New Delhi, April 3
The Supreme Court today appointed a five-member committee to examine the feasibility of Delhi Jal Board’s (DJB) new proposal for creating a network of ‘interceptor drainage’ system in the city as part of Yamuna action plan to check flow of sewage water into it.

The committee would have experts from Central Ground Water Commission, Central Public Health and Environment Engineering Organisation, Central Pollution Control Board, IIT Roorkee or Delhi with DJB Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur as convener.

The Centre and Delhi Government forwarded the names of experts from these bodies after the Court on the previous hearing on March 21 had raised doubt over the ‘interceptor drainage’ system after the Delhi Government had abandoned its earlier proposal to set up Special Treatment Plants (STPs) at the mouth of each of the 17 major drains carrying sewage water of entire city to Yamuna.

The new concept was evolved by the Delhi Government, which, according to its counsel, had come to the conclusion that the STP projects conceived earlier on the pattern of London’s plan to clean Thames river, were not found to be feasible for the Yamuna in Delhi.

The new proposal provided for building a network of interceptor drains in the city and treat the sewage waste at different places before releasing the treated water into the major drains to carry it to the river.

The Court directed the committee to have a deep study of the DJB’s new plan and submit a report after four weeks.

The Court on the last hearing had pulled up the Delhi Government and the DJB for suddenly abandoning the earlier proposal after working on it for nearly three years.

But the government counsel had said that the major hindrance for implementing the STP system was unauthorised colonies, which did not have a scientifically developed sewage system and had become a major source of pollution in the river.

Though the Court, which had registered a suo motu PIL on dirty Yamuna over a decade ago in 1994, had issued a series of directive to prevent the flow of untreated water in the river, it had yielded little results.

The Union Government so far has spent Rs 1,700 crore on Yamuna action plan but the condition of the river is turning from bad to worst.

The Court was informed that the 22-km stretch of Yamuna flowing in Delhi no more carries clean water from Wazirabad barrage where the river is virtually stopped for meeting the drinking water needs of Delhi, to Okhla barrage. In this stretch, only the sewage water was flowing and the river has itself turned into a big drain.

New Delhi, April 3
The state Election Commission (EC) has made elaborate arrangements for the MCD elections to be held on April 5.

“The polling will be held from 8 am to 5 pm in all 272 municipal wards,” the Election Commissioner, Mr S.P. Marwah said.

“The Election Commission has set up 17 centres for counting that will be held on April 7 from 8 am. The counting process will be over in two to three hours,” Mr Marwah said.

A total number of 9,649 polling booths have been set up. Of them, 307 booths had been identified as sensitive, whereas 57 were declared as hyper sensitive, he said.

Around 55,000 Delhi Police personnel will be deployed on polling booths. Apart from this, personnel of Central police organisations will also be deployed.

When asked about the criteria to identify sensitive and hyper sensitive seats, the Election Commissioner said that this was decided after going through the past record and kind of candidates contesting from the particular seat.

The Election Commissioner announced the day of polling as a public holiday under the Negotiable Instrument Act. Delhi government offices, local bodies and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) will remain closed. Paid holidays have also been declared for employees of industrial and commercial establishments.

Employees of the Central government will be entitled to avail short leave to cast their votes.

The DTC buses and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation will commence their services from 3 am on the polling day.

The Department of Excise has ordered enforcement of dry day from 5 pm today to 3 pm on April 7 as per requirement of the poll process.

Mr Marwah said that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were being used for the first time in the MCD elections. Around 10,200 EVMs are being used at 9,649 polling booths. Additional EVMs have been made available in those wards where number of candidates is more than 16. More than 200 technicians would also remain present to take care of any disorder in EVMs during polling time. A total number of 1,100 taxies fitted with wireless sets have been arranged for Sector Officers for distribution of EVMs at polling booths, whereas 1,100 DTC buses would be deployed for transmission of EVMs to different counting centres in the evening of April 5.

The Election Commissioner advised that the voters must carry their photo identity cards at the time of casting their vote.

“In case, they have not been issued photo ID card, they may produce any of the following documents like passport, driving licence, IT PAN card, identity card issued to its employees by the state and Central governments, PSUs, local bodies, bank or Kishan Vikas Patra, post office pass book, student identity card, property documents, SC, ST, OBC certificates, pension documents, railway identification card and freedom fighter identity card or any other documents proving his identity,” he added.

