New Delhi, March 28
The sealing of unauthorised commercial units in the Capital resumed today after a gap of about two months, targeting shops on three stretches notified for mixed land use.

The resumption of the sealing drive came after the orders of the Supreme Court, which passed strictures on the civic body for approaching the Delhi State Election Commission on re-starting the drive in the wake of the municipal poll.

Sealing squads, comprising officials of the civic body as well as the water and power departments, started sealing of shops on Main Road in Wazirabad village, Hostel Road in Sheikh Sarai and Africa Avenue Marg in South Delhi. The squads were provided security cover by the police.

On Monday, at a meeting between MCD officials and the Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee, it was decided that action would first be taken against shops operating out of the upper floors of residential buildings on 573 roads notified for mixed land use.

The resumption of the drive assumes significance as it comes ahead of the April 5 MCD elections, with the ruling Congress wary of resuming the action, fearing that it may harm its poll prospects.

Putting up a brave front, the Congress had sought to reassure the traders that only a negligible number of properties may face action.

However, there was panic among traders in the Capital as many of their establishments were shut down after the resumption of the sealing drive. "How will I manage with this shutdown," said Rani as she stands stunned next to her small eatery. "This is my livelihood and they have sealed it," she throws her hands up in front of her South Delhi outlet.

Most traders in the area are seriously worried about their future. MCD officials accompanied by personnel of the Rapid Action Force, Sashtra Seema Bal and the Delhi Police resumed sealing operations in Africa Avenue, Sheikh Sarai, Savitri Nagar, Rohini and other places.

In accordance with a Supreme Court direction, the MCD is targeting over 55,000 commercial establishments running in violation of the Delhi Master Plan 2021.

The new master plan has made it clear that commercial activity can only be carried out on the ground floor in all mixed land use roads and anything above it is deemed illegal.

Meera stands disconsolate outside her sealed office. "This is ridiculous. They are just taking away our livelihood." In some cases, people had opened small units within their houses. As a result, some people have lost their homes in addition to the business. 

Gurgaon, March 28
The officials of Haryana State Industries and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (HSIIDC) faced opposition from residents of Gadauli Khurd village this afternoon when they tried to take possession of the land to be converted into special economic zone. The land is to be handed over to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group for developing the zone.

The officials, along with duty magistrate Balraj Singh Dangi (Naib Tehsildar), police personnel and demolition squad, reached the village and demolished a structure built on the land. Just after a few minutes of their arrival, the villagers gathered and opposed the demolition work and pelted stones on the officials. The window panes of JCB machine got damaged and official team had to retreat in the wake of massive opposition by the villagers.

The villagers said that the land had been acquired by the HSIIDC as the department had planned to develop its own SEZ. Now, they added, the land was being handed over to a private party and that was why they were opposing the move of giving the land to the private party.

Mr Hamvir Singh, an official of HSIIDC, informed that the villagers had already been given the compensation for the acquired land and they had now no legal rights to retain the possession of the land. The government would soon dispose them and hand over the land to the Reliance company, added the official.

According to Mr Amit Rohila of Reliance, Haryana government had given them the possession of the land measuring around 1,380 acre near Industrial Model Township (IMT), Manesar on paper. The government officials were now taking the physical possession of the land to be handed over to Reliance, he added. The Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner said that the district administration would lodge an FIR against the villagers who pelted stones on the officials and damaged the JCB machine. Soon, the HSIIDC would take over the physical possession of the land with the help of sufficient police force and then, it would be handed over to Reliance, he said. 

New Delhi, March 28
The Delhi Finance and PWD minister, Dr A. K. Walia, today said the Congress government was committed to the overall development of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and this was evident by the large number of works carried out by it during the past eight years.

Addressing a joint press conference with the president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Rambabu Sharma, Dr Walia said in the past eight years 37 flyovers had been built in Delhi, 16 of which were constructed by the PWD. Further, work had been completed on the construction of six to eight lane roads on 33.2 km of road length while work on another 14.1 km of road length was going on.

Also on the anvil were 26 new flyovers, work on eight of which had already started.

