New Delhi, March 15
Delhi unit of the BJP president Dr Harsh Vardhan today released a list of 180 candidates for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections to be held on April 5. The list of remaining candidates were released late night.

Out of 180 candidates, the BJP has given tickets to five Muslim candidates from Mustafabad, Chauhan Banger, Qasabpura, Okhla and Turkman Gate. In these municipal wards minority votes are deciding factors. A total of 272 candidates will fight the Corporation election this year.

Releasing the first list of the BJP candidates selected for the MCD elections, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that this election was a matter of life and death for the people of Delhi. Therefore all the workers of the party should become active now in making the candidates victorious by big margins in the interest of the national Capital.

He said that after testing from all points of view in the list efforts had been made to select the best workers. Many able workers had applied from every ward included in the list issued today. The Selection Committee had after intensive study, scrutinised all the applications and selected the candidates who were the best and capable of winning the election.

The Selection Committee very well knows that there is no dearth of capable workers in the party for contesting the elections from each ward whose list has been declared today. The compulsion was that only one worker could be given ticket.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that services of those workers who had not been fielded in the election due to some indispensable reason, would be utilised at other places. The commitment, integrity, trust, participation in programmes, honesty etc. of any worker of the Party has not been underestimated. Congratulating such trust worthy workers who could not be accommodated, he said that the fruit of patience is always sweet.

The BJP Pradesh President said, “the MCD elections would decide whether Delhi was to be left for the corrupt, despotic, unjust and looter Congressmen or a new chapter is to begin in the history of Delhi with the big victory of BJP”.

New Delhi, March 15
Delhi unit of the Bhartiya Janshakti Party chief Mr. Madan Lal Khurana today announced that his party would have alliance with Indian National Lok Dal to contest the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections. He has also released a list of 99 candidates for various civic body wards.

He said that second list of the candidates would be made public tomorrow after consulting with senior leaders of the party.

Releasing the list of candidates Mr Khurana said that the Bhartiya Janshakti Party would contest the MCD elections on a total of 272 seats. This is first experience of the party to contest the election in Delhi. The party would also field its candidates in the Delhi Assembly elections. The party has made alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal as it also has bright chance in Delhi. The INLD will contest elections on nine seats.

The Bhartiya Janshakti Party candidates will contest the elections on the election symbol of the INLD because the Delhi Election Commission has refused to allot election symbol to Mr Khurana’s Party on certain reasons.

The election symbol of INLD is opticals.

Addressing a gathering, Mr Khurana said that while distributing the tickets the party had given preference to representatives of various communities, professionals and social workers. People of Uttrakhand, Uttranchal, Punjabis and residents of Old Delhi were also considered to contest the election.

He claimed that candidates of the Bhartiya Janshakti would win the election with a thumping majority. The citizens of Delhi are fed with the Congress as well as the BJP. At present the Congress is at the helm of affair. The price rise of daily used commodities has broken the back bone of the poor people.

In 1997 election Delhi voters had given chance to the BJP to provide relief to the residents of the Capital and for development work. But the BJP did nothing.

“During those days I was also in BJP. I had appealed to the BJP leaders to control the inflation. But they had not given attention to my appeal. Subsequently in MCD as well as Delhi Assembly elections they were defeated”, he said.

He said that the Congress would meet the same fate in this election. 

New Delhi, March 15
Vasant Kunj RWAs today brought to conclusion the five-step procedure to identify Ms Lakshmi Dagar to contest the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections from Kishangarh ward number 172.

Ms Lakshmi Dagar, a Naval officer’s wife, is a highly respected resident of Vasant Kunj and also has strong links in the nearby villages making her a doubly strong candidate. Besides, she has the unstinted support of close to 17, 000 voters of Vasant Kunj, who form the bulk of the Kishangarh ward.

In a separate ceremony in Naraina Vihar, residents announced that Dr. Kajla Bansal would be their candidate in the civic body elections. She is MD, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist.

