New Delhi, March 5
The Annual Plan for Delhi was today given a hefty hike of more than 70 per cent for the year 2007-08, with the plan size being fixed at Rs 9,000 crore.

Last year, Delhi’s Annual Plan was of the size of Rs 5,200 crore.

The Plan was fixed at a meeting at Yojna Bhavan between Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

Dr Ahluwalia complimented the state government for achievements in diverse areas, particularly in the sectors of infrastructure and education.

He said Delhi being the Capital needed to develop infrastructure comparable to the best in the world. As Delhi would be hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2010, it would be an opportunity to showcase to the international community that the city was world class.

The state government also came in for praise for significant improvement in the green cover. The total forest and tree cover which was 151 square kilometres in 2001 had increased to 268 square kilometres.

Dr Ahluwalia said the state government should take the lead in promoting the approach of public-private partnership. Apart from adopting this approach for developing physical infrastructure, public-private partnership should be initiated for projects relating to social sectors.

He said road network had improved and noted the state government was working out comprehensive plans to improve power supply.

He said the electricity distribution programme by the private sector was a success story.

The state government was advised to promote rainwater harvesting and develop all water bodies on a priority basis.

Ms Dikshit said the state government had initiated a number of measures aimed at promoting transparent administration through the release of citizen charters by all public dealing departments, implementation of the Right to Information Act, the Public Grievances Commission and application of it for improvement of services to citizens.

She said major achievements during the Tenth Plan period included completion of the first phase of the Metro, construction of 26 flyovers and commissioning of first phase of a 330 MW generation plant. Ms Dikshit said 23 new school buildings and 7000 new classrooms for Delhi Government and NDMC schools were constructed.

Besides, during this period nine new hospitals with 1,500 additional beds were established. The stamp duty was reduced from 13 to 8 per cent and for women it had been brought down to 6 per cent.

Outlining the future plans, Ms Dikshit said during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, housing for economically weaker sections would take top priority. New modes of public transport in addition to new corridors of the Metro under Phase-II would be introduced to provide safe and convenient public transport system.

New Delhi, March 5
There was confusion in offices of various political parties and among ticket seekers after a new formula of reservation of municipal wards was submitted by the Delhi State Election Commission to the Delhi High Court. The formula was submitted after the court’s direction as senior Congress councillor Ramesh Datta had filed a writ petition in the high court challenging the earlier formula of reservation of municipal wards.

Earlier, the percentage of population was made the basis of reservation of the municipal wards. According to the latest Census, women comprise 46 per cent of the total population of Delhi and Scheduled Castes about 12 per cent. Seats for them were reserved accordingly.

Now, the new formula is that every third seat in the total municipal ward will be of reserved category resulting in a total of 122 seats being reserved.

Meanwhile, former minister Vijay Goel demanded the resignation of Election Commissioner S. P. Marwah as he was allegedly “impartial” in making reservation for seats for the 272 MCD wards. He said the Election Commissioner had adopted no rational principle for reservation and was resorting to a pick-and-choose policy under the pressure of different power lobbies. No uniform formula was evolved for making reservation for the Scheduled Castes, for women belonging to Scheduled Castes and for women of general category and for general candidates.

Mr Goel added he would bring this matter to the notice of the Lt-Governor and of the Chief Election Commissioner.

He said the number MCD wards was dramatically raised from 134 to 272 through a special session of the Delhi Assembly by amending the MCD Act. The Delhi State Election Commissioner suddenly presented a draft of delimitation of 272 MCD seats on January 10 even before obtaining the assent of the President of the passed resolution. 

New Delhi, March 5
The Union Government has decided to offer incentives to residents of unauthorised colonies in the national Capital if they reorganise themselves and redevelop their dwellings.

Residents of unauthorised colonies could take advantage of an additional floor area ratio (FAR) as an incentive to ensure the organised redevelopment of such areas, Minister of State for Urban Development Ajay Maken said.

The “unique” policy, he said, was being introduced in India for the first time for such colonies.

“What we are asking the residents of the unauthorised colonies is to come together and form a group housing society,” he said.

“And if they manage to collect around 3,000 square metres of land, we will give them 1.5 times the FAR they are legally permissible to get as an incentive,” Mr Maken explained.

