New Delhi, April 16
Having seen anti-Congress result in the MCD elections, the Delhi Government today tabled its annual estimated budget for the year 2007-2008 without proposing any new tax on citizens of the National Capital. The total estimated budget for the new financial year is Rs 18,561 that includes 9,000 crore as Plan Outlay, Rs 9,461 crore as Non-Plan and Rs 100 crore for Centrally Sponsored Schemes.

Plan Outlay Rs 9,000 crore Non-Plan Outlay Rs 9,461 crore Centrally Sponsored Schemes  Rs 100 crore

Tabling the estimated budget before the Delhi Assembly, the Delhi Finance Minister, Dr Walia said that proposed expenditure of total budget would be funded from revenue receipts of Rs 13,824, share in central taxes of Rs 325 crore, small saving loan of Rs 2,907 crore, Central Assistance of Rs 1,033 crore and other receipts of Rs 472 crore. This year’s plan size of Rs 9,000 for the year 2007-2008 is 73 per cent higher than plan Outlay of last year.

Delhi’s own tax revenue has increased from Rs 8,939 crore in 2005-2006 to Rs 10,156 crore in 2006- 2007, registering a growth of Rs 14 per cent.

The per capita income in Delhi was Rs 61,676 in 2005-2006 as compared to Rs 25,716 at the national level.

Dr Walia announced various new schemes like Rs 600 per month pension to widows below poverty line, a fixed amount of Rs 5,000 to be deposited in the bank accounts of girl students of class XII in government schools, girl students’ exemption from payment of fee for all courses in ITIs, free textbooks and uniform allowance to boys in government schools and a new science and technology university in 2007-2008.

Earlier senior citizens were getting a pension of Rs 400 per month, which has now been increased to Rs 600 because of the high inflation rate. At present 1.75 senior citizens are getting benefits of this scheme.

Besides, for welfare of women and child development, the government has decided to create a Directorate for Women and Child Development. The government has also created a Labour Commission which has been done first time in Delhi.

The Minister also announced that the Delhi Government had been sanctioned Rs 2, 800 crore for development of unauthorised colonies whose regularisation had been declared by the Central Government. The regularisation will be implemented within three months. A board of development work in unauthorised colonies is being set up.

The government has also decided to provide sewerage system in all rural villages of Delhi and all unauthorised colonies on their approval.

To increase underground water level, the Delhi Finance Minister said that 450 water bodies had been identified for conservation and development.

The Delhi government has already enough power to supply the local consumers. Taking in view the Commonwealth Games in the year 2010, the government plans to set up 1,000 MW Combined Cycle Gas Based Power project at Bawana through NTPC. Besides, the government has agreements with Haryana, Chhateesgarh and Punjab to set up power plants in these states, the Minister said.

The government has also exempted certain goods from VAT like trycycle used by handicapped persons, bio inputs, kerosene stoves, lanterns, petromax, blood filters used for treatment of Thaleissemia.

Tobacco is now taxable under VAT, Dr Walia announced. 

New delhi, April 16
Subhash Arya was today unanimously elected by the BJP councillors as the leader of the house of the 272-member civic body.

Ved Prakash Gupta was also elected as the deputy leader of the house at a meeting of the newly-elected BJP councillors here, also attended by senior party leaders V K Malhotra and Arun Jaitley.

While the BJP, which wrested power in the April 5 municipal polls in a keenly-fought battle with Congress, has not officially announced the name for mayorship, sources said the saffron party has almost zeroed in on three-time corporation Arti Mehra for the post.

The standing committee chairmanship, a key post in the MCD, is likely to go to Vijender Gupta, who was a prominent voice of the party in the previous standing committee, the leader said.

The BJP will announce the names of the mayor and the standing committee chairman within two days, Delhi BJP unit president Harsh Vardhan told PTI.

Asked whether the party would study the reasons behind it not crossing the 200-mark in the MCD as projected by the leadership, Dr Harsh Vardhan said he had already asked the local leaders to submit a report on why it lost in 30-40 seats.

New Delhi, April 16
The sealing drive in the Capital lost steam today with the MCD targeting around 50 unauthorised businesses, after a week of stepped up action following some strong words from the Supreme Court.

While the civic body sealed over 100 shops every day last week, today’s action saw the sealing squads downing the shutters of just 51 shops spread across eight zones here.

The Najafgarh Zone saw the major action today where 18 unauthorised shops were sealed. Civil Lines came a close second with 16 shops sealed while seven businesses faced the axe in South Zone.

While four shops sealed in Shahdara (South) Zone, two faced action in West and one each in Central and Rohini Zones, an MCD spokesman said.