On the issues of sealing and demolition, Dr Walia said under the 2021 Master Plan of Delhi, relief from sealing and demolition had been given on 2,183 roads notified as mixed use or commercial roads. In fact, a majority of shops in Delhi had been provided relief from sealing. An additional 355 roads in the Capital had been provided relief from sealing under the mixed use provisions in the MPD 2021.

Dr Walia said the remaining roads would be provided relief from sealing under the Master Plan after the MCD poll, thus the paving way for complete relief to the people of Delhi. 

New Delhi, March 28
Turning the heat on rebels, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Party today suspended two such candidates who had filed independently against the official candidates for six years.

Congress activists Deepika Khullar and Praveen Bansal, who had filed their candidatures against the official candidates of the party in the MCD poll, were suspended from the primary membership of the party for six years after they refused to heed to repeated pleas to withdraw their candidatures, president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress, Mr Rambabu Sharma, told reporters here.

"The rebels had been given time till last night to withdraw their candidature. However, after our pleas fell on deaf ears, the party was left with no option but to suspend them from the primary membership of the party," Mr Sharma said at a joint press meet with Delhi Finance and PWD Minister, Dr A. K. Walia.

While Deepika Khullar had filed her candidature from Anarkali ward, Praveen Bansal filed his nomination from the Khanpur ward.

The suspension of the two comes in the wake of widespread discontentment in Congress ranks over allocation of tickets for the MCD poll, scheduled to be held on April 5 in 272 wards across 12 zones in the city.

New Delhi, March 28
Two Delhi Congress leaders, including the nephew of Union Law Minister H. R. Bhardwaj, today joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Mr Ved Prakash Aggarwal, former convenor of Delhi Pradesh Congress' trade cell, and Mr Virendra Bharadwaj, a Youth Congress leader and nephew of the Law Minister, joined the NCP along with their supporters, party general secretary Tariq Anwar told reporters here.

Asked if the NCP was prepared to field dissatisfied leaders from other parties for the April 5 MCD elections, Mr Anwar said, “None of them would be given a Nationalist Congress Party ticket but they are welcome to work along with the party as dedicated workers’’. 

Faridabad, March 28
A land scam that could put the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to a major embarrassment exposing the alleged irregularities in the revenue department has come to light in the city where the land prices have skyrocketed in the past couple of years.

The authorities have probably no inkling about the fact that some of the plots in the sectors developed by the HUDA which were sold through a draw recently have already been sold three to four times by private parties.

The land in question had been acquired by HUDA after paying a whopping amount of compensation to the owner. Despite getting the compensation amount, the owner allegedly sold the land to three persons in separate deals.

The alleged fraud came to light when a resident identified as Ms Vimal Bhatia, a resident of Indira Enclave, near sector- 21- D here, decided to buy a plot measuring about 108 sq. yards situated in a privately carved colony in Ankhir village here.

According to Ms Bhatia, the owner of the plot, identified as Hari Om, did not execute the sale deed on the set date and proposed to return the advance paid to him by her. Ms Bhatia said she got suspicious and decided to get the matter enquired. She claimed she got a shock when she came to know that the said plot had already been acquired by the HUDA.

Though Hari Om had already taken the compensation from the government for the plot, but he allegedly sold the land in an illegal manner to various parties.

Ms Bhatia, who has sent a complaint to the DGP, Haryana and one copy each to the Chief Justice, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chief Minister, Haryana, Deputy Commissioner, Faridabad and the Administrator, HUDA has suspected connivance and involvement of the officials of the department concerned as they did not check the title of the property and authority of the sellers and allowed to get the plot registered at least three times, despite the fact that it belonged to HUDA.

It is claimed that the accused person took a compensation of Rs 7.25 lakh from the government vide draft number 203585 dated May 5, 1993 after HUDA got the land acquired for its sector number 48 located here.

It is alleged that despite acquisition, the authorities concerned did not take the physical possession of the land. Subsequently, the land was sold three times. One of the three parties is a resident of sector 21-B.

It is learnt that the accused kept selling the plot on the basis of a General Power of Attorney (GPA) as the original registry of the land was submitted with the HUDA office here.

