hours has been necessitated as it has been observed the incidence of power theft substantially increases during winter months”, said Arun Kanchan, CEO, BYPL. He added, “People indulging in power theft are requested not to steal power and take legal bona fide connections.” 
A company official cautioned those residents who had taken unauthorised connections from illegal power distributors.

“Such residents will be treated on a par with power thieves and penalised heavily in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the Indian Electricity Act, 2003. Such customers are advised to take bona fide connections from the BSES. These applications will be accorded top priority”, the official added.

The official further urged consumers to cooperate with BSES enforcement team officials and not to obstruct them from carrying out their duties. Consumers who obstruct BSES officials from performing their duties will invite legal action.

“Since July 2002, the BSES crackdown has seen over 48,000 cases of power theft booked and unearthing an electricity theft load of over 2.8 lakh KW. More than 100 power thieves, who were sent to jail for indulging in power theft, collectively spent more than 1,160 man days behind bars. The BYPL and the BRPL have also recovered around Rs 100 crore in penalties levied for power theft,” said a BSES official. 

Greater Noida, January 8
The police have detained the leaders and activists of Jan Morcha and Dehat Morcha to prevent them from taking part in a rally under the leadership of former Prime Minister V.P. Singh and Jan Morcha Chairman on January 9.

It has been alleged by the Dehat Morcha national general secretary Raj Kumar Bhatti.

To make the rally on January 9 a success, the rest of the Dehat Morcha leaders have gone underground.

The police raided over a dozen houses of leaders to catch and send them to jail.

Bhatti said in the past two days, Tejpal Tomar, chairman of backward classes front, and over a dozen other activists had been sent to jail.

Among others Mangi Ram Nagar, Pappu Pramukh, Virender Pradhan, Bachano Bhatti, Raju Bhatti, Beg Raj Gujjar, Kapil Sharma and Ajay Upadhya have been arrested, Raj Kumar Bhatti alleged. But all this will not be tolerated by Dehat Morcha any more, he said.

Meanwhile, the arrangements for the Tuesday rally under former Prime Minister and Jan Morcha president were finalized in a meeting yesterday in Alpha Sector-II under Zila Chairman Verinder Khari Dehat Morcha.

District secretary Bachan Singh Bhatti said how long the government would be able to gag the voice of the farmers with the police lathis. Farmers and labourers are all set to wage a long-drawn struggle.

New Delhi, January 8
In yet another incident of suicide by paramilitary personnel, a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable shot himself to death using his own weapon.

Constable R. P. Meena, posted at Yojana Bhavan, housing the Planning Commission, committed suicide in the afternoon using his own service rifle and died on the spot.

“Thirtyfive-year-old Meena had been posted at Yojana Bhavan since March 2006. He shot himself by using his one weapon and the reason behind his death is absolute personal,” said a CISF spokesperson.

He was married and had been suffering from a long bout of depression because of some illness and constant fights with his wife, he said.

Though he has not left any suicide note, scribbling of his hand said he was not able to work properly, he also described his wife as an illiterate simpleton, the official said.

“There was no administrative laxity behind the extreme step taken by the deceased and initial investigation report suggests that he had a troubled domestic life,” the official said, adding that Meena had returned from home last week. His body would be taken to his home state Rajasthan, officials said.

This is the first case of suicide by CISF personnel this calendar year. In 2005, 13 of its personnel had committed suicide followed by 8 in 2006.

CISF has ordered an inquiry into the incident and claimed that Meena took the extreme step because of personal reasons and not work related stress, officials said. 

New Delhi, January 8
The traffic police have warned motorists using black, dark or reflective films on windscreens and windows to either remove them or face prosecution.

Punitive action was taken against as many as 53,390 motorists for using black, dark or reflective films on windscreens and windows under an intensified drive against such offences during the past year, a statement claimed today.

According to the motor vehicles act, windscreens have to be 70 per cent transparent while, windows need to be 50 per cent transparent. Therefore, motorists are advised to keep the windscreens of their vehicles transparent.