New Delhi, April 19
The estimated Budget proposals for 2007-2008 tabled by the Delhi Finance Minister Dr A K Walia was passed unanimously today by the members of the Delhi Assembly. The total Budget estimate was of Rs 18,561 crore, including Rs 9,461 Non-Plan Outlay and Rs 100 crore for Central-sponsored Schemes.

The Budget proposals were thoroughly discussed during the last three days before being approved without making any change. Before taking a final decision on the Budget proposals, the Finance Minister announced that pension given to handicapped persons would be increased to Rs 600 from Rs 350.

Replying to the criticism by Opposition which termed the Budget as ‘election budget’, the Minister asserted that it was a normal budget. “The BJP was in power in Delhi from 1993 to 1998, but no development work was done. The BJP had made schemes but there were no budget proposals to implement the schemes,” Dr Walia alleged.

“It is only after the Congress came to power, when a number of development works were initiated. Sewer lines in various areas are being constructed. Budget has been allocated to construct sewer lines, drains in unauthorised colonies. The government had regularised 568 colonies earlier. The development work in 517 colonies are being carried out,” he claimed.

He added that the government recently announced to regularise more than 1400 colonies. Once the scheme to regularise the colonies was implemented, the development work would be started in these areas too, Dr Walia said.

“The government believes in surrounding development. Geography of the national Capital is different. Many times, the development work in the Capital is affected or got delayed due to interference or objections from the neighbouring states,” he added.

He said that pension scheme announced for widows were for those who belonged to below poverty line. “There are five lakh widows in the Capital. Of them 70,000 women are from the below poverty line,” he said. The pension amount would be distributed by the MLAs in their assembly areas and every MLA would be given pension amount for 200 widows, he said.

New Delhi, April 19
Resident doctors and interns in Deen Dayal Upadhayay (DDU) Hospital here today went on an indefinite strike after a dead child’s family attacked a doctor and nurse, alleging negligence in the patient’s treatment.

Medical services, including ICU, Emergency and OPD, were completely paralysed in the hospital as more than 400 junior doctors went on strike. Grade V employees also joined the strike as a paramedic was also assaulted.

Patients are being turned away without treatment and asked to go to other hospitals.

The strike comes barely five days after resident doctors in LNJP called off their 3-day strike after a patient’s family attacked a doctor.

The agitating DDU doctors are demanding improvement in the security set-up at the hospital and deployment of ex-servicemen besides police on the campus. They are also demanding a meeting with the Union Health Secretary.

“The doctors are attacked time and again. This is the third time in the recent past that a doctor has been attacked by the family of a patient. We will continue with the strike till the government fulfils our demands,” the DDU RDA president, Dr Pankaj Sabharwal, told reporters.

He said the child, admitted in the pediatrics ward, had been brought to the hospital in a critical condition due to meningitis about 10 days ago. He died this morning due to medical complications. “The patient’s family was told about his slim survival chances... despite that they reacted violently,” he claimed. However, the child’s family is alleging he died due to negligence in treatment.

Dr Sabharwal said the security apparatus in the hospital had completely collapsed and the authorities concerned were not paying attention towards the safety of the doctors. “At present, we have just 80 private security guards on the campus. We want that their strength be raised to 300 and ex-servicemen be deployed,” he added.

He alleged 25 family members of the child barged to the ward and assaulted Dr Ravi Kant, nurses and hospital attendants and damaged hospital property. The police said a case had been registered. A senior police officer said later two persons, both residents of Tilak Nagar, were arrested for damaging hospital property.

Noida, April 19
Driving in Noida had ceased to be a pleasure some eight years ago. With stray cattle and the start of work for DMR, it has not only become chaotic but dangerous also.

Noida was set up in 1976, but till 1980, Noida Authority office used to function from Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi and till then, there was no straight route for going to Noida.

Noida Authority and Noida police have not only failed to bring any order and system on Noida roads, but during the last three decades, the authority has failed to come up with a sound road planning. There is no bus stand worth even a name.

In 1981, the then Noida Chairman N.S. Chaudhary was instrumental in getting DTC service on Route No 300 from Central Secretariat to Sector-3, Noida. First staff colony was set up in Sector-27 so that Noida Authority officials could start living in the township. Schools, hospitals and small markets followed soon enough.