Speaking on the occasion, a senior member of the Naraina Vihar RWA, Naresh Ummat said, “this is a new experience for all of us and the enthusiasm of the people for this idea is worth seeing. With this kind of support we have every reason to believe that our candidate will win the polls”. 

New Delhi, March 15
The construction of an underground tunnel to connect the Capital with Commonwealth Games Village was not dangerous to Humayun’s Tomb as it was at a distance of 340 metres from the Mughal monument, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

In a written reply, Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni said the Delhi Government had sought a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the construction of a link road connecting NH-24 bypass with Lodhi Road.

She said the proposal was examined by an expert advisory committee constituted by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and a conditional NOC was issued.

As the response of the Delhi Government to the conditionalities had not been received, the NOC had been suspended, she said. Ms Soni said the road was not dangerous to Humayun’s Tomb and other monuments as it was at a distance of 340 metres from the tomb.

Besides, the ASI had insisted on the observance of specific conditions as the proposed link road was passing through areas in the vicinity of protected monuments, she said.

In 1992, the ASI issued a notification declaring areas up to 100 metres from the protected limits of monuments of national importance as prohibited areas where all construction and mining activities were banned.

Another 200 metres beyond this had been declared as regulated area where construction activity was permitted only in accordance with the terms and conditions of a licence issued by the ASI, she said. 

New Delhi, March 15
The government’s refusal to amend rules pertaining to management of the defunct Super Bazaar in the event of private parties taking over its control could delay its revival.

The Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), which was one of the two private bidders, has decided to pull out of the race due to the government’s refusal to amend the rules, the Supreme Court was informed today.

A Bench of Justice B P Singh and Justice H S Bedi, seized of a bunch of petitions by the employees of Super Bazaar, directed that the authorities should refund Rs 5 crore amount deposited by the company as earnest money for the contract.

Since Indian Potash Ltd, the other private company, was the lone bidder now left in the fray, the Court directed it to discuss with the government whether it was possible to give effective management control to a private player under the existing rules.

The report to this effect was sought by the Court by March 21 when the matter would be taken up for further hearing.

RIL had proposed to spend Rs 288 crore to get the control of the Super Bazaar, once a most favoured destination of house wives in Delhi to buy the commodities of their daily needs at controlled prices.

The Super Bazaar, which was run as a public sector cooperative society had become defunct over a decade ago due to certain management problems and employees unrest as it suffered huge losses.

The government had taken a stand that there was no need to amend the exiting laws for handing over the super bazaar’s management to private bidders as it could be run effectively under the existing rules.

The Super Bazaar’s employees Union had moved the apex court seeking protection of their employment rights and payment of unpaid wages. They had alleged that the losses suffered by the society were due to rampant corruption at the management level, while they were not paid salaries for years.

The Court had earlier rejected the plea of the New Delhi Municipal Council owning the multi-storey building that housed the Super Bazaar, for demolition of it and establishing a multiplex in its place.

New Delhi, March 15
A court today sentenced a private tutor to rigorous life imprisonment for murdering a 20-year-old girl student of St Stephen’s College seven years ago.

While pronouncing the sentence, the court said that though Uttam Kumar had committed a brutal murder, the evidence brought before it did not warrant a death penalty as the case did not fall in the rarest of rare category.

In the light of the over all circumstances of the case, coupled with the nature of the evidence presented by the prosecution, this cannot be stated to be falling in rarest of rare category despite being a heinous, diabolic and brutal murder, the judge said.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Kumar, out of which Rs 3 lakh will be paid to the parents of the deceased girl.

Strongly condemning the conduct of the convict during his trial, the judge further directed the jail authorities to place a copy of this order before the concerned authorities whenever Kumar pleads for commutation or remission of his sentence.

Kumar, a former tutor of Priyanka, had stabbed her to death at her Adarsh Nagar residence on April 19, 1999, just 10 days before her marriage, as he was enraged over her engagement to somebody else.

New Delhi, March 15
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued guidelines for shifting monkeys from the city to Asola wildlife sanctuary in South Delhi.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice H.R. Malhotra said that only healthy monkeys should be caught and shifted and veterinary doctors should examine them before they are taken away to their new habitat.

