New Delhi, March 8
The Union Cabinet tonight decided that a new National Police Memorial would be constructed at the existing site in the Capital within 18 months.

“Present site (near Teen Murti) would be retained for the construction of the new structure for the memorial,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told reporters after the Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

He said the Cabinet gave its approval on the basis of recommendations made by the Group of Ministers.

Dasmunshi said the platform, the space constructed for museum and other structure, which were in harmony with the surroundings, would be retained.

He said the steel columns be dismantled along with globe. The globe may be stored at a suitable place and well preserved for any possible alternative use in future.

The broad parameters of the new Police Memorial structure be finalised by CPWD in consultation with DUAC, IB and MHA within a period of 3 months and placed before the GoM.

Dasmunshi said the GoM recommended abandoning the present structure and writing off losses thereof and for incurring expenditure on dismantling and payment of idling charges.

The existing 150 ft high memorial was built at a cost of Rs 13 crore. However, it evoked sharp criticism from conservationists and planners forcing the government to have a re-look at the memorial.

The tall structure was built in the memory of police officials who lost their lives in the line of duty.

Conservationists had criticised that the memorial was an eyesore as it is a monstrosity that blocked the view of the Rashtrapati Bhawan - one of the city’s biggest landmarks. 

New Delhi, March 8
At a meeting held today, the Manifesto Committee constituted by the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee for municipal elections chalked out a plan to finalise the points on which basis the party would contest the civic body poll.

The Chairman of the Committee, Mr Jagdish Tytler, said that the Congress manifesto would be completed by Sunday. So far, the committee has made some points but it will be elaborated within a few days. Today’s meeting was attended by Delhi Ministers Yoganand Shastri and Haroon Yusuf; MLAs Subhash Chopra, Jai Kishan, Rama Kant Goswami, Vijay Singh Lochav and Anjali Rai.

Sources said that main issue of elections would be declaration of Master Plan 2021 and announcement for regularisation of unauthorised colonies because this could be vote catching issues for the Congress. Demolition and sealing had tarnished the image of the party but citizens of Delhi had forgot it after declaration of new Master Plan and regularisation of unauthorised colonies.

Sources said that government was concentrating on ways to control the inflation in the national Capital so that prices of vegetables and other things could be stabilised. However, the sources added that inflation was a national phenomenon and not only the national Capital, but all the states had been witnessing its impact.

The Congress has lost assembly elections in Punjab and Uttrakhand on the issue of inflation. According to sources, in the Delhi Municipal elections, however, inflation does not seem to be the main issue. In municipal elections, the local issues are more important, they say.

Focussing on all these issues, party activists are very enthusiastic to contest the elections. A total of 12,000 party workers have applied for ticket to contest the poll. Today was the last day to submit the application form. Of them, more than 3,000 are women.

As far as women ticket seekers are concerned, majority of them are not political activists. They are relatives of senior politicians, the sources said. 

New Delhi, March 8
A slew of functions were held in the national Capital today to mark the International Women’s Day.

The Delhi Commission For Women celebrated the day at the Capital’s Dilli Haat with a number of events through out the day to showcase different aspects of woman empowerment. Ms Gursharan Kaur, wife of the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, was the chief guest while the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, presided over the function. Ms Renuka Chowdhury, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, was the guest of honour.

Ms Susheela Kajala of Sannaud village in Narela received the Bravery Award who not only won a dowry case against her in-laws but also went along helping others in distress.

Ms Kiran Walia, Chairperson, Delhi Commission For Women, said that a two-week long bazaar had been organised at the site to promote hand-made and home-made products.

The Health Ministry here took the lead and organised a health check-up camp to sensitise women, who are the main caregivers to children and elderly, about various health problems specific to their sex.The Minister of State for Health, Panabaka Lakshmi, inaugurated the camp organised by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) at the Nirman Bhavan. Health Secretary Naresh Dayal and the DGHS R.K. Srivastava were also present on the occasion.

The camp was aimed at sensitising the women employees about various health problems and health issues, specific to women and encouraging them to adopt healthy life style. As women are the main caregivers for children and elderly in the family, it is important that facilities for general health check-up, mental health services, counselling and advice on stress management are made available at the camp.

New Delhi, March 8
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has not yet allowed private players in housing as guidelines are being drawn up to execute recommendations in this regard in Delhi’s new Master Plan, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

No permission has been granted by the DDA to private sector companies for purchase of land as yet, Union Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy said in a reply. Delhi will require 2.4 million additional homes as its population is expected to surge to 2.30 crore by 2021.