With today’s action, the total number of shops sealed in the capital since the resumption of the drive on March 28 has risen to 494.—TNS

New Delhi, April 16
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), seeking a factual report within a week regarding the policy on cremation of Hindu children below the age of three years and the condition of crematoriums for children in the city.

Taking suo motu cognizance of a media report that said a family was turned away from eight crematoriums which refused to perform the last rites of a 15-month-old child, the NHRC directed the MCD Commissioner to respond to the notice.

The commission said if the contents of the report were true there was a serious issue of human rights violation.

According to the news report, telecast on April 11, Mr Shantanu Sharma was refused cremation of his nephew at the crematoriums. “‘The authorities at the crematoriums told them that children below the age of three could not be cremated and it was against Hindu law,” it said.

Faridabad, April 16
The district administration has decided to use digital camera in the survey to identify the families living below the poverty line (BPL). The work will start tomorrow and will be over by June 15 next. A team of ex-servicemen led by a retired official of the rank of major will be doing the coordination work.

According to a meeting held in the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Mr Sanjay Joon, here today, the authorities disclosed that the employees and staff to be involved would be given the necessary instructions at the office of the Block Development Officer (BDO) of Ballabgarh tomorrow morning.

It has been decided that all the houses of the families to be included in the proposed BPL list would be photographed with digital camera, to avoid any irregularity. The teams would fan out in the rural areas and would visit every house. Besides, the teams would also seek help of the revenue department, village ‘chowkidars’, lambardars, teachers and elected representatives of local bodies, including the Gram Panchayats.

It may be recalled that a survey had been conducted in this regard a few months ago and about a total of 60,000 families had been found eligible to be included in the list.

But the state government had ordered a fresh survey. The number of BPL families was about 28,000 in the last survey conducted in the district. The criteria on which the survey would be based include the land owned by the family, domestic equipment and appliances, education level, sources of livelihood, income and the condition of the house itself, among others.

According to officials, the monthly income of any member of the family should not exceed Rs 400 per month to be eligible for the inclusion in the list. But according to officials concerned, the survey work could be a bit tricky as there are thousands of migrants whose domicile is hard to be proved. Though many such families possess ration cards and even voter I-cards, their claim to be included in the list could not be justified, as they may have taken such a benefit in their home state also.

Faridabad district has a population of over 21 lakh, which include over 14 lakh in the urban areas. The majority of migrants reside in privately developed colonies many of which are unauthorized and illegal. “There are about 50 such colonies in the city. Several of these are just slum clusters,” said an employee of the Municipal Corporation Faridabad.

“MLAs, Zila Parishad members, Panchayat Samitis, Gram Panchayats want to increase their vote bank by getting maximum number of people in their list,” said an official of the Revenue department.

Gurgaon, April 16
Political activities in Haryana have become somewhat quiet for the past few days as the politicians from the areas of south Haryana, encompassing Gurgaon, Mewat, Rewari, Faridabad and Mahendragarh districts, appear to have migrated to various parts of the bordering state where Assembly elections are under way.

Although leaders of several parties have been visiting Uttar Pradesh for a short time, the leaders of the ruling Congress in Haryana seem to have taken a long leave. Yet again the presence of Mr Rahul Gandhi and his sister Ms Priyanka Gandhi has a magnetic appeal for the Congress leaders.

According to eyewitnesses, a good number of cutouts, placards and banners along with other publicity materials projecting Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Ms Priyanka Gandhi were prepared here.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is alleged to be keeping himself more than involved in the Uttar Pradesh electoral battle. He is said to be campaigning today for his party in Bijnore.

The BJP’s central election management team is said to have also assigned duties to the state leaders to mobilise for the organisation’s nominees in the bordering state.

The INLD supremo and former Chief Minister of Haryana, Mr Om Prakash Chautala has also made several visits, especially to the western parts in support of the Samajwadi Party headed by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav.

According to reports, the youth brigade of the Congress has tents at various points in Uttar Pradesh. A good number of them are tailing Rahul Gandhi all over Uttar Pradesh. Many of them have decided to go only to Amethi and Rai Brailley where Ms Priyanka Gandhi is holding fort in the pocket boroughs of the Gandhi family.

While the BJP leaders swear by the name of their party national stalwarts, the Congress leaders appear to be laying stress on Rahul Gandhi. They say that it is the test of his leadership and the Congress rank and file will work hard for his success. They project him and Ms Priyanka Gandhi as future wealth of the Congress party.

New Delhi, April 16
A young call centre employee here has accused her husband and his friend of attempting to rape her in a moving car after which both of them were arrested, police said on Monday.

