New Delhi, April 11
As Delhi Police chief K K Paul and MCD Commissioner Ashok Kumar appeared in the Supreme Court today in connection with the sealing controversy after summoned for not cooperating with the Monitoring Committee (MC) supervising the closure of illegal commercial ventures, the apex court expressed anguish over lack of coordination between different wings of the government.

A Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat, C K Thakker and Lokeshwar Singh Panta was not satisfied with the affidavits of Paul and Kumar on the question of not providing adequate force to the MC for continuing the sealing operation and the MCD officials not cooperating with it as their statements were found to be “confusing and contradictory”.

“We express anguish that our order are not carried out in letter and spirit. Authorities are not interested in carrying out sealing…But we have been informed that sealing has started, it is being continued. It should be carried on without any scope for any further grievance,” the Bench said.

But the Court made it clear that the sealing would continue only in areas not covered under the Delhi Master Plan (DMP), 2021. It had earlier stayed the same in the areas covered under the master plan and two notifications issued by the Centre last year permitting mixed land use in 2,183 roads and streets.

But the Court, which yesterday summoned Paul and Kumar, did not prefer to put any question to them regarding why the police force was not made available to the MC on April 3, 4, and 9 for carrying out the sealing drive and why the MCD staff had not cooperated with it.

While Kumar in his affidavit said that the sealing operation could not be carried on April 3, 4 and 9 “due to non-availability of police force as communicated by the Delhi Police to the MCD, the same was conveyed to the MC, Paul said almost entire available strength of Delhi Police including outside forces was deployed for MCD elections.”

Besides, he pointed out that due to SAARC summit, extra force was required for security purposes.

The main objection of the apex court on Paul’s affidavit was his statements regarding police force being provided to MC appointed by the High Court to look after the demolition of unauthorised construction.

The Court said that the sealing of illegal shops should not be confused with the unauthorised constructions, which was entirely a different matter dealt by the High Court.

In view of the lack of coordination among different wings of the government, the Court adjourned the hearing for May 7 when it is supposed to look into all aspects of the sealing issues.

The Court, however, exempted personal appearance of Paul and Kumar on the next hearing.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has begun the sealing of commercial establishment in right earnest. A total of 93 shops were sealed today. The MCD sealed one shop in central zone, 11 in Civil Lines, 19 in Najafgarh, 13 in Rohini, 15 in South Delhi, 11 in Shahadra North and 23 in Shahadra South, an MCD spokesman said.

He said that the Delhi Police provided adequate force to control the mob in case the shop owners resist the sealing exercise of the corporation.

New Delhi, April 11
Speaker of the Delhi Assembly, Chaudhary Prem Singh today decided to write a letter to the Supreme Court appealing to permit BJP MLA, Mr Harcharhan Singh Balli to attend the Budget Session of the assembly.

Mr Bali was sentenced to three months imprisonment for defying the Supreme Court order by breaking seals of shops. The shops were sealed by the department concerned of the MCD following the court order.

This announcement was made following the demand of BJP MLAs during the budget session of the assembly today. The leader of Opposition Prof. Jagdish Mukhi submitted
a letter to the Speaker on behalf of his party MLAs demanding to appeal the court to allow Mr Balli to attend the Budget Session.

The BJP also demanded from the Delhi Government to take over the primary schools run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as the civic body was not doing well in the field of education.

Delhi Minister of Education Arvinder Singh Lovely said that according to DMC Act, primary education is obligatory function of the corporation. The Delhi Government cannot take over their schools. The government itself runs Sravodaya Vidyalaya from class 1-XII. Their results are equal to public schools.

Apart from this it demanded to issue ration cards to the jhuggi dwellers as they are below the poverty line. Due to high inflation, they cannot purchase ration from open market. Lakhs of residents of these colonies had applied for ration cards but they have yet not been issued. The Delhi minister of Food Supply Raj Kumar Chauhan said that majority of the applicants had been given ration cards.

New Delhi, April 11
BJP MLA Harcharan Singh Balli, who was sentenced by the Supreme Court to three months’ imprisonment for breaking open sealed unauthorised commercial constructions, was arrested here last night.

He was arrested from his Rajouri Garden residence in South-West Delhi and sent to Tihar, police said.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, an apex court bench convicted the former minister of contempt of court.—PTI

New Delhi, April 11
The Bharatiya Janata Party has sped up the process of electing its leaders for the coveted political posts in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi as the State Election Commission has notified the new House of the civic body, elections to which were held on April 5. The first sitting of the 272-member House will be held on April 23.

Party sources said that those BJP councillors who were active while sitting in opposition during the Congress reign in the MCD might get coveted posts.