He said that campaigning had been more or less peaceful and there had been lesser number of violations as compared to the last time. The Delhi Police, the MCD, the Cantonment Board and the NDMC together have removed 7,823 hoardings, 3,805 banners, 12,744 posters, six wall writings. As many as 258 polling-related FIRs have been registered.

New Delhi, April 3
The central government offices in Delhi will not be closed on April 5, the day on which the MCD elections are scheduled.

However, as per the government guidelines the central government employees, who were bona fide voters and desired to exercise their franchise, may be offered reasonable facility, subject to normal exigencies of services, either by coming late to office or being allowed to leave office early or a short absence on that day by their ministries/departments, an official press note said here today.—TNS

New Delhi, April 3
The Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dikshit, today expressed her confidence in voters saying that they would cast their franchise in favour of Congress candidates in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections.

Addressing a conference, she said that people were tense during sealing and demolition drive launched by the MCD following the court direction. But the Congress government had worked out their problem by announcing the new Master Plan and regularisation of unauthorised colonies, she added.

“If Congress is voted to power in the corporation, it will be able to implement the new Master Plan in a better way. The Congress party has always been with the people. It has always worked for the betterment of the city and citizens. In future also, the party will serve the people,” she assured.

She said that Commonwealth Games 2010 was a challenge for Delhi Government. “The government has accepted this challenge. All arrangement is being made to host the games. Roads are being constructed. Eight corridors on Ring Roads and other highways are under construction. Other infrastructures require for the Games are also being prepared,” she said.

“In the Master Plan, special focus has been given to construct parking lots, commercial places, provide civic amenities in unauthorised colonies and to rehabilitate jhuggi dwellers in high rise buildings. All these recommendations of the Master Plan will be implemented within a given time,” she claimed.

Meanwhile, the DPCC president Mr Ram Babu Sharma today appealed to the voters to vote for Congress candidates for the betterment of Delhi.

“The Congress will be able to work out the problems of the citizens of Delhi as it has better understanding with the Delhi and the Central governments,” he claimed.

New Delhi, April 3
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), responsible for completely revamping the mass rapid transportation in the Capital, has received its first international consultancy assignment.

The DMRC will be doing a SAPI study (Special Assistance on Project Implementation) to formulate methods, procedures and guidelines for operating the Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) System in Indonesia. This study will be done in coordination with Nippon Koei (Japan) and Mc Enzie (U.S.A).

DMRC officials say that the study will involve preparation of the detailed management plans, operating system, staff deployment and establishment of organisational and financial procedures apart from maintenance strategies and procedures to be adopted once the MRTS gets going.

So far, Pakistan, Ireland, Syria, Srilanka and Vietnam have interacted with DMRC Officials for metro systems in their countries and operating them. In India, the DMRC has already prepared Detailed Project Reports for metros in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata (East- West Line), Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

The Delhi Metro has also been asked to do studies for a High Speed Metro link from the new Airports coming up at Hyderabad and Bangalore to the city centres. The organisation earned Rs 6.5 crores from consultancy in the last financial year. Metro officials say that the DMRC already has enough experience in the operational field as the metro is operating in Delhi since 2002. “At present, the Delhi MRT System covers 65.1 km, criss-crossing three lines, including two interchanges with 59 stations handling over 0.5 million passengers from 6 am in the morning till 10.30 pm at night,” they say.

Its metro maintenance activities start in the night after public operating service come to an end and continue till the morning. “This means that the DMRC has 24 hours operational and maintenance experience, including the experience of maintaining three full-fledged maintenance depots at Shastri Park, Khyber Pass and Najafgarh where the trains are serviced in the night everyday,” they add.

Besides this, they say that the Delhi Metro systems like the Automatic Fare Collection Systems, Automatic Train Protection Systems, Automatic Train Operating Systems, Overhead Traction System, Passenger Information Display System, Rolling Stock are of international standard and considered the most advanced in the world today among the 135 countries which have Metro Rail.

New Delhi, April 3
Hundreds of former child victims of trafficking, bondage and child labour assembled here today to question the relevance of SAARC conventions, pledges and protocols made by the regional leaders from time to time. They were demonstrating on the occasion of the inauguration of the 16th SAARC summit.

Assembled at Jantar Mantar and proceeding towards the SAARC summit venue, the children were carrying placards and chanting slogans like “Stop child trafficking for forced labour, make and enforce laws to combat it”, “SAARC is silent on trafficking for forced labour. WHY?” Many of these children and activists marched for thousands of kilometres across the Indo-Nepal-Bangladesh borders last month, participating in the South Asian March Against Child Trafficking, organised by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) and others.