In order to meet this projected requirement, the MPD-2021 envisaged involvement of private sector in the process of land assembly and development of housing. The process of formulation of detailed guidelines, norms regarding private participation in land assembly and development of housing had been initiated, he said.

Commonwealth village: The Environment Ministry has cleared a proposal to set up a Commonwealth Games village on the banks of the Yamuna on certain conditions.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests had also allowed the DDA on February 21 to go ahead with the planning of construction work, permanent or temporary, subject to the condition that actual work on permanent structures shall not start till mitigation, abatement measures against upstream flooding are identified through studies, the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr Ajay Maken said.

Sainik Farms: There was no proposal at present to regularise the Sainik farms, he said.

Inter-departmental discussions over recommendations of a committee on the regularisation of unauthorised affluent colonies had begun, he added. 

Ghaziabad, March 8
At least 32 employees have been punished for absenting themselves from duty and shirking responsibility in preparation of voters’ photos identity cards by the Ghaziabad District Administration.

An FIR has been lodged against a GDA Supervisor, Satinder Singh who absented himself from the duty after he had been detailed for preparation of voters’ photo identity cards.

Two teachers have been suspended from service for the same reason. Besides, 32 employees have been issued a show-cause notice by the Ghaziabad Development Authority.

A junior engineer, Atul Jain and a clerk Jai Shankar have also been suspended for showing negligence in the work of issuing voters ID cards.

It may be added that the photo ID cards of only 72 per cent voters in the district have been made so far.

The District Administration has launched a campaign for making photo ID cards for 100 per cent of the voters on a war-footing. The strict action has been taken against the dereliction of duty by these employees.

The GDA officials from whom an explanation has been sought include an assistant engineer and an executive engineer—Girish Kumar, Sanjay Vashisth and supervisor and clerks Jeet Singh, Ashok Kumar, Raj Kumar Singhal, Vivek Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Sanjay Kumar, Veerpal and Shyam Kumar.

This action against the staff has caused a commotion among the GDA staff.

Gurgaon, March 8
The local municipality has undertaken development plans in the old city area following the district administration’s measures which have made the body rich.

The district administration’s measure on public auctions of advertisement sites to private parties in the municipal limits has made the elected local body rich by Rs 72 lakh per year. As per the agreements, the private party that has won the public auction will increase the money by 15 per cent every year. Although the auction is for three years, the arrangement can be extendable for two more years.

As per arrangement, 542 electricity poles have been allowed by the private parties to use for advertisements.

According to official sources, the additional revenue accruing from the auction is a windfall for the municipality. The present annual budget of the body is about Rs 32 crore. The elected body is left with only Rs 15 crore for development works. Given the poor shape of entire old city area falling in municipal limits, the available money for development works is not enough..

The local body has singled out half a dozen key junctions for widening and repair of roads. The other projects include developing some parks like that in Old DLF, Shivaji Nagar and Subash Nagar. In the recent past, the municipality developed about 22 parks in the old city area.

According to many, the extra revenue created shows earlier administrations in a poor light. The general perception is that such measures should have been taken much earlier. The difference was that earlier vested interests, in collusion with local politicians, favoured themselves to the detriment of the government exchequer.

Noida, March 8
A masked criminal intruded into a house and attacked the couple in which the woman lost an eye. The assailant was, however, nabbed by the neighbours and given a thorough thrashing. The injured woman is stated to be in a serious condition.

The police say the incident is the result of a one-sided love. R.L. Pratham, an employee of Canara Bank lives with his family in C-91, Sector-20 Noida. When someone knocked at their door at 8.30 pm yesterday, R.L. Pratham’s wife, Phul Samundri, opened the door. A masked intruder then attacked her with a dagger. The knife pierced her left eye. Hearing her shrieks, Pratham rushed to her rescue, but he was also attacked. Seeing this, their daughter raised the alarm from their first floor balcony. As the neighbours rushed to Pratham’s help, the intruder tried to climb on to the roof of an adjoining house, but his mask slipped from his face and the couple were able to recognise him. As he tried to escape, he was nabbed by the people who gave him a sound beating.

The assailant has been identified as one Annu from C Block. The couple were rushed to Kailash Hospital while the assailant Annu was taken to Noida Medicare Centre by his parents. The police Sector-20 have registered a case. The police said the assailant used to harass Pratham’s daughter. He had even tried to get their daughter, who works with NIFT Ahmedabad, transferred to Delhi by fraudulently signing an application on their behalf.