The Bench directed the NDMC and the MCD to set up centres near religious places to collect food offered to the monkeys. This should later be taken to the sanctuary, the Bench stated.—TNS

Faridabad, March 15
The Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has announced that adequate compensation would be paid to all the farmers in the state whose crop had been damaged in the recent rains and hailstorms.

The compensation would be released by April 15 after ‘girdawari’ (survey) by the land revenue department within 10 days, he said.

Mr Hooda was addressing a gathering of farmers at Jaindapur village of Palwal subdivision in the district last evening while he was on a visit to assess the damage to crops by the recent calamity.

Standing rabi crop, including wheat on about 20,000 hectares in about 82 villages in the district, has been damaged by the hailstorms and strong winds which lashed the region a few days back.

Mr Hooda who reached Palwal last evening by a helicopter made an aerial survey of dozens of villages, including Dungarpur, Jaindapur, Attarchatta, Taharki, Dhatir, Kakrali, Gughera, Kishorepur, Chandpur, Allika and Milkpur.

The state Revenue Minister, Capt. Ajay Singh, accompanied the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister said that the farmers need not worry about the loss due to the natural calamity and said that the present government would take care of their interest and pay them a proper compensation. Asking the residents not to take to undemocratic means of protests or get misled by the political adversaries, he said, the affected persons should cooperate with the administration, as there would be no injustice with anybody in this matter. He said he had directed the officials to complete the survey expeditiously and make arrangements to release the compensation within 30 days.

Meanwhile, Mr Ved Prakash Vidrohi, the spokesperson of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), said here today that the compensation paid to the farmers would be more than 250 per cent of what was made by the previous governments during such calamities.

He said this amount could be between Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 per acre, depending upon the land quality. Wide publicity would be given for the detailed survey in the villages to include the affected persons, he added.

Stating that the Chief Minister had visited all the affected districts on Wednesday, he claimed that the Hooda government had been very cautious about the farmers’ interests.

Reacting to the recent outbursts of the former Chief Minister, Mr Bhajan ,Lal and his son Kuldeep Bishnoi, MP from Bhiwani, Mr Vidrohi claimed that this was a result of their failure to get into power by hook or crook.

Scoffing at their claims of being true Congressmen, he said corruption had perhaps been the only contribution during the tenure of Mr Lal.

He dared Mr Bhajan Lal and his son to resign from the party and the MP seat and contest on their own to test their popularity. He said the party would be pleased to remove all such people in order to cleanse its image.

New Delhi, March 15
The Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) has ambitious plans of extending online facilities to all its new courses from July 2007 onwards.

This was announced recently by its VC Prof. V.N. Rajashekharan Pillai, who remarked that the move was aimed at “harnessing new information and communication technologies to help IGNOU attain its goals”.

In its latest annual publication ‘IGNOU – A Profile,’ the VC stated that the move was to use technology into teaching learning, skill upgradation and capacity building in a systematic way.

“The region specific vocational education and training programmes, meant to enhance the knowledge base of our work force in all sectors is one of the main agendas in the coming years,” he further added.

The VC further informed that “the technology intensive countrywide educational structure of IGNOU will be put to effective use for providing knowledge connectivity and for strengthening the capacity building programmes.”

IGNOU is all set to equip people with knowledge and skills in sustainable development making them more competent and confident to lead a healthy and harmonious life.

He stressed on IGNOU’s awareness of the growing need for continuos skills upgradation, capacity building, re-training and the importance of life long learning.

To meet this growing demand IGNOU is introducing new industry oriented and development oriented specific courses based on credible impact analysis.

Noida, March 15
The association of the petrol pumps in GB Nagar has threatened to refuse petrol to the government vehicles on election duty unless the District Administration clears Rs 1 crore that it owes to the petrol pumps for the past many years.

Significantly, the district administration officials have not paid the money to the petrol pumps despite a High Court order. The District Petrol Pump Association has requested the District Election Officer and the Central Election Commission to help it get the payments from the District Officers as per the High Court order. Most of this amount became due in the last six months while the remaining amount was six to seven-year-old.