The demonstrators issued an open letter to the Head of State of the SAARC chair, calling for urgent action to stop the cross-border and intra-state child trafficking of persons. A report, “SAARC promises on human trafficking remain inadequate and undelivered”, was also released and submitted to the heads of the SAARC nations by the BBA.

“If SAARC cannot tackle the most heinous organised crime of human trafficking with adequate political will and honesty, what else can we expect for the rituals of annual SAARC summits and the extravaganza of the bureaucracy. On what moral ground do the leaders meet in this summit when more than 50,000 children from Nepal and 40,000 children from Bangladesh are bought and sold like animals every year across the borders?” questioned Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the BBA and the leader of the South Asian March Against Child Trafficking.

He further lamented that one could find several commonalities in the region, but the cruelest was that the ‘cost’of a child for trafficking was between Rs 500 and Rs 2, 00 in comparison to that of a buffalo, which cost over Rs 20,000. The report talks of many other observations like “Trafficking for forced labour is not under the ambit of any legislation in the region”, “The lack of awareness is also prevalent among the law enforcement agencies (read police and district authorities), especially at the station house and constabulary levels”.

The report further recommends, first and foremost, to expand the definition of trafficking to make it on a par with the UN Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, which includes trafficking for forced labour, and to develop systematic safe migration policies and effective border control.

Faridabad, April 3
The procurement season is on and the government procurement agencies, including the Union Government-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI), seem to convince the farmers to sell their produce to them and not to private agencies.

The FCI could buy only 0.16 lakh tonnes of wheat last year from the ‘mandis’ of revenue districts of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Mewat, Rewari and Mahendragarh in the region against the target of about two lakh tonnes. This time the target purchase of FCI in this region is 2.70 lakh tonnes. This is in addition to the procurement to be made by various state government agencies, including the HAFED, Food and Supply, Confed, State Warehousing Corporation. The total procurement target of the FCI in Haryana has been 45 lakh tonnes against the last year target of 42 lakh tonnes.

According to reports, the procurement of the wheat and other crops was expected to remain slow and under par this year also, though the officials claim that the announcement to give a bonus of Rs 100 on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 750 per quintal this time would help in getting more farmers to sell their produce to the government agencies.

“Adequate arrangements and improved facilities would attract the farmers and prevent them to go in for distress sale,” claimed an official of the Corporation.

He said officials, including inspectors and supervisors had been deputed at each mandi to ensure smooth operation and help the farmers.

He said the payment would be made through various centres and claimed that there would be no inconvenience to the farmers.

It may be recalled that the farmers face problems in selling their produce to the government agencies at the mandis. According to experts, this could be the main reason why the farmers chose to sell the wheat to private buyers from the fields only, which saved them time and cost of transportation.

Surender, a farmer of nearby Dayalpur village, said that farmers had often been victims of non-cooperation and rude behaviour of the officials concerned at the time of procurement.

He said while the government releases huge funds for providing facilities and service to the growers, the authorities have not done justice to them which has resulted in poor procurement during the past couple of years.

It is revealed that the private parties have started offering higher MSP to the farmers again in certain parts.

Ghaziabad, April 3
The Bahujan Samaj Party is not anti-Muslim or even against the upper castes, declared BSP supremo Ms Mayawati while addressing a public meeting in Kavi Nagar Ramalila Maidan, Ghaziabad. The people of UP are fed up with the government. That is why there is a wave in favour of the BSP among electorate, this time, felt Ms Mayawati.

“The Bahujan Samaj Party is the only party capable of throwing the Samajwadi government out. We are actually going to form the new UP government with the cooperation and support of the whole society,” she declared in Ghaziabad yesterday.

Accusing other parties, Ms Mayawati said the BJP and the Samajwadi Party had entered into an agreement against the BSP. BJP will help SP to form a government in UP while SP will assist BJP in formation of government at Centre.

Former Chief Minister, Ms Mayawatti accused her arch rival, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and SP general secretary Amar Singh of having “amassed huge wealth which they have stacked in foreign banks. After their debacle in the coming elections, both of them are planning

to flee the country, but my government will not allow them to escape from India with people’s money. BSP was the only party, she said, which could throw the Samajwadi government out of power.

BSP has not entered into a poll alliance with any party this time, declared Ms Mayawati. “All other parties—BJP, Congress, Lok Dal etc are astonished at the popularity of BSP but our workers would effectively counter the evil propaganda of opposition parties..”

She appealed to the people to ensure the election of the local BSP candidates Suresh Bansal and Master Rajpal and promised that Bansal will be made a minister in the new government.

