New Delhi, March 9
The Supreme Court today took objection to the MCD not extending its cooperation to its monitoring committee overseeing the work of sealing of illegal shops in the Capital’s residential area, clarifying that the drive should continue on roads and streets not covered under the Master Plan, 2021.

A Bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta directed the MCD to continue its cooperation with the monitoring committee for sealing of the shops outside the Master Plan and the two notifications of the Centre issued last year, covering 2,183 roads and streets.

The direction came after amicus curiea Ranjit Kumar, assisting the Court in the matter, told the Bench that the MCD, after the notification of the Master Plan, had indefinitely stopped the sealing in all the areas whether covered by it or not.

The Monitoring Committee in its fresh report, submitted to the Court yesterday informed that the Court’s order were being “misinterpreted” by the civic body and that it had virtually stopped the sealing drive.

The court clarified that in its February 12 order, no stay was granted on the sealing of the commercial ventures in the areas outside the Master Plan and the two notifications, and therefore, the MCD should continue to seal the ventures not protected.

With the direction, the Court cleared air as where the sealing should continue and where the shops were protected under the Master Plan.

New Delhi, March 9
The Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) authorities to learn from their counterparts in Mumbai, which demolished the ‘pandal’ constructed by the famed Godrej family for the ceremony to commemorate the marriage of British actor Elizabeth Hurley and millionaire Arun Nayar on Juhu 
beach there.

Peeved by the inaction of the MCD, a division bench of chief justice M K Sarma and justice Sanjiv Khanna said, “Learn from the Mumbai Municipal Corporation— see how do they function? It did not even spare the Godrej family which had erected a pandal on the beach for the ceremony of the celebrities,,” observed the bench referring to the news reports.

The news reports said the Mumbai Municipal Corporation had demolished the pandal in front of the Godrej family’s Juhu beach bungalow for the second time in a week throwing spanner on the party. Parmeshwar Godrej, the wife of industrialist Adi Godrej, had erected the pandal for the ceremony on the beach, which is against the municipal law. While hearing a public interest petition, the court said, “How could you allow slums in public parks? Parks are meant for public not for slums,” said 
the judges.

The petition has sought the direction of the court to the MCD for removal of about 2000 slums in Nehru camp, Navjivan camp and Bhumihin camp in parks in Kalkaji, South Delhi.

MCD counsel submitted that the government had allowed the Punjab migrants to settle in the parks. Alternate plots had been given to the eligible 200 families and the rest were illegal settlers, he said. The court directed the municipal authorities to remove illegal encroachments and file a status report by May 18.

New Delhi, March 9
The State Chief Election Commission of Delhi will announce the notifications for municipal elections tomorrow detailing about the poll schedule and other procedures. The filing of nomination will also begin from tomorrow.

Sources said that a total of three notices would be issued. The first notice will be under rule 12 of the DMC Act for calling upon the electors to elect their representatives. The second and the third notices will be under Section 11 in which election schedule will be mentioned.

Once the civic body poll is notified, all the Returning Officers (RO) will issue public notices mentioning ward schedule. As many as 68 ROs and 272 Assistant ROs will be appointed. The last date for filing of nomination is March 17 and on that very day scrutiny will also be done.

Sources said that last date for withdrawal of nominations was March 22. Thereafter, party symbols will also be issued to the political parties.

After completing all these procedures, a period of 14 days will be given to the contestants for campaigning that is from March 22 to April 4.

According to sources, the Election Commission of India has given 12,000 Electronic Voting Machines to the Delhi Election Commission for 272 municipal wards. This has been done keeping in view the large number of polling stations and voters in the national Capital.

Arrangements for thousands of polling stations will also be made by the Election Commission. A circular will be issued among various departments of the Delhi Government as well as the MCD to deploy officials on poll duty. 

New Delhi, March 9
Property tax assesses in the Capital can now pay their dues to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in both the old and new unit area method systems.

A resolution to this effect was passed in the high-powered Municipal Corporation of Delhi Standing Committee meeting today.

