New Delhi, March 7
The Samajwadi Party (SP) today announced it would contest the municipal elections in Delhi to give a challenge to the Congress and the BJP as a strong third force was conspicuously absent in the national Capital.

The SP’s senior leader, Mr Amar Singh, said this decision had been taken after having seen that there was no third front in Delhi. The parties which claimed to be the third front had no mass base support. They would not be effective in the elections.

He said the SP would field its candidates from a majority of the municipal wards. To make a list of candidates, the party constituted an election committee conmprising five leaders, Mr Shahid Siddiqui, Mr Kamal Akhtar, Mr Abu Azmi, Ms Usha Yadav and Mr Z. K. Faizan.

Just after the announcement to contest MCD elections Independent councillor from Okhla Asif Mohammad Khan and two political activists Shamim Sattar and Mohammad Ayub joined the party. They have been reassured about the ticket being given to them. A number of others are also keen to join the SP.

Mr Amar Singh said earlier the BJP was a rival party of the Congress but now it had no effective leader after the ouster of Mr Madan Lal Khurana. An effective third front was an immediate need for the citizens of Delhi.

The SP was contesting the MCD elections the first time and it would emerge stronger in some particular pockets, he claimed.

New Delhi, March 7
The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president, Mr Ram Babu Sharma, today demanded from the Election Commission of India that the BJP as a political party be de-recognised. He said the BJP had cast aspersions on the credibility and impartiality of the Delhi State Election Commission, a constitutional body, in finalising the reservation of MCD seats.

“The BJP has asked the Lt. Governor of Delhi to remove the Delhi Election Commissioner, which is a direct attack on the democratic and constitutional process,” Mr Sharma claimed.

Two senior leaders of the BJP, Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Subhash Arya, were the associate members of the committee for delimitation and reservation, together with the leaders of NCP, the BSP and other
parties, he said, adding that the process of delimitation and reservation of MCD wards was finalised after a consensus was reached between the members.

Faridabad, March 7
The spokesperson of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), Mr Ved Prakash Vidrohi, has welcomed the suspension of Mr Kuldeep Bishnoi, MP from Bhiwani and son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, from the membership of Congress party.

In a statement issued here today, Mr Vidrohi described the move by the party high command as an attempt to cleanse the party set up and claimed that it would bring a qualitative change in the party leadership and cadre, as promised by the party leadership at the recently-held Navyug rally at Sirsa.

He alleged that Mr Bishnoi had been openly indulging in anti-party activities to serve his personal interests and to damage the party’s image in public. Claiming that despite the fact that the Congress had taken care of the welfare and interests of his family by adjusting nearly all of his family members at suitable posts, Mr Vidrohi alleged that the MP had been indulging in open criticism of various policies and programmes of the state government. aMr Vidrohi challenged Mr Bishnoi to resign from the MP seat and contest again from the seat on his own, if he had confident of his own popularity.

New Delhi, March 7
‘Intelligent’ cameras, state-of-the-art gadgetry and a hi-tech multi-layered security system will soon replace the mundane frisking and metal detection search at all Delhi Metro stations, due to constant threat perception over a possible attack on it.

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Director General, Mr S I S Ahmed, told mediapersons that formally taking over the security of Delhi Metro on April 15 would be an ‘acid test’, for the paramilitary force.

Security apparatus at the mass rapid transport system in the Capital would undergo tremendous upgradation with innovative and active features being added to provide a safe and sound journey for everyone, Mr Ahmed added.

“The crux would be the time factor, while providing a foolproof security cover to the Metro in Delhi and novel features like intelligent cameras, which target suspects and constantly focus on them will be added,” he said.

The cameras would be programmed through the profiling of suspects so as to provide constant vigil and help in quick response action, he said, adding that already 1,633 posts had been sanctioned for Metro security.

Mr Ahmed said stress would be laid on explosive detection, as it was the simplest mode to attack a soft target.

“Still or stationary objects lying for some time, suspicious persons, profiled suspects and those indulging in odd behaviour patterns would come into focus through these cameras.”

However, the installation of these was being discussed with the Metro authorities besides upgrading of regular features on security, said the Director General.