Sources say such irregularities could be made public in some other sectors also provided the government launches a high-level probe into land deals and takes an action against the accused and the officials concerned. 

Faridabad, March 28
With farmers' land holdings reducing and attendant social problems arising out of it, Mr Harsh Kumar, an Independent MLA from the Hathin constituency in the district, has asked the state government to start a monthly pension or allowance for the ox or bullocks owned by small farmers in the state. This demand was also made by him in the recently concluded budget session of the state Assembly.

The MLA claimed that due to very small and medium type of holdings thousands of farmers and their families had given up tilling the land and other farming practices. They preferred to get this work done on contract or by paying rent. Though this practice was economical and viable for a majority of such farmers, he said with no serious work on hand farmers and their grown up children had fallen into various bad habits. Many of them whiled away their time by playing cards or picking up petty quarrels. He said farmers were wasting funds on paying rent to others. This could emerge as a saving if the government gave them the incentive of pension or allowance for the bullocks if they made use of them for cultivation and tilling work instead of getting it done by the machines.

This allowance, he claimed, would not only promote animal wealth, but also make the small farmer independent.

He said this would be a unique move and could result in the upliftment of the small farmers, who constituted a majority in Haryana.

New Delhi, March 28
The family of a 17-year-old girl who died of an HIV-triggered opportunistic infection at AIIMS on Monday, has made a police complaint of medical negligence against the premier medical institute of the country. Although the family has alleged that she got HIV infection after being given contaminated blood at AIIMS during the dengue outbreak last winter, the institute has denied the allegations.

The complaint has led to apprehensions about the safety of platelet transfusions during the dengue outbreak.

The institute took the maximum load of patients during the outbreak. Nearly 2000 patients were treated for dengue at AIIMS in October-November last year.

Noida, March 28
Police today claimed to have busted two gangs of car thieves, with the arrest of six persons in two separate incidents in Noida-Dadri belt. About a dozen luxury cars were recovered from the two gangs.

According to the police, the accused preferred stealing luxury cars only and operated in the NCR region and other cities of UP.

The gangs were also involved in selling the stolen cars in Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.

The arrests came about when the Noida Sector-39 police, while conducting a vehicle check in Sector-37 on Tuesday, stopped a Safari and a jeep, and recovered revolvers and daggers from the occupants. When questioned, the criminals allegedly confessed to have stolen the vehicles.

At their instance, the police recovered a Wagon R, Indica and a Maruti 800 from Ambedekar Park Sector-37 Noida. One of the arrested persons, Dalip used to hand-over the stolen vehicles to one Triloki. The other accused have been identified as Dhiraj and Mukesh. Many other members of these gangs were yet to be arrested, the police claimed.

The SO Sector-39 police said Triloki, a member of an inter-state car-jacker gang, used to sell the stolen vehicles in Jaipur and some other towns of Rajasthan, while cars stolen from there used to be sold in Noida and NCR towns.

In another incident, during a vehicle check near Chhapraula, Dadri police caught two persons escaping in a Scorpio. Revolvers and knives were allegedly recovered from them. At their instance, the police recovered half a dozen stolen vehicles including a Travera, Scorpio and an Esteem car. The duo confessed that their gang was involved in stealing cars and selling them off in Jharkhand and Bihar after getting fictitious documents made.

The SO said the gang was involved in large-scale car-jacking operations. The police are on a look-out for other members of the gangs. 

Noida, March 28
A senior journalist, G.D. Chandan alias Gurbachan Chandan, a noted Urdu writer, has filed a suit for damages of Rs 5 lakh for copyright violation against Dr Humayun Ashraf of Bukaro who has compiled an Urdu book titled 'Urdu Sahafat: Masail Aur Imkanat'.

The publishers of the book, M/s Educational Publishing House, Delhi, have also been made a party to this copyright violation by G.D. Chandan, who had retired as a senior officer of the Indian Information Service and managed the Urdu Desk at the Press Information Bureau, Govt of India.

The case has been filed in Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi. The plaintiff alleges that 5 of his articles have been included in the said book without his permission. Mr G.D. Chandan has further alleged that the said book has usurped his copy right as it expressly declares that "all its rights are reserved in favour of the compiler". —OC