It may be mentioned that a bench of the Allahabad High Court comprising Justice A.K. Yog and Justice R.K. Rastogi had ordered in the case of Modern Filling Station and others vs UP government on October 30, 2006, that the government should promptly make the payments due to petrol pumps. All the payment should be made within three weeks as a rule, the court had ordered.

Gurgaon, March 15
The charges of corruption, pick-and-choose policy and delaying of public work due to vested interests in the office of Senior Town Planner (STP) have been confirmed by the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC).

The STP office supervises the working of District Town Planner–Enforcement (DTP-E) which had recently demolished most of the campus of the Anupama College of Engineering and Anupama Institute of Management, Bhorakalan.

The institute’s chairman had alleged in the affidavit that the buildings were demolished as he did not pay Rs 20 lakh as demanded by the officials of the DTP-E.

ADC Satyaprakash T L who was investigating the allegation informed this correspondent that the whole department of STP was a mess.

The ADC had written a letter, dated 14/3/07, No 1713 to STP Brahma Prakash, mentioning that “the demolition work is threatened but never carried out. Hardly 12 demolitions are conducted but hundreds of notices are issued. This clearly shows mala fide intentions”.

The officer also states, “There is no indication of work being done.” He has enough evidence to prove that neither the Right to Information Act is implemented in STP office nor any notices are served, added the ADC.

He informed that he had sealed two dispatch registers, being maintained by the STP office. As per prescribed rules and regulations, there should be only one dispatch register, revealed the ADC. Even the entries in these two registers are not systematic, added the officer.

Stating the example of corruption, the letter further directs the STP office to “expedite the case of Anupama Engineering College, inform the office of ADC if there is any objection to clear the file. Nevertheless, pass an order within three working days.”

“Dealing a case for as long as 18 months creates suspicion that something is fishy in STP department,” concluded the letter.

Here, it may be recalled that these academic institutes had submitted all the building plans, relevant documents and maps for approval in the department. The sanction was not granted. On the other hand, the demolition drive was carried out on these two premises on February 5.

The damages caused due to the demolition at the institute is more than 90 per cent and the loss suffered by them is approximately Rs 11.86 crore, stated a government-approved valuer.

Many attempts were made to speak to the STP office, but in vain.

New Delhi, March 15
Power theft is a big slur on the face of Delhi which otherwise is on its way to becoming a world class modern city. Power theft knows no boundaries. It cuts across segments and classes. After adopting a 360 degree approach and a zero tolerance policy towards power theft, BSES is now determined to transform Delhi’s image as the world’s power theft Capital.

This decision has been taken following a dialogue and interaction with thousands of honest customers, BSES’ Bhagidari partners and other stakeholders who are equally determined to help rid the national Capital of this dubious image.

Increasing support from honest customers in the form of tip-offs on power theft cases is as much a contributing factor in controlling power theft as is the deployment of modern technologies like DT metering, Geographical Information System (GIS) etc.

To make the process of reporting power theft easier than ever before, the BSES has launched two exclusive email IDs for its honest customers, theft.bypl@bsesdelhi.com (for BYPL customers) and theft.brpl@bsesdelhi.com (for BRPL customers).

“These email ids are in addition to the two dedicated and exclusive numbers, 39999888 (BYPL) and 39999777 (BRPL), for reporting power theft. As always, the identity of customers will be kept confidential” said a BSES spokesperson and added, “We hope that with the introduction of the two email IDs on the suggestion of honest consumers, many more will come forward and help remove the stigma of ‘power theft Capital’ associated with Delhi”

Even after a record reduction by Delhi discoms (20 per cent by BYPL and 16.4 per cent by BRPL), Delhi’s AT & C losses at 35 per cent remain one of the highest in the country, even more than neighboring towns of Noida and Faridabad.

“Since January 2005, the BSES has filed over 3200 cases in the Special Courts of Electricity. So far, the courts have sentenced more than 125 power thieves to jail in the BSES area, giving them jail terms amounting to a total of over 1200 man days in prison” said a BSES official.