Mr Subhash Arya who was Leader of Opposition when the Congress was in majority, Vijender Gupta, member of Standing Committee and Arti Mehra are in the race for the posts like Leader of the House, Chairman of the Standing Committee and Mayor.

These councillors were very active while in opposition. Mr Subhash Arya and Vijender Gupta highlighted various issues and scandals during the Congress party rule in the civic body, the sources said.

These leaders were in race for the posts from the day one when the election result was announced on April 7. The BJP bagged 164 seats, while the Congress managed to win just 69 seats.

The corporators will elect the Mayor on April 23 when the first meeting of the MCD House is held. The Leader of Opposition will also be announced on that day, the sources said.

In the new MCD House, the BSP secured 15 seats, two seats each were bagged by the Indian National Lok Dal, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Lok Janshakti Party and the Nationalist Congress Party while the independents bagged 16 seats.

New Delhi, April 11
The National Capital Territory of Delhi, which enjoys the lowest power tariff in the country despite heavy transmission losses, faces a grim scenario this summer as the power distribution companies find themselves at a loss to provide uninterrupted supply because of increasing costs.

Highly placed sources said the discoms had now appealed to the Delhi Government and other related agencies asking for an immediate increase in tariff to tide them over the summer months.

These sources claimed Delhi consumers paid the lowest electricity tariff in the country. The challenge to provide 24 x 7 power in Delhi and at a low cost was immense due to the city being the world power theft capital. AT & C loss in Delhi was 63per cent in 2002. Today, efficiency brought in by the discoms had brought down the AT & C losses to less than 40 per cent.

In contrast, Mumbai’s AT & C losses were only 12 per cent and in tandem with global benchmarks. However, the increasing cost of electricity led to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission announcing a 55 per cent power tariff hike from April 1 this year.

According to these sources, Delhi’s peak demand this year was likely to shoot up anywhere between 4150 MW to 4300 MW – up from around 3700 MW last year. With Delhi generating only around 17 per cent of its total requirement, it was heavily dependent on the Northern Grid.

New Delhi, April 11
A Delhi court has denied the Ansal brothers, accused in the Uphaar cinema fire case, permission to visit the cinema building, the site of the tragedy.

An Additional Sessions Judge dismissed the application filed by the accused requesting the permission to inspect the cinema building in order to get first hand assessment of the case.

The accused in their application had said that inspection was necessary to understand the real controversy and defend the case effectively.

They had sought permission to inspect the premises through their advocates and their technical advisor— a civil engineer — on the ground that the court had done so on August 19, 2006 on the directions of the High Court.

But only the investigating officer and the court staff were present during the inspection by the court. No accused persons or their counsels were allowed to be present at that time, the accused said.

The accused also had said that they had appointed Prem Kumar and Gurpreet Singh as their new counsels who were required to visit the building in order to appreciate the evidence on record.

The prosecution opposed the Ansals’ plea as motivated and intended to delay the trial saying that the court has already inspected the cinema building and a copy of the inspection note is available with the accused.

Fifty-nine people, including women and children, had died and several were injured in a fire which broke out on June 13, 1999 in the cinema hall during the screening of the film ‘Border’.—PTI

New Delhi, April 11
The Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, today met representatives of NGOs and other prominent citizens who came to express concern over cutting of trees for the development of High Capacity Bus Service (HCBS) corridor in Delhi.

They presented a memorandum to the Chief Minister requesting for clear marking of trees, monitoring tree health, on-site compensatory afforestation and development of dedicated tree lanes.

The Delhi Environment Minister, Mr Raj Kumar Chauhan, and Secretary, Environment and Principal Secretary, Transport and other high officers were present during an interaction with the representatives of NGOs.

During the discussions, Ms Dikshit reiterated commitment of her government to plant at least 10 trees on cutting of one tree. She said that all efforts would be made to compensate tree cutting at the same place. However, compensatory afforestation would be ensured at other available places.

She appreciated concern of representatives of NGOs and also agreed to set up a tree authority under Tree Protection Act, which would develop a joint mechanism to make loss of tree cutting in a planned manner. 

New Delhi April 11
Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in East Delhi will oppose any move to hike power tariff by private power distribution companies (discoms) and Delhi Government.

The area discom, BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), in a letter written to Delhi State power regulator and Delhi Government has contended that Electricity tariffs for consumers in the areas served by the BYPL will have to be increased as the high cost of power after the allocation of Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) it has been left to shoulder are expenses the company cannot meet.