BSP has put up her candidates at all the 403 seats in the elections. But she would give representation to all wings of society, Ms Mayawati declared. That is why the party has fielded candidates of even upper castes.

New Delhi, April 3
A minor fire today broke out in the Defence Ministry office at South Block here, the fire brigade said.

The fire originated in the window AC of the room of Anuradha Mitra, Additional Financial Adviser in the Defence Ministry, on the first floor of South Block.

It took an hour to douse the fire reported at around 3 pm.

New Delhi, April 3
Eminent historian Dr Sabyasachi Bhattacharya will deliver the keynote address at a symposium on 1857 being organised by the DUJ Media Centre for Research and Publications tomorrow to commemorate the 150th anniversary of India’s First War of Independence.

The symposium at DUJ Rooftop Amphitheatre will begin at 6 pm. Participants will include historians, Members of Parliament and trade unionists.

The symposium will be followed by the inauguration of DUJ Film Club by the Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDC) Director Prof. Suresh Sharma. Satyajit Ray’s classic ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’ will be screened on the occasion.—TNS

New Delhi, April 3
The Apeejay Institute of Design (AID), Tughlakabad, New Delhi, hosted “Fifth Dimension”, the annual graduate show on its campus recently. Mr Probir Dutt, Vie-President, Creative Services, TBWA, inaugurated the show.

Th print and animation projects of the graduating students of Multimedia and Applied Arts were showcased at “Fifth Dimension”. The students had put up a presentation of their research documents and design projects after a thorough study of the subject and their creative expressions.

Ms Reetu Betala, Director, AID, extended a warm welcome to the chief guest and escorted him to the design galleries where the projects were displayed. Mr Dutt appreciated the creativity and hard work of the students.

The Applied Art students had an interesting project on fashion photography, which was an exploration into the images that people wish to convey about themselves. The Multimedia students had prepared extensive creative work on polio awareness, Adidas, entertainment in education etc, which showcased the students’ extensive and in-depth knowledge of computer, use of multimedia applications, animation and designing.

The design show gave an opportunity to the Apeejay students to realise their creative potential and the freedom to think, express and evolve. All these students are already working on special projects with leading design firms and media houses.—TNS

Noida, April 3
A youth, Arjun, an ice-cream seller, who had raped a minor girl in Nithari, was caught and lynched by the people in Nithari today. He had sustained serious injuries in head and other parts of the body. To save him, police had to take him into custody and rush him to hospital, where he is reported to have died during treatment.

The girl was shifted to the government hospital, Noida.

Arjun, 31, hailing from Bihar, lived in the same house. He had enticed the seven-year-old daughter Neha of Naresh Pandit in Nithari. He had then taken her to a lonely spot where some carts and ‘thelas’ were parked. Here he had raped her in the open at about 1.30 pm today.

Strangely Nithari area still has a large police presence, how a youth could commit a heinous crime like rape in a broad daylight.

People are already angry with serial killers and rapists duo Moninder Pandher and Surinder Koli at Khooni Kothi D-5.

Boiling with rage at the fresh rape case, they let loose their anger on Arjun and beat him up mercilessly, leading to his death.

Gurgaon, April 3
A resident of Bass Kuus village today committed suicide and held the police and others responsible for it.

The deceased was found in Industrial Model Township (IMT) area today. He was brought to Kalyani Hospital where he was declared dead.

He had seemingly attempted to commit suicide by taking some poisonous material.

A note found on his body, purportedly written by him, held the chief of local CIA staff along with one inspector, and some others responsible for his act.

The district police administration has said that it is inquiring the matter.

Inquiries reveal that the deceased was allegedly involved in a theft as well as property dispute. The CIA staff had interrogated him in the past.

New Delhi, April 3
In the wake of reports about residents of Bhatti Mines village being bitten by monkeys, Delhi Government today said that the news items were grossly exaggerated and monkeys were being released only in the forest area away from human habitation.

“Monkeys are being released in the Asola-Bhatti wildlife sanctuary, which has an extent of approximately 6,800 acres in compliance with the orders by the Delhi High Court and to resolve the monkey menace faced by residents of Delhi,” Deputy Conservator of Forests and Wildlife Officer Prabhat Tyagi said in a statement.

He said monkeys were being released in the heart of the forest area and no human habitation was present within two kilometres of the site of release.

It had been reported that over the past one month at least 20 people, including women and children were bitten by monkeys in Bhatti Mines village.—PTI