However, the residents will have to ensure that they cover only 33 per cent of the land instead of the 100 per cent of coverage on the ground that they currently get. But they can go up as high as possible.

For instance, Mr Maken said if residents of such colonies accumulated 3,000 square metres they could construct up to around 12 storeys and build 54 flats with 33 per cent of ground coverage and an FAR of 400.

Faridabad, March 5
The Director, School Education, Haryana, has notified the norms for land for schools that wish to be registered and recognised by the state government. The new schools, which will come into existence after April 30 this year will have to fulfil the land area conditions proposed in the Haryana School Education Act 2003. This allows institutions having at least two acres to set up a secondary level school in both rural and urban areas.

Earlier, in the absence of such a condition a majority of the private schools set up and recognised did not fulfil such norms. This led to protests by certain social and parents’ associations in the state. The Abhibhawak Ekta Manch, Haryana, had demanded the closure of all such schools which had been operating from the congested buildings and residential areas and which did not have the required infrastructure, including a playground for students.

The Manch had also filed a PIL in the high court, seeking a check on private schools, including indiscriminate revision of fee structure.

The Education Department, in a recent advertisement published in the print media, had notified various norms for schools. While it gave some relief to the schools operating and already recognised institutions, it said the new schools would have to adhere to the guidelines stated in the Schools Act of 2003.

According to the norms, a primary school in the state would have to procure at least 0.5 acre land, a middle level school one acre and a secondary or senior secondary school would be required to possess two acres. The department, however, has relaxed the conditions for already existing schools after protests and representations made by their association to the government.

In keeping with fresh directions, such schools would have to meet various norms, which include 500 sq metres of land for a primary school, 800 sq metres for middle and 2000 sq metres for secondary and 3000/4000 sq metres for senior secondary level, if the school was operating from a single story building.

For schools having a double-storied building, the land required to be possessed was 350 sq metres, 600 sq meters, 1500 sq metres and 2000 sq metres, respectively. The school managements have been asked to ensure a playground and related facilities for the students. It has been directed those schools and institutions which do no meet these requirements should not admit students for the coming academic session of 2007-08. Strict action would be taken against those who did not follow the guidelines.

The Abhibhawak Ekta Manch has welcomed this directive and asked the authorities concerned to implement the directions properly and ensure the “teaching shops” functioning in every nook and corner are not able to play with the future of unsuspecting students across the state.

The manch has also demanded a proper check on regular basis on the functioning of the CBSE affiliated schools in the cities, which had been allotted government land on subsidised rates.

New Delhi, March 5
A Delhi court has sentenced a suspended MTNL executive engineer to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for possessing wealth beyond his known sources of income.

Also imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 on convict Madan Mohan Parti in a disproportionate assets case, CBI Special Judge I. K. Kochhar held the prosecution had been able to promote its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The court, convicting him under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, observed his assets were disproportionate to the extent of 85 per cent.

Two other accused, K. S. Wadhwa and Atul Puri, were given benefit of doubt and acquitted of the charges of abetment.

According to the complaint registered by the CBI on October 17, 2000, Parti, who was appointed as junior engineer in the Post and Telegraph Department on March 16, 1967, was promoted as assistant engineer in 1978.

He was made executive engineer in 1997 and deputed to MTNL. He was suspended from service on March 16, 1999. The CBI, during its investigation, considered the period from June 6, 1990, to February 16, 1999 as the probe period. In that period, Parti’s assets were found to be worth more than Rs 42 lakh, including his salary and income of his other family members. In a raid at his house, Rs 8,65,000 were recovered in cash, the CBI said. His income from his known sources could only have been to the extent of Rs 17,00,339, including income of his family members, it added. 

New Delhi, March 5
The state-owned Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is estimated to incur a loss of nearly Rs 1,000 crore on account of low vehicle productivity and high bus-staff ratio.

The DTC was a loss-making corporation of the NCT of Delhi. As per the latest estimates, the net loss during 2006-07 was likely to be Rs 962 crore against the Budget estimates of Rs 940 crore, sources said.

The situation was unlikely to improve in the next fiscal as the state government estimated the losses of the DTC to be in the range of Rs 935 to Rs 950 crore.