The discom has proposed a power hike of 20 per cent in areas served by it including East Delhi . “Why should East Delhi residents pay more than other parts of Delhi, this is yet another assault on the right of citizens to a decent life in a city – now an honest man will have to pay more and suffer power cuts simply because his house is in East Delhi” said Raj Kishore Dimri of Mayur Vihar Phase III RWA.

Mayur Vihar is listed as one of the areas where losses are over 50 per cent and are on the ‘hit list’ of the government and the discom.

“The consumers under another private discom, NDPL, have no problem; a reign of terror has been unleashed by discom on residents of East Delhi , its contract should immediately be terminated. In last five years of privatisation, nothing has improved, power cuts have come to stay, faulty meters are part of life and now honest consumers are being implicated for power theft,” said Rajesh Dokhwal , Convenor, United Residents Joint Action (URJA) East Delhi.

“There is complete consensus on the failure of the private power companies and all we want now is that their agreements are scrapped and their contracts terminated,” said V.N.Bali, Secretary, Ram Vihar.

Residents have complained time and again that the CM and the Minister of Power have advocated on the side of the discoms. 

Gurgaon, April 11
The Haryana Government has computed the loss to standing rabi crop in the high-intensity hailstorm and untimely rain in the state last month to the tune of Rs 220 crore, according to the Financial Commissioner, Revenue, Haryana, Mrs Promila Issar.

Reviewing the disbursement of the compensation money in the districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mewat, Rewari and Mahendragarh falling in Gurgaon Division, Mrs Issar said that in 2001, the compensation money was Rs 80 crore.

All the Deputy Commissioners of the districts were present in the meeting.

The bulk of the money has been sent by the state headquarters to the districts and the disbursement works have already begun.

She said that compensation money above Rs 500 has to be disbursed vide cheque.

Faridabad, April 11
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is busy in revising and reshaping the framework of its plan regarding basic infrastructure. It is likely the development of civic amenities in the near future will be based on the new guidelines. Dozens of new sectors, mainly for flats and houses to be developed by private builders across the Gurgaon and Agra canals, are at the development stage. The developments of the civic infrastructure in these sectors will be the job of HUDA.

A meeting of senior HUDA officials was held at Chandigarh recently. Several issues, including those requiring reform and change, were discussed, according to sources in the office here. The dimensions of roads and sewerage system in residential sectors was a major issue.

According to the authorities concerned, there was a need to change the norms governing such facilities to suit the needs and requirements of the present and the future. It is learnt the department will construct wider roads in the sectors with additional facilities like walking and cycle track and ample green belt on the side of roads. 

Faridabad, April 11
A review meeting of the thermal power station in the NIT area here was held today under the chairmanship of the Financial Commissioner of the Power, Haryana, Mr Ashok Lavasa here.

He directed the officials and management of the thermal station, which is one of the oldest in the state, to take measures to meet the increased demand of power in summer. The station, owned by the Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGC), has a total production capacity of 165 MW. However, the members of the All Haryana Power Corporation Workers Union staged a demonstration and tried to disrupt the meeting which was attended by the Managing Director of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN). The demonstration was held to protest against the privatization and outsourcing policy of the Nigam. However, the HPGC officials claimed that it had nothing to do with the protest of the employees, as they belonged to DHBVN.

According to Mr V.K. Jain, Chief Engineer of the thermal power plant here, the main aim of the meeting was to look into the arrangements and preparations done by the department to ensure that the power production remains smooth during summer.

Disclosing that while one of the three units here is being repaired, the two units produce about 20 lakh units daily.

He said the though the total capacity of these units had been about 165 MW, the production had been around 40 to 45 MW by each unit.

It is believed that the outdated machinery, substandard quality of coal and raw material are the main deterrents in the full capacity realization. It may be recalled that the state government has decided to close down this plant as soon as alternative source of power generation is developed.

Meanwhile, the DHBVN employees union has called upon the government to cancel the contractual system of recruitment.

New Delhi, April 11
A Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Assistant Commissioner of Police R K Bansal accused of demanding and accepting bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from a diamond merchant.

CBI special judge I K Kochhar releasing Bansal on bail on the condition of furnishing a bail bond and a surety of Rs 1 lakh each held that he had completed almost 50 days in incarceration and his co-accused SI Jagdish Kumar is already released on bail.

The court further observed on the basis of the investigating officer’s statement that the chargesheet is not likely to be filed within the stipulated period of 60 days. No recovery of money was made from Bansal while Rs 1.5 lakh were recovered from Jagdish Kumar, it said.

Bansal has also been directed to submit his passport with the court and not leave the country without its prior permission. Bansal, posted with the Anti-Extortion cell of the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has been in custody since he surrendered before the court on February 21.—PTI