The woman, said to be in her early 20s, lodged the complaint with South Delhi police claiming that the two had tried to rape her when they were returning after work from neighbouring Gurgaon on Sunday night.

The victim, mother of a one-year-old boy, claimed that when she resisted the rape attempt by her husband Kamal and his friend Saurav Kataria, they dropped her at her in-laws’ house in Sheikh Sarai in Malviya Nagar.

Police have registered acase against the two under relevant sections of the IPC.—Agencies

New Delhi, April 16
The Delhi Police along with the Uttarakhand police has shot dead two inter-state gangsters carrying a reward of Rs 50,000 and Rs 20,000, in Haridwar.

Ajit Daha and Rameshwar, both aged between 32-35, were injured in retaliatory fire by the Special Cell sleuths after they fired at police when asked to surrender near Jwalapur in Haridwar yesterday, DCP (special cell) Alok Kumar told mediapersons here today.

“After about half-an-hour long encounter they were rushed to a hospital where they were declared brought dead,” he claimed.

Two 9 mm pistols, a car, some cartridges and Rs 8,500 in cash were recovered from their possession, he said, adding the two were chased after two of their ‘colleagues’ — Akshya, alias Neetu (24), and Afsar — were caught earlier in the day from Kankhal.

Bulandshahr, April 16
Four persons, including the bus driver, were killed on the spot in a head-on collision between a roadways bus and a truck near Bhansoli village under Kotwali Dehat in Bulandshahr in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Five others seriously injured were rushed to the district hospital.

Only driver and one of the passengers could be identified. Police have registered a case against the truck driver who had absconded.

The accident occurred at 1.30 am on Sunday morning when a bus from Aligarh Depot plying on Farukabad Khurja-Delhi route on Delhi highway had a head-on collision with a truck.

The truck was plying on Ghaziabad-Aligarh route. Bus driver and three passengers sitting on the front seats were killed on the spot. Bus driver has been identified as Sukhi Lal Chanderveer Singh of an Aligarh village. Another passenger killed in the accident was Saran Singh of Delhi. 

Gurgaon, April 16
Fifty villages in Gurgaon have been included in the list of 1,000 villages in Haryana by the Power Nigam and the government for undertaking three days’ mass campaign against power theft.

The campaign will be launched on April 23 in which rallies will be taken out by the school-going children in their villages.

The power department and the education department will coordinate the campaign.

According to the district administration, the campaign is necessitated by the fact that a huge amount of power is lost on account of theft. The state is presently grappling with power shortage.

New Delhi, April 16
With peak summer still a few weeks away, blistering heat conditions today swept the Capital as mercury soared to 39.6 degrees Celsius, settling a fraction short than yesterday’s 40 C.

Delhiites, who had experienced the hottest day of the season so far yesterday, should not expect any relief from the heat, which has been steadily on the rise for the past one week, the Meteorological Department said here.

However, the Met has forecast partly cloudy sky later in the night today, with possibility of dust storm/thunder storm in some areas.

The night temperature also witnessed a sharp rise as it touched 30.2 degrees Celsius, three degrees above the normal range for this part of the year.

It was not just the heat which the residents had to battle it out, dust-storm in the morning also added to their woes.

People could be seen crowding around at shops selling chilled beverages to stay cool. The heat wave has intensified in the region, with mercury crossing 42 degrees Celsius in southern belt of Haryana and many parts of Rajasthan.—PTI

New Delhi, April 16
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has taken charge of security of the Delhi Metro rail.

The security of the Metro stations was handed over to the CISF at a special function on Sunday where the top officials of the CISF were present.

The CISF, which protects sensitive installations like airports and nuclear power plants, will now take over charge of the Metro’s security from Delhi Police.

Over 1,600 personnel of the force will be deployed at the 59 stations of the three lines of the Delhi Metro, covering a distance of 65 km. The entrusting of the Metro security to the CISF comes following reports of possible terrorist threats to the Metro.—TNS

New Delhi, April 16
Mr Vikramjit Singh Sahney, International President of the World Punjabi Organisation (WPO), hosted a grand Baisakhi celebration, “Paigam Mohabbatan De”, here yesterday.

Mr Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, was the chief guest. Mr Arshad Alam, President, WPO, Pakistan was also present.

Held at Celebration Gardens on the Delhi-Gurgaon Highway, the evening echoed out the true colours of Baisakhi as the warmth of brotherhood made each of the gathered lot live up to the spirits of the new year. There were foot-tapping Bollywood dances to nostalgic moments with ethnic Bhangra and Giddha performances by the artists present.

The evening saw a captivating performance by singer Ruby Reshma from Pakistan.