Meanwhile, the Planning Commission has asked the Delhi Government to take initiative in terms of cost rationalisation and optimal fleet deployment to reduce losses.

The state envisages investing Rs 2,886 crore in 2007-08 for the entire transport sector besides proposing to invest Rs 13,487 crore during the entire Eleventh Plan period (2007-12).

The Delhi Government’s transport sector outlay for 2007-08 would include Rs 265 crore for acquiring high-capacity buses, Rs 560 crore for developing light rail and Rs 480 crore for constructing monorail transport systems.

New Delhi, March 5
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and on demand by the Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) and other stakeholders, BSES has re-launched its initiative to train the neighbourhood electricians, particularly those nominated by the RWAs. 
“The very fact that BSES has been receiving many requests from RWAs and other stakeholders, urging it to re-launch the electrician training programme, shows the effectiveness of the programmes conducted earlier,” said a BSES official.

“To make the programme even a bigger success, BSES has also started sending letters to RWAs, requesting them to nominate their colony electricians. Those interested can also contact the Customer Care Officers at all the 33 Division offices,” added the official. 
The first batch of the programme titled, “Training on Essentials of Internal Wiring and Meters” launched in November 2005, saw around 800 electricians getting trained over four months. The list of electricians trained earlier can be accessed on BSES website www.bsesdelhi.com. 
The unique three-hour interactive session, conducted in small batches, is led by experts from both BSES and the industry. The training session includes an exhaustive power point presentation that seeks to give a holistic training to educate and train the neighbourhood electricians on various issues relating to internal house wiring, prevention of short circuits and electrical fires, importance of installing Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers (ELCBs), various functions, unique faulty wiring detection feature of electronic meters and sharing of the best industry practices.

Besides, the training session will serve as a refresher course for those trained earlier and share their field-level real-life experiences with those attending the programme for the first time.

According to a BSES spokesperson, BSES has been proactively educating its customers though Synergy I in its bi-monthly/bi-lingual newsletter and through neighbourhood electrician trainings about the perils of faulty Internal Housing Wiring, which besides being a safety hazard can also play havoc with one’s electricity consumption. The success of these measures can be gauged by the fact that the number of cases of faulty house wiring in BSES licensed area has decreased sharply from 1.6% in January 2006 to about 0.05% in January 2007.

New Delhi, March 5
Angioplasty has become the mainstay for reopening clogged heart arteries during a heart attack or plaque buildup. The trans-radial approach or ‘Walk in and walk out angiography’ for coronary angioplasty has proven to be a useful technique in the era of modern interventional cardiology and a good alternative to the transfemoral route or ‘angioplasty through the artery in the leg’.

More and more patients are embracing this new technique as opposed to more invasive surgical procedure called coronary artery bypass surgery despite a few qualified interventionalists. In a bypass, an artery or a vein is removed from a different part of your body and sewn to the surface of your heart to take over for the blocked coronary artery. This surgery requires a large incision in the chest. Recovery from bypass surgery is usually longer and more uncomfortable.

In India, the incidence of coronary heart disorder is very high. Coronary angiography through transfemoral procedure, whereby puncture in the blood vessel is done through the leg, was considered a better diagnostic tool to determine the location and percentage of blockage as compared to ECG tests but recently transradial angiography procedure, done from hand has gained popularity.

This is mainly due to higher level of patient comfort and comparable cost with the standard procedure with minimum infection risk as is the case with most diabetic patients. Also the fact that patients can leave the same day with lesser complications is making the medical fraternity take note of. Says Dr Amar Singhal, Sr Intervention Cardiologist, Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, “This is because the radial artery is a superficial artery and can be compressed easily. Transradial approach (TRA) ensures immediate mobilisation after the procedure with no need of urinary catheter, urine pot and bed pans which is usually the case with transfemoral approach, as patient has to lie down immobile for at least 6 hours after the procedure.”

Though this procedure started in Europe way back in mid nineties, in India only a handful of people follow it. This is probably because doctors are yet to be more skilled and technically sound. Of 1,000 cardiologists in India, there are only 8-10 who have undergone this special training.

However, the trend has changed over the years. The availability of technical know-how, cathlabs and hardware has all boosted its acceptance. At Maharaja Agrasen Hospital where there were 40 procedures per month, today there are about 600 such operations performed annually.