The issue came up for discussion when the BJP member of Standing Committee, Mr Vijendra Gupta, alleged that the civic body officials were harassing residents and asking for bribes.

“Some of people who had to pay arrears which were due before 2004, are facing problems as the officials are demanding that the old procedure needs to be followed in their cases,” Mr Gupta said.

Following this, a resolution was passed to allow filing of the taxes both in the old and the new unit area method and Chairman of the committee J K Sharma directed that a public notice be brought out to this effect. 

Greater Noida, March 9
The UP State Government has issued orders to the District Magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar, for setting in motion the process of acquiring land for Taj Expressway.

Land for the important project, which had been a subject of a probe, has been pending for the past four years. The needed land will be acquired in 190 villages situated on the route of the proposed Expressway from Greater Noida to Agra.

The government order, dated 26 February, it is learnt, has been received by the District Magistrate Ajay Chauhan in which it has been stated that land in Sadar and Javer Tehsils of Gautam Budh Nagar is to be acquired. This land will be acquired in villages including Tirthali, Kalainda, Sultanpur, Seroli, Mehendipur, Rustampur, Roneja, Shahpur, Mirzapur, Kadarpur, Jaganpur, Rampur, Attai, Uchheja, Burj, Munji, Kehra, Samaipur, Gurpura and Dankaur in GB Nagar.

Similarly land will be acquired in 26 villages in Aligarh and 60 villages in Sadar Tehsil of Mathura.

It may be mentioned that the then BSP government of Ms Mayawati has signed an agreement with Jaiprakash Associates for building a 100-metre-wide and 160-km-long Expressway from Greater Noida to Agra.

But after the change of government, an enquiry commission had been set up to probe the whole matter by the Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government.

Senior IAS officers T. George Joseph, Brijesh Kumar and Ravi Shankar Mathur had conducted probes separately one after the other.

A retired judge had also been asked to conduct a probe. But all these reports had failed to point out any serious fault with project and resulted in delaying it for precious four years. Even officers had also been posted in the Taj Expressway Authority.

Jai Prakash Associates, it is understood, had written to the government that in case the needed land is made available, they will be able to build the Expressway and complete it by 2010.

New Delhi, March 9
Existing structures on the Yamuna river bed are safe enough for constructing the Commonwealth Games village but some of them need to be strengthened before the commencement of work, according to a technical study on the project’s feasibility.

The study, which was presented to the Union Environment Ministry for clearance yesterday by a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) team, has concluded that the existing bund on Yamuna would not cause any danger upstream even in the event of flood.

“The strength of the Akshardham bund has been checked at a force of 9,910 cum/sec which is the maximum flood check for any structure,” said a senior DDA official.

On the effect of river upstream, the report said, “The effect diminishes upstream within 200m and there is no danger of flooding upstream”.

The study conducted by the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Pune, has, however, raised questions on the safety of some of the old structures on the Yamuna bank.

“For example, the bunds on the Nizamuddin and the rail and road bridge bunds near the Ring Road need to be strengthened,” the official said.

The Environment Ministry has said that it would go through the study and make a decision within seven days, he said, adding the DDA had also sent the report to Delhi Chief Secretary R Narayanswami asking him to take action on the reccomendations.

“The DDA would also take up the issue at the next empowered ministers’ meet,” he added. 

Noida, March 9
A case of fraud has been registered in Noida Phase-II police station against a Deputy Commissioner of Customs, posted in NEPZ. A jeweller in NEPZ has filed a case against the Dy Commissioner and the police have registered the FIR on the orders of a court.

Deepak Gupta, a resident of E-58, Sector-39, is a jeweller in NEPZ who has filed a case against the Dy Commissioner, Customs. The main allegation against the customs official is that he had misled the court by fraudulently signing some documents on behalf of Deepak Gupta in the decision of a case in customs court.