Bus service from Dhaula Kuan, ISBT, railway stations, Anand Parbhat, Nehru Place and Mehrauli followed. DTC has played a significant role in the development of Noida all these years.

But 31st year of Noida saw an unsavoury dispute between DTC and UP Roadways banning each other’s bus service in their territories. Autos and taxis services also had ground to a halt.

This brought untold misery to the travelling public. There is little progress in linking Noida to other cities of UP.

The influx of a large number of three-wheeler diesel tempos, apparently a political move, had wreaked havoc on Noida city roads and the transport system. For the next two years till Metro service becomes operational, residents of this tony city are destined to suffer or so it seems.

New Delhi, April 19
A 75-year-old woman and her son have been convicted of hoarding kerosene meant for distribution through the public distribution system (PDS) seven years ago.

Jaswant Kaur and her son Baljeet Singh (53) were sentenced to imprisonment till the rising of the court by a Karkardooma court magistrate here under the Essential Commodities Act and fined Rs 2,000 each.

The testimony of the raiding officer coupled with the documents clearly establish it were the accused who diverted the kerosene in the black market by showing the sale in the stock register more than the actual sale, said Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Sanjiv Jain.

The (ACMM), while convicting the mother-son duo, relied on the deposition of the officer who had in December 1999 conducted the raid at the oil depot and proved the discrepancies in the stock being maintained by them.

The prosecution story is duly supported by the records which depicts there was a diversion of 646 litres of blue kerosene to the black market by the accused, the court held in a recent order.

Accepting the defence plea regarding the age of the convicts and their clean antecedents, the court took a lenient view while sentencing them.

Greater Noida, April 19
In a fit of rage, a youth crushed his own grandfather under the wheels of his tractor, killing the old man on the spot. The Dankore police have taken possession of the body in Rampur village and sent it for postmortem. The youth has absconded after killing his grandfather.

There had been a running discord in the family for the past many days as the old man was bent on disposing of his land, while the rest of the family members were opposing it.

Two days earlier, the youth had thrashed his grandfather on the same issue.

According to police, Kishen Gujjar, 75, of Rampur village has two sons, Vikram and Joginder. While Vikram lived in Bilaspur, Joginder lived with his father. For the past few months, there was tension in the family with regard to the land. Joginder’s son Shobin did not want his grandfather to sell his land.

Shobin was digging the land in the family farm near Rampur on Wednesday. A little later, Kishen reached the farm and told Shobin to go away from the fields. Both had a heated argument on this point. Both of them pelted each other with stones. Later in a fit of rage, Shobin charged his grandfather with tractor and crushed the old man under its wheels. Kishen died on the spot.

Seeing Kishen’s body in a pool of blood, Shobin absconded, abandoning his tractor. The whole village collected around Kishen’s body. Police were informed but till late in the evening, no report had been lodged. 

Noida, April 19
In an inhuman act, a man threw his three-year-old son in a cauldron of boiling water about 10 days ago in Sector-5, Noida. According to the mother of the child, Mrs Riku Saha, his father actually attempted to kill the child.

A complaint was lodged in Sector-20 police station, but no action has been taken all these days. She has accused that his husband has illicit relations with his sister-in-law on whose instigation he had tried to kill the child. Her husband threatens to abandon her, demands dowry and holds out threats of killing her, she told the police.

Riku lives with her husband Vijay Saha of Darbanga in Bihar and their three-year-old son in Sector-5. Vijay Saha runs a tea shop in Sector-5. She alleges that while she was preparing to cook vegetable, Vijay threw the three-year-old child in a cauldron of boiling water meant for making tea and tried to kill him. Hearing the child’s shrieks, she came running and somehow saved the little boy.

Vijay had confined Riku to the house and put a man to watch so that she could not go to police station. But about a week back, she could sneak to her father, Jawahar Singh’s place in Sector 8 and lodged a complaint against her husband. But the police have taken no action in the matter so far, she alleged.

Gurgaon, April 19
The police have failed to crack the case happened last Tuesday in which some unidentified persons entered a house in posh New Palam Vihar with an attempt to loot it, but escaped after pumping two bullets in the chest of an inmate when he resisted them.

There were five criminals who escaped on foot after committing the crime at about 4 am. First they attacked Amarjit Singh, the victim, who was with his mother in the house, and then shot at him.

