New Delhi, February 14
An exclusive dance and music show was organised with support from a cultural organisation, Earthquake, at the popular Water Park in Appu Ghar here today to mark Valentine’s Day. The PRO of Appu Ghar, Ms Poonan Bahal, said the main attraction of the event was an exclusive western dance choreographed especially for couples at Oyster. After the programme, the best dancing couple and the best dressed couple were given prizes.

In another programme in the Capital, the IIMR Trust celebrated this festival as Harmony Day. The president of the Trust, Mr Dinesh Singh, informed a ballet, “Hum Eak Hai,” was staged on the occasion.

In another event, the festival was celebrated with fervour at R K Media Academy, Karol Bagh. Students exchanged roses, gifts, chocolates and teddy bears. The Director of the institute, Mr Bansal, gave surprise gifts to students.

New Delhi, February 14
With the arrest of four persons, Sunil, Asraf, Satish and Shokeen, the South district police today claimed to have busted a gang of notorious auto thieves. During the encounter, Constable Brij Bhushan died and two other police personnel, Head Constable Ramhit and Constable Jagat, sustained bullet injuries. A criminal, later identified as Satish, also got injured in the encounter.

One loaded pistol, a car, duplicate keys and broken locks of cars have been recovered from them.

When a Maruti car was intercepted at midnight in the New Friends Colony area, the occupants of the car fired on the police party, resulting in the death of a constable and injuries to other two police personnel there.

On interrogation, they allegedly confessed that they had been active members of an inter-state auto thieves’ gang, said a police officer.

New Delhi, February 14
The BJP Delhi Pradesh president, Dr Harsh Vardhan, has demanded from the Delhi Government that it should frame a policy for the rehri-patri shopkeepers, hawkers, weekly bazaar shopkeepers and other unorganised sections of workers of Delhi and implement it within a fixed time frame so that these people may be able to get an opportunity to earn honourable livelihood.

He said when the BJP was in power at the Centre the then Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation Ministry had announced a national policy for urban hawkers in the year 2004. At that time, the number of hawkers was two lakh in Delhi. Now, this number had increased further. No policy had been announced.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said in Article 91(G) of the Constitution of India it had been laid down that the right to trade on properly controlled street footpaths could not be denied on the ground that this trade on the streets was temporary and had no benefits. Actually, if the footpath shopkeepers were regularised then they could keep in view the convenience of the public, make available articles of day-to-day use in every house at low cost and serve society. In cities, a common man returns home after working the whole day and tired in the evening. If he gets articles at cheap rates near his house then he can save time, money and labour and besides this it helps the poor people in getting a livelihood for themselves.

He said that the Supreme Court had clearly directed that if the Delhi Government and the MCD wanted then they could regularise such shopkeepers by issuing licences to them.

When the court was not a hindrance then why did the Delhi Government not provide an opportunity to lakhs of people to earn their livelihood in an honourable way. He told that after a comprehensive survey of all such workers of Delhi a policy should be framed for Delhi and all such people should be issued licenses.

New Delhi, February 14
After two days of sporadic sharp showers, the Delhiites woke up to a misty but clear nippy morning on Valentine’s Day today.

Even though there were some clouds, the sun managed to shine during the day bringing cheer to those celebrating the day. The minimum temperature in the Capital was a pleasant 9.2 degree Celsius, a notch below normal, thanks to the past few days which brought a nip in the air. —TNS

New Delhi, February 14
Senior trade leader and secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders, Mr Praveen Khandelwal, today resigned from the newly formed Trade Advisory Committee of the Delhi Government, alleging its politicisation.

The formation of the committee lacked representation of established trade bodies of Delhi and the committee also reflected a wide disparity in terms of regional imbalance. Trade bodies dealing in several important commodities had also been left out in the said committee, Mr Khandelwal said in his resignation sent to the Delhi Finance Minister, Dr A. K. Walia, who is also the Chairman of the committee.

Mr Khandelwal said flouting the declaration of the Chief Minister, the said committee, though consisting of 106 members, had not been well represented. He said trade bodies, which were more than 100 years’ old, like the Delhi Hindustani Mercantile Association and the Delhi Iron and Hardware Merchants Association etc, had not been included in the committee, whereas important areas like Connaught Place, South Delhi, West Delhi, Rohini and North Delhi had also been not duly represented.

New Delhi, February 14
With the government adamant about allowing private players in the mass housing industry, the role of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is likely to undergo a drastic change 50 years after it was set up.

The government’s unhappiness with the DDA’s record was voiced today by the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr Ajay Maken, who told newspersons it was mainly because of the monopoly of the agency that there was a shortage of more than six lakh houses in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

The role of the authority would now be limited to planning the development of the city, monitoring implementation of the master plan and maintaining the greens.

The DDA never allowed private players to come in and compete with it. And it was because of this there was such a huge shortage of houses, the minister said. 

Greater Noida, February 14
Robbers struck at two houses under Kasna police station on Tuesday decamping with jewellery and valuables worth lakhs of rupees.

Promode Kumar Singh, an employee of Denso company had locked his house No D-186 in Sector Gama. He along with his family went out to attend a function in Delhi. When he returned on Tuesday, he found his house had been broken open and Rs 15,000 in cash and jewellery, including gold chains, bangles, necklace, and mangal sutra, etc, worth lakhs were missing.

The cupboards and steel almirahs had been broken open and household goods were strewn around. The Kasna police were informed who inspected the site. A case has been registered.