“Also, a two channel system – ‘green’ and ‘red’ – a la airports, would be introduced where a non-suspecting person can easily go minus any checks. While on the other, ‘suspects’ or those whose profiling is with us will be frisked and checked.”

The basic idea and the biggest thrust would be on being unobtrusive with minimal checks for the common traveller, he added.

Noida, March 7
The Election Commission has stayed the implementation of Noida Authority office cum commercial scheme. The Noida Authority has been directed not to announce or implement any scheme offering financial concessions.

The Noida Authority had sought permission from the EC in its letter dated February 22, about office cum commercial scheme worth Rs 4,000 crore. The election commission, in its orders on the subject, has banned the implementation of the scheme due to the ensuing Assembly elections.

Noida Authority had launched an office cum commercial scheme in Sectors 94 and 124 on the Delhi-Noida entry point, but almost simultaneously the dates for UP Vidhan Sabha elections were announced by the EC. Noida Authority had sought advice from the commission about the fate of the scheme.

Dy CEO Ravinder Naik has instructed all departmental heads not to take any action on the scheme and ensure that no financial benefit is passed on to anybody. This scheme involved three plots of 30 acre each in Sector-94 and another two plots of 30 acre in Sector-124.

Builders were to be allotted these plots under ‘Two Bid System’ and a technical bid followed by a financial bids were to be gone through. Builders were expected to construct office-cum-commercial space for multi-national companies.

In deference to election commission’s instructions, brochures to banks and builders are not made available by Noida Authority now.

New Delhi, March 7
The Special Staff of the Delhi Police with the help of the Haryana Police claimed to have eliminate the most wanted criminal of Haryana, Ramdhan, alias Leela, in an encounter, a police official said today.

A .9 mm bore pistol along with three live cartridges have been seized from the slain gangster. He was involved in several heinous cases, including murder, attempt to murder, robberies, theft, cases under the Arms Act, in both Haryana and Delhi. The Haryana Police had even declared a reward of Rs 30,000 for his arrest.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of the Delhi Police and the Haryana Police jointly conducted a raid at Gorakhpur and shot dead the notorious criminal. They had received information a fortnight ago about Ramdhan’s plans to flee to Nepal.

Following the information, they carried out raids in Mumbai and other places, including Gorakhpur, close to the Nepal border, and finally spotted him in Gorakhpur yesterday.

The joint team had been deployed in suspected hideouts in eastern UP to locate and apprehend the gangster. A trap was laid around Vikas Nagar in Gorakhpur. When a black Splendor motorcycle was signaled to stop, the pillion rider, later identified as Ramdhan, tried to escape.

After a chase of about 15 km, the rider took a U-turn and the pillion rider of the motorcycle started firing indiscriminately on the police team but he was apprehended after a short exchange of fire. His accomplice managed to escape under cover of darkness, said a police officer.

The deceased was allegedly involved in 17 cases of loot and dacoity registered in Sonepat and Rohtak and carried a reward of Rs 30,000 and Rs 15,000 by both the district police, respectively, and was also wanted by other state police, including Delhi.

New Delhi, March 7
Former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani and BJP national president Raj Nath Singh have said the Congress has lost the trust of the people of India. The whole country wants a change. The people are looking towards the BJP with expectation. The BJP will come to power with full majority at the Centre in the year 2009.

Both the senior leaders were speaking at a big Parivartan Sabha organised at Talkatora Indoor Stadium by the Delhi unit of the BJP here today.

Mr Advani said like in the year 1989 the BJP was again at the turning point. The people of the country were ready for a change. They wanted BJP rule in corporations, legislative assemblies and Parliament. The Congress and its president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, were responsible for the spiralling prices, terrorism and Naxalism. The policy of appeasement could not fool countrymen any more. The Congress regime’s “anti-people” face had been exposed.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was equally responsible for the failures of the government.

He called upon BJP workers that they should keep the goodwill of the BJP intact by registering a thumping victory in the MCD elections. The BJP should provide a model corporation to the country through the MCD for which the entire country may be proud.

Mr Raj Nath Singh said the Congress was only worried about saving the government. It was not worried at all about the country. It was taking decisions to continue in power, which could divide the country. He asked how the Congress made the condition of India so much worse even after ruling the country with full majority during the past 50 years. Even today, 26 crores Indians were living without adequate food and houses. The Congress had not fulfilled any of its promises. There was a great difference between what it professed and what it practised.