The incident has sent ripples in the nearby areas of the incident.

The police have constituted three teams to crack the case but in vain so far. The victim’s father is with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) presently posted at Noida.

According to many, the circumstances of the case suggest that the criminals were locals or had local connections, as they fled on foot after failing in their attempt to loot the house.

The general impression is that although the police have been successful in stemming organised crime by the known criminal gangs, they have failed miserably in checking burglaries and other small crimes.

New Delhi, April 19
A gang of burglars active in Vikas Marg area has reportedly committed half a dozen burglaries within a week.

The gang mainly targets luxury cars parked at isolated parking lots. As per their modus operandi, first, the thieves try to divert attention of the driver of such cars, then make a bid to steal valuables like suitcase, laptop, bag etc kept inside the car. They also carry chilly powder with them and in case, the driver caught them, they throw it in the eyes of the driver and decamp with the booty, according to a victim.

The East district police are still clueless in the broad daylight burglary case committed last week near Sai Baba Mandir in Laxmi Nagar area.

New Delhi, April 19
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has set up a Reading Development Cell (RDC) with the objective of helping children explore and process information which would develop their interest in exploring new books.

The decision to set up such cells was taken after the Human Resource Development Ministry indicated it wanted children to develop a habit of reading.

The cell will select, process and develop innovative and interesting study material initially for classes I and II children and orient teachers in reading pedagogy, according to Prof Manjula Mathur of the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), a constituent of the NCERT. It will also develop manuals for teachers and set up reading corners in schools.

The RDC will also organise seminars, book fairs and exhibitions to create awareness among masses.

The council has taken a number of other steps to improve the quality of teaching and education and make the school atmosphere more children-friendly.

One such programme is sensitising teachers against corporal punishment, which sometime happens to be the biggest reason for children to try to avoid going to school.

New Delhi, April 19
Modern School continued to be closed for the third day today following a row between teachers and the management over the Saturdays being declared working days.

The issue of contention is the management’s decision to keep the school open and running on Saturdays and teachers as well as students are daggers drawn against the management on this issue. Teachers feel that over the years they have successfully maintained good academic standards at the school working five days a week and hence there is no real need for changing the system to a 6-day week.

No classes have been held at the school since Tuesday. The teachers’ association says it’s the management that has kept the students away.

New Delhi, April 19
Musicology (India’s first “new age music school”) in Noida, which aims to create music idols out of young talents by providing them with the best quality of music education, organised its annual concert at Kamani Auditorium here.

The concert showcased young music stars performing along with the mentally challenged and underprivileged kids’ group who gave a dazzling live performance, which had the chief guest, Sona Mohapatra, India’s latest pop sensation, along with other distinguished guests, musicians and audience tapping their toes.

Students’ performance covered a wide spectrum from original compositions by Musicology students to popular Indian Hindi hits and international rock songs.

Sona Mohapatra was deeply impressed by the children and their amazing performances. Commenting on the programme, she said Musicology was doing a remarkable job by providing the students a good platform, excellent guidance and training.

The concert also provided the mentally challenged and underprivileged children an opportunity to look into a different world, where they explored and learnt about different types of voice modulation and got a chance to practise to sing in a group. 

New Delhi, April 19
With the Char Dham Yatra opening today for pilgrims visiting the popular dhams of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, Leisure Hotels has announced the opening up of the first-of-its kind luxury-tented accommodation in this highly popular sector.

Expecting an even greater increase in the number of yatris this year, Leisure Hotels has added a fifth luxury camp in Maneri, Uttarkashi to its existing four camps at the Char Dhams.

According to the Uttarakhand Tourism Board, there has been a consistent rise in the number of pilgrims visiting the Char Dhams over the past few years with 2006 seeing an almost 20 per cent rise over the figure of 2005. As many as 16,75,500 visited the Char Dhams in 2006 in comparison to 13,41,300 pilgrims, who undertook the pilgrimage in 2005.

The Board is expecting that the trend would continue and the number of pilgrims visiting the holy shrines would again increase by more than 20 per cent.

According to Vibhas Prasad, Director (Business Development), Leisure Hotels, “The purpose of setting up a new luxury camp at Maneri, approximately seventeen kilometers from Uttarkashi, is to aid pilgrims to