The second theft took place in I-19 in Bita II where the family went out putting a padlock on the premises. The robbers broke into this house also and decamped with entire belongings. The owners could not be informed of the loot in their house till yesterday.

Houses and shops are being targeted by the robbers every second or third day in Greater Noida. Even the presence of an SOG team, deployed specially, has failed to deter the robbers who seem to be having a field day.

The criminals have succeeded in breaking the padlocks of about a dozen houses and stolen valuables worth lakhs in Greater Noida.

About a week ago, the Kasna police had taken into custody five minors and claimed to have solved half a dozen theft cases in the area. But surprisingly not a single stolen item has been recovered so far.

There is no stemming the incidents of loot and housebreaks even after the police had rounded up a number of people.

Ghaziabad, February 14
A person who was injured in celebratory firing at a wedding in the district, succumbed to his injuries in hospital, the police said.

J P Sharma, the groom’s maternal uncle, was injured last night when he was hit by a bullet while walking alongside the marriage procession going towards Rampur village, they said.

The Delhi resident was taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, they said. 

Gurgaon, February 14
The Chairman of Haryana Power Transmission and Distribution Corporations, Lt-Gen. (retd) O.S. Lohchab lamented here today that in spite of their best efforts, theft continues in the state.

Speaking at a function relating to the flagging-off of the ‘Chetna rally’ against power theft in the state, he said that in spite of the best efforts made by the power utilities, the AT and C losses in some areas are very high mainly due to theft of electricity by tampering with meters, non-regularisation of kundi connections and non-payment of bills.

According to him, in areas of errant villages, power theft was as high as 50 per cent.

He said that there was shortage of about 25 per cent of the available power. The theft cases are alarming as equal amount of electricity was lost on account of it. Hence, he asserted that the main reason of shortage of electricity was theft.

He said that the Distribution Corporations have decided to give 10 per cent of the penalty recovered from any customer committing theft to the person who gave information about theft. His name and identity would not be disclosed at any stage, he added.

A functionary of the Haryana Power Utilities disclosed on the occasion that there was theft of electricity costing Rs 700 crore in the state affecting the exchequer and quality of power supply adversely.

He said that a massive campaign against theft would go on all over the state by organising rallies of students, painting and declamation contests and slogan writings. Simultaneously, raids would be conducted to detect power theft. Even the government offices would not be spared while raiding the erring premises of unscrupulous consumers.

Later, Lt General Lohchab inaugurated two sale outlets of low-priced CFL bulbs at Consumer Care Centre of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN). As part of its energy conservation promotion initiatives, the DHBVN has signed agreements with manufacturers of CFLs to provide its consumers CFL bulbs at low rates from DHBVN’s Consumer Care Centres. The manufacturers would establish their retail outlets at the Customer Care Centres of DHBVN in Faridabad, Gurgaon, Narnaul, Bhiwani, Hisar and Sirsa.

DHBVN has entered into MOUs with Crompton Greaves and Indo-Asian which are India’s largest manufacturers and exporters of CFL bulbs, he added.

Ghaziabad, February 14
A traffic head constable was not only beaten up by the supporters of an MLA, but his uniform was also torn by those who thrashed him in full view of public. The only fault of the cop was that he was performing his duty at Mohan Nagar trijunction in Sahibabad yesterday morning.

Three vehicles of the Khekra MLA, Madan Bhaiya’s convoy, on its way from Jawali to Delhi, had crossed the traffic signals on Tuesday when the traffic lights turned red. As the head constable Satish Kumar Som stepped in front of the remaining three vehicles indicating to the drivers to wait till the traffic lights turned green again, about half a dozen MLA’s supporters took it as an affront and they not only beat up the head constable, but also tore his uniform.

Head constable Satish had fallen on the ground under the impact of the unexpected attack by about five musclemen.

In this connection, the Ghaziabad police later arrested a councillor and four supporters of the MLA and seized three vehicles belonging to the MLA.

SP city Govind Aggarwal said the matter was being probed. None of those who had violated the traffic laws and assaulted the cop on duty will be spared.

Before other traffic policemen could rush to Satish Kumar’s rescue, the MLA’s convoy had already sped away towards Delhi. Soon SP city and CO border reached the spot and four supporters of the MLA were rounded up and three vehicles seized from the Mohan Nagar trijunction. Within an hour, a case had been registered against four persons, including Pasaunda Councillor Ibrahim Malik, Kiranpal of Chirodi, Ram Kumar and Sunil Kumar of Jawli. According to the head constable Satish Kumar, two of the assailants were carrying guns and one of them had hit him with a pistol butt also. 

New Delhi, February 14
The BSES has been continuously and progressively striving towards creating a world class electricity distribution infrastructure in line with global benchmarks. The BSES has now embarked on a mission to automate streetlights in its licensed area spread across nearly 1000 sq km in a bid to save precious energy.

There are over 2.6 lakh streetlights in the BSES licensed area consuming over 40 MW of electricity at a given point in time. At present, streetlights are manually operated in Delhi, causing heavy loss of scarce electricity on account of delay in switching them off and theft by unscrupulous elements.

The BSES has embarked on an innovative project to automate streetlights to overcome this delay in switching them off and minimising the incidence of power theft. Initially, the project will run as a pilot and after assessing and gauging its impact it will be implemented in others areas of BSES licensed area.

The BSES has successfully completed the first phase of the pilot project by automating around 4000 streetlights in large parts of South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj area, including Pockets A, B, C, D, Andeheria Bagh, Masoodpur and roads leading to the airport.