It was thanks to the Congress that there was a crisis of trust in politics today. People did not trust politicians any more. The BJP would reinstate this trust. The victory campaign of the BJP which started with the UP corporation elections would be completed with a victory in Parliament in the year 2009. The BJP would form the government at the Centre.

BJP Delhi Pradesh president Harsh Vardhan said the people of Delhi had to free it from the corrupt, exploitation-oriented rules of the Congress. The BJP had started this battle of freedom with a strong victory. After the victory in Punjab and Uttarakhand, this battle would be fought through the MCD elections.

Faridabad, March 7
Even as a fresh survey has been ordered to prepare an updated list of families living Below the Poverty Line (BPL) in rural parts of the district, the number of such families in urban areas has touched the mark of 58,047 in Faridabad city. In the last survey, the total number of BPL families in both rural and urban areas of the district was around 28,000.

According to details available from the authorities concerned, the number of BPL families in the area falling under the Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) limit was 48,441, while such families in the Hodal and Palwal towns (within Municipal Limits) were 4,028 and 5,578, respectively.

It is reported that the state government has ordered a fresh survey in the villages after complaints of certain irregularities. According to the department officials, the completion of this work could take at least two months.

The department has sought the list of volunteers, who would be mainly from the ex-servicemen category.

The volunteers would be paid at a rate of Rs 4 per form, besides a commission of Rs one for the person supervising the work of the survey team. The total population of the district has been around 22 lakh at present, which include over 14 lakh in the urban areas and eight lakh in rural parts.

As per the norms, the monthly income of each of the family member should not exceed Rs 435 to make the family eligible for inclusion in the BPL list.

Meanwhile, the state government claimed to have launched and strengthened various schemes aimed at social welfare. According to a senior official, besides the monthly old age pension of Rs 300, the government has hiked the pension of widows from Rs 300 to 350 per month. The government has also started a monthly pension of Rs 300 for the dwarfs and eunuchs also, for the first time.

A total sum of over Rs 62 crore had been distributed among the beneficiaries so far in the current year.

The government has introduced an accident insurance cover of Rs one lakh for which a sum of about Rs 10 crore had been disbursed up to now among about 1,000 beneficiaries. Apart from the budget of about Rs 12 crore for the ‘Ladli’ scheme, the pension of Rs 1,400 given to the freedom fighters has been raised to Rs 5,125 per month.

According to the state government welfare department, an amount of Rs 22.24 crore has been disbursed under the ‘Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Vivah Yojna’ for the girls belonging to backward category, in the last about one year.

The department has been spending about Rs 1.58 crore per month on old age pension in the district.

New Delhi, March 7
At a high-level meeting, the Delhi Government has decided to organise the 150th anniversary celebrations of the first freedom struggle in a most befitting manner. The meeting was chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

The meeting was attended by Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely, the Secretary, Education, the Development Commissioner and senior officers of the academies, the Sahitya Kala Parishad, the DTTDC, the Archaeology Department, the Directorate of Information and Publicity and special invitees.

Apart from providing support to a march from Meerut to Delhi to commemorate the struggle of Indian people in 1857, it was decided to organise various events starting from May.

The Delhi Government will chalk out a plan to finalise the event as the celebrations will conclude in May 2008.

Rare photographs, postcards, lithographs, cartoons, including newspaper clippings from British dailies and journals published during 1857, will be displayed. The exhibition will be mounted in prominent galleries and remain open for the general public for a month or so at two or three different places by rotation. All MLAs will be requested to help in identifying places associated with the 1857 struggle in Delhi.

The Archaeology Department has also been requested to submit a list of such places for lighting those places during celebrations. Apart from this, these places, including Khooni Darwaja, Kashmere Gate, Zafar Mahal and Ajit Garh, will have descriptions on plaques to be placed there. The description will be bilingual and make the public aware about the significance of the 1857 struggle in Delhi. It was also decided to exhibit charts showing the direction of places associated with the 1857 struggle. A light and sound programme is also being planned to disseminate the involvement of the people of Delhi in the struggle.