New Delhi, March 15
The New Delhi district police today claimed to have busted a gang of corporate cheaters by arresting its kingpin Sarabjit Singh, a resident of Ramesh Nagar, and his close accomplice Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Dev Nagar. They had duped several banks and financial institution to the tune of around Rs 8 crore so far.

Sarbjeet had invented a unique modus operandi of cheating banks and financial institutions by floating fictitious companies and availing loans in the names of dummy employees of those fake companies.

He used to purchase defunct companies, change their names and directors by duly registering them with the registrar of companies. Then he would set up an impressive office in plush area of the capital, claiming to be high profile revenue earning business of bio–tech, health systems and pharmaceuticals etc.

Then he would take rented flat in good location to create residential addresses for his dummy employees. On the basis of this fraud, he used to avail loans easily from various banks and financial institutions. After getting the loan amount, he used to shift his base, residential as well as official.

In order to create fictitious addresses impressive, he used to spend almost Rs 5 lakh on renovation and decoration of his rented house. He used to give rent in the range of Rs 1 lakh per month only to impress the representatives of banks and financial institutions so that the loan amount could be sanctioned easily.

Initially, he maintained a good rapport with those banks and financial institutions to make all individual fake accounts eligible for various financial facilities like over draft, debit card, personal loan and vehicle loan. Initially, he used to pay back all installments of loans taken out by their dummy employees.

The fraud came to light when his flagship company, Clark Schneider Bio India Ltd, closed its office and disappeared due to huge loan liability.

During investigation, it was found that a few employees of this company had applied again for loan with other companies which triggered suspicion and the entire fraud unfolded, said a police officer. 

Noida, March 15
Robbers had decamped with cash and valuables worth lakhs after breaking into a Kartik Kunj apartment, in posh Sector 44, Noida. The resident, who had gone out for a short while when the thieves struck, found the padlock of the flat broken and all the household articles strewn around.

Ms Rupa Gangoli, the occupant of E-802 on eighth floor, had gone out on Wednesday at 9.30 am and returned at 11.30 am. She found Rs 40,000, two diamond necklaces, bangles and other jewellery, missing from the cupboard.

The Sector 39 police were immediately informed of the theft. The police team lifted some fingerprints from Ms Gangoli’s flat.

Police said it appeared the intruders knew that no one was at home at that particular hour. Only a maid used to come for sweeping and doing the utensils in the morning and evening. The police are questioning all those who come into the apartment building, including the maid.

Meanwhile, the Noida police claimed to have arrested two criminals who committed thefts in apartments. The criminals, Shah Nwaz and Ashqueen were nabbed after an encounter. The police had been looking for the duo for many days.

The Sector 58 police had arrested them on a tip-off that two criminals were likely to commit a robbery near the Meteorological office. When cops tried to nab them, the robbers fired on the police team, but in retaliatory fire, police team overpowered them. 

Gurgaon, March 15
The police nabbed two persons last night for gambling during a one-day World Cup cricket match between Canada and Kenya.

Both were arrested at a resident’s house in Jyoti Park.

One of them is a brother of an elected member of the local Municipal Council.

According to official sources, they were arrested last night when the match was in progress. The police acted on a tip-off and raided the premises.

A television and a calculator were claimed to have been seized at the time of the raid.

They were, however, let off on bail by a local court this morning.

The police say that they are trying to verify if more persons were involved in the racket.

New Delhi, March 15
As many as 641 private blueline buses in the Capital were challaned in 2006 for violating permit conditions.

Giving the information in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the Minister of State for Home S Regupathy said the transport department issued 346 notices to blueline operators for plying buses in Delhi without permits.

A total of 815 notices were served for plying without valid certificate of fitness to buses, he said in a written reply.

As many as 1,497 buses were impounded by the transport department for violation of rules in the period April, 2006 to February, 2007, up from 1,288 in the corresponding period in the previous year.

However, the number of challans issued to blueline buses went down from 1,149 in 2005 to 641 in 2006. As many as 869 challans had been served on blueline buses in 2004.