According to police, Deepak Gupta had come with 10 kg gold which was impounded by the Dy Commissioner saying that it was rolled gold. After the judicial process and the court proceedings when the gold was returned to Deepak Gupta, he alleged it was one and a half kg short than the original quantity.

A legal notice was sent to the DC by Deepak Gupta. The case was probed by CB CID also.

The Dy Commissioner is also understood to have sent some legal notice and demanded a probe. But a notice presented before the court had false signatures of Deepak Gupta who had filed a case of fraud against the Customs DC on its basis, it is learnt.

New Delhi, March 9
Water quality of the river Yamuna in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh has shown no desired improvement, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

A phenomenal increase of population and large-scale extraction of water from the river for drinking and other purposes have had an adverse impact on quality of its water.

Water quality of the river in Haryana, however, was within prescribed limits, Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mr Namo Narain Meena said in a reply.

The National River Conservation Directorate under the Ministry has launched a two-phased Yamuna Action Plan at a cost of Rs 1,339 crore to control pollution in the river. An expenditure of Rs 686 crore had been incurred under both the phases of the plan till November 30 last year, the minister said.

New Delhi, March 9
The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Mr B.L. Joshi, was today admitted to a private hospital here to undergo treatment for neurological problems.

The condition of 73-year-old Mr Joshi, who was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital this morning, is stated to be stable. “He is fine and will be discharged in a day or two,” hospital sources said. The sources, however, did not specify the exact nature of the ailment.

A team of doctors led by head of the neurological department, Dr C.S. Aggarwal is attending on Mr Joshi.

New Delhi, March 9
Relying on the deposition statement of the victim and her husband, a court here sentenced three persons to ten years’ rigorous imprisonment each for gangraping a 23-year-old pregnant woman five years ago.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Narinder Pal Kaushik held Harbans, Ram Dhani and Pramod, all in their thirties, guilty of gangrape and slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 each on them. 

New Delhi, March 9
A five-day Indo-US workshop on ‘Avian Influenza Preparedness and Response’ concluded in New Delhi today.

Health and veterinary practitioners from India and Southeast Asian countries received training in preparedness and response to avian influenza viruses that threaten human and poultry health.

The March 5-9 workshop was jointly organised by the Government of India, the United States National Institute of Communicable Diseases and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture, the World Health Organisation, and UNICEF.

This ‘train-the-trainer’ workshop is part of an ongoing bilateral collaboration, funded by a grant agreement signed on October 13, 2006 by Mr Geoffrey R Pyatt, Charge d’ Affaires, US Embassy, and Dr Salim J Habayeb, WHO Representative to India. The grant agreement supports a series of workshops on avian influenza in India and for enhancing regional capacity to detect and respond to avian influenza.

The objectives of the workshop included training for early detection, rapid response and containment of avian and pandemic influenza.

Faridabad, March 9
The closure of the well-known market of Sector 7-10 here has not only led to spurt in the prices of commercial establishments in the authorised sector markets of nearby areas, but has also resulted in illegal construction and expansion of the available shop area. While many shop owners have already constructed basements, others are in the process of doing so.

Over 350 shops functioning in this ‘unauthorised’ market have been sealed by the administration on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, about two months back. The next date of hearing in this connection has been fixed on May 9.

While several affected shopkeepers started running a makeshift market by putting up temporary structures outside the closed shops, many others moved out to run their business in the authorised markets of nearby sectors. “The rates of shops in Sector 7, 8, 9 and 11 went up sharply after this development,” claimed a local property agent here.

He added that the rising demand of shops in HUDA sector markets had prompted several shopkeepers to go in for construction of basements, which was illegal and required prior permission of the authorities.

It is claimed that several basements in the market of Sector 7 here have either come up or under construction and no notice has been served so far in this connection.

When contacted, the Administrator, HUDA, said that he would order for a survey to detect such constructions. An action would be taken against the defaulters.

He said no unauthorised construction would be allowed anywhere.

Earlier, it was reported that certain hospitals and clinics running from the residential areas in some of the sectors had constructed unauthorised basements spreading across even the green belt.