The struggle will also be disseminated by staging plays in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. Noted celebrities will recite the poetry of Zauque, Ghalib, Zafar and Subhadra Kumari Chauhan at different places. Apart from this, seminars and other intellectual interactions will be organised in association with universities in Delhi. 

New Delhi, March 7
Refusing to enhance the entry age for nursery admissions, the Delhi High court today referred the issue back to the Ganguly committee.

A Division Bench of Mr Justices M. K. Sharma
and Sanjeev Khanna said the Ganguly committee would look into the matter and submit its report by March 31.

The court had earlier suggested to the Delhi Government to reduce the preparatory stage of two years of nursery and KG to one year to enable the child to be in class I at the age of five.

The state government had filed an application before the court to enhance the age of entry to three and a half years from three.

New Delhi, March 7
Submitting a fake CBSE marksheet while seeking admission to Delhi University’s Hans Raj College here 12 years ago has landed a candidate in deep trouble as a local court has convicted him for cheating and forgery.

Ayush Jain (accused) was the beneficiary and if the forgery of the marksheet would have not been detected, he would have got admission in the college on the basis of fake marks, Metropolitan Magistrate Siddharth Sharma said in a recent order.

Jain had in 1995 submitted a forged Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) marksheet to obtain admission in Hans Raj College here. The Principal of the college, on getting suspicious over the genuineness of the marksheet, lodged a complaint with the SHO, Maurice Nagar police station, and sent its copy to the CBSE for verification.

The Joint Secretary of the CBSE, in his reply, held the marksheet to be forged and filed a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, seeking appropriate action against Jain.

He also pointed out that the board used to give computer-generated marksheets to the candidates whereas the one submitted by Jain was found to be written with an electronic typewriter.

Earlier, Jain had testified in his defence that he was induced by a Nepali man who prepared a forged marksheet without his knowledge and he himself was a victim in the case. He further submitted that no offence of cheating could be attributed to him as he did not get admission in the college.

Dismissing the defence plea, the court said it was an admitted case of Jain that to get admission into the college he used illegal means by hiring a Nepali boy and when he had signed the admission form he was supposed to know about the marks filled in the form.

The accused had filled up details in the admission form, which were known to him only, added the court, while indicting Jain for his complicity in the offence.

Noida, March 7
The scarcity of gas cylinders and the rampant black marketing by gas agency owners and their staff in the sale of gas cylinders took an ugly turn yesterday when an army jawan, who had gone to get a gas cylinder, was shot at by the owner of the Ayodhya Ganj gas agency in Dadri following an altercation.

The police have seized the revolver allegedly used by the gas agency owner. The gas agency owner has been arrested. Fardous of Sajhna in Bulandshahr, who is posted in Gauhati, had beaten up the staff of the agency owner. Fardous whose family lives in Katehra road, Bulandshahr, had come on leave to attend his younger brother’s marriage. Gas cylinder was required for marriage ceremony.

SP (Rural) Sudhir Kumar Singh said when Fardous came to collect a gas cylinder at the Ayodhya Ganj, the owner Sachin Goel told him that gas cylinder was not available at the agency. An altercation ensued between the two. When the dispute appeared getting out of control, Sachin Goel pulled out his revolver and shot at the armyman, Fardous. He received bullet wounds in his stomach. Injured Fardous was rushed to Ghaziabad’s Shivam hospital where he is stated to be serious.—OC

New Delhi, March 7
A 10-year-old deaf and dumb boy, Naved, from Pakistan is returning to his country with new hope as he would be able to speak and listen very soon after proper treatment in Delhi.

Naved was borne deaf and dumb. He was operated upon by Dr A.K. Aggarwal and his team of doctors in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital where the boy had been implanted with a Cochlear device. His parents are delighted and are eagerly awaiting to listen words from the mouth of Naved. He would now be studying in a normal school instead of a special school.

His parents came from Multan for the treatment of their son. Today, they called on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to express their gratitude towards the Delhi Government. The parents appreciated the efforts of the doctors.

Ms Dikshit, while appreciating the contribution of surgeons, said they had provided a new life to Naved. The Chief Minister expressed confidence her government would continue to provide suitable facilities of treatment to patients coming from neighbouring countries.