Noida, March 8
The rash drivers, either under influence of liquor or intoxicated by the muscle power of their owners, appear to be targeting traffic cops as they continue to run over them in the town.

A traffic cop Vijay Gautam was hit by a Tata-407 at T Series crossing Noida while a traffic marshal Arvind Kumar was hit by a car driver who jumped the red light at Rajni Gandha crossing while the marshal was trying to stop the vehicle.

Both the victims have been rushed to hospital in serious condition. The Tata-407 being in high speed turned turtle at the T series crossing as the cop tried to halt it. The traffic cop’s legs were crushed under the vehicle as it turned turtle. He was rushed to Vinayak Hospital in a serious condition while traffic marshal was rushed to Kailash Hospital.

In spite of a large number of traffic cops and traffic marshals being deployed on crossings in the town, nobody is able to notice the number of the erring vehicles. It happened with the Maruti car at Rajni Gandha Crossing also. The car drivers fled the spot with their vehicle.

It may be recalled that a traffic cop, Nand Kishore was beaten up by 5 inmates of a car at NTPC Crossing while a little later three occupants of an Ambassador car had also assaulted the same cop on March 1. Police are still groping in the dark about the identity of all the assailants.

Besides, the normal citizens and pedestrians, even the traffic police personnel have become unsafe on Noida roads now.

New Delhi, March 8
The South-West district police today claimed to have busted an interstate gang of robbers, with the arrest of three members of this gang – Rajesh Kushwaha, Uma Shankar and Sunil Kumar Gupta.

About a dozen cases of robbery have been worked out with their arrest. The gang was also wanted in a sensational dacoity committed in a Noida-based house of Ms Kanti Singh, MoS, Government of India.

One Mr Vijay Kumar Aggarwal, a resident of Sarojini Nagar and working as a senior officer with a private firm, had reported that four persons, including one in police uniform, had come to his house on the pretext of some police verifications. They allegedly robbed Rs 5 lakh in cash, jewellery worth lakhs of rupees and other valuables.

During investigations, it was observed that the suspects were familiar with the day to day activities of the complainant, the police said.

The electronic surveillance conducted at the office of the complainant revealed that the suspects were in close contact with someone in the office of the victim.

The identity of one suspect was later established as Rajesh Kushwaha, working as a field boy at the complainant’s firm.

The suspect Rajesh Kushwaha was arrested. Initially, he tried to mislead the police but later he allegedly confessed to have been involved in the crime. 

New Delhi, March 8
In a signed appeal, more than 1,000 teachers of Delhi University have requested the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India (CJI) to take note of the reports in the press and electronic media about the witnesses turning hostile under political pressure in the case of murder of Prof. Sabharwal of Ujjain. The teachers have urged upon the CJI to treat these reports or their letter as PIL in the larger interest of the society and the educational institutions in particular so that the case may get a fair trial somewhere outside Madhya Pradesh as well as those witnesses who have turned hostile under pressure are booked.

Teachers, including principals, Heads of Departments and other senior professors, have expressed their deep anguish that the political forces aided by the state machinery of the MP government are working to save the culprits.

“If the culprits are not punished, then the disturbing developments in this case would adversely affect the academic environment in the educational institutions as the violent elements would feel emboldened,” they said.

New Delhi, March 8
One out of 10 people have kidney disorder and about 100 million people around the world are estimated to be suffering from chronic kidney disorders, Head of Nephrology Department in the Rammanohar Lohia Hospital (RML), Dr Shyam Sundar said here today.

Chronic kidney disorder has become a killer disease like diabetes and hypertension, Dr Sundar said while speaking at the ‘Kidney Awareness Camp’, organised at RML hospital here.

“Lack of awareness among the people result in majority of the people seek medical advice only when the kidney problem is at an advanced stage… In fact, this deadly disease could be prevented by simple urine and blood test at regular intervals,” he said, adding that kidney disorder could result in pre-mature heart ailments.

As part of the daylong awareness camp, about 350 persons were examined by nephrologists, 30 per cent of them women. Besides, pamphlets listing the ‘Dos and Don’ts’ to prevent kidney ailments were also distributed among the public.

“Awareness about kidney ailments is minimal and therefore, we thought of organising this awareness camp,” RML Hospital’s Medical Superintendent N K Chaturvedi told The Tribune.

He said the hospital was also working towards setting up a Kidney Transplant Centre soon.