New Delhi, March 5
Sponsored by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, the annual National Festival of New Choreography—9th in its series—organised by Impresario India willl provide another platform to six eminent dancers/choreographers to showcase their fresh look, newer experiments and creative expressions. Supported by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Habitat World, the three-day festival will be held from March 16 to 18 in the Stein Auditorium of India Habitat Centre, here.

Presenting two groups each evening, the festival will open on March 16 with choreographer Geeta Chandran’s Natya Vriksha Dance Company focusing on different aspects of group work in Bharatanatyam.

Geeta Chandran will present Prathama, showcasing traditional choreography, Pratidhwani. It is inspired by the concept of echo to create resonant choreography and seasons based on Kalidas’ Ritusamhara. This will be followed by Kathak choreographer Aditi Mangaldas’s Guruve Namah. Bassed on pure traditional form, her choreographic pieces will be presented by the students of Drishtikon of Aditi Mangaldas Dance Ensemble.

The second evening of the festival will open with the eminent dance scholar and Guru Kanak Rele’s Group Choreographic Work in Mohiniattam. The four pieces of her choreography are set to lyrics by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar Ganapati, Gandhari, Radha and Tattvam.

While Tattvam is a ritualistic performance based on Tantric Bhagavati worship, her works are specially designed to accommodate very ancient Malayalam or Sanskrit lyrics. This will be followed by Bimbavati Devi’s Samavratee in Manipuri choreography. In her choreography, Bimbavati has used Manipuri dance along with the very basic steps and movements of Mayurbhanj Chhau of Orissa and Raibenshe and Paik, the martial dance forms of Bengal.

The concluding evening on March 18 will present another Bharatanatyam choreography by Ananda Shankar Jayant’s Dancing Tales.

Choreographed in a dance theatre format, the production showcases the morals, values and humour of the parables of the Panchatantra. In this lyric-free production, laced with humour and wit, the conventional and the contemporary meet and disperse in kaleidoscopic designs combined with a rich movement vocabulary and imagery. And the concluding choreography of the 9th National Festival of New Choreography will be Barsha Baibhav in Odissi by Aruna Mohanty and her ensemble from the Orissa Dance Academy. 

New Delhi, March 5
The Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre here is hosting an exhibition titled “Living Hungarian Folk Art” from March 1 to 30.

The folk art of Hungary springs from a lively tradition of creativity found in many forms in the countryside.

The spontaneous desire to delight and entertain, passed on from one generation to the next, in music, dance, crafts and costume is at the heart of Hungary’s culture.

And while in some places in the world you will see folk art confined to the museum, in Hungary it is a living tradition.

The exhibition showcases some of the most enchanting Hungarian artefacts like embroideries, handlooms, pottery, carvings, ceramics, folk costumes of Hungary along with pictures giving a snapshot of folk traditions that still prevail in Hungary. 

New Delhi, March 5
With the arrest of Noor Alam, a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad, the East district police today claimed to have solved a case of kidnapping of a minor child Sakib from Krishna Nagar area.

The father of the child Anwar Hussain had reported to the police that he received a telephonic message to arrange for Rs 50,000 for the release of his child. One Noor Alam of the same locality had made a call on the phone of his neighbour Masoom, asking for the money.

On the basis of that information, raids were conducted at possible hideouts of the suspect. Later, it was revealed that the suspect worked as a tailor at a shop in Old Seelampur.

He would pass through Khajoori Khas Chowk on the way to his house. A trap was laid and he was apprehended along with the child.

During interrogation, he allegedly confessed that he had picked up the child from outside his residence and took him to a rented accommodation in Loni area.

In order to evade arrest, he used to take out the child and roam around throughout the day in various places.

He would bring the child back at night, said a police officer. 

New Delhi, March 5
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) is organising a two-week special camp at Dilli Haat to promote handmade products made by workers of Self-Help Groups (SHG) to commemorate the International Women’s Day which falls on March 8.

Elaborating on the campaign, DCW Chairperson Prof. Kiran Walia said, “In order to promote SHG working under assistance of the DCW, the Commission has facilitated for stalls at Dilli Haat for as many as 242 SHGs who would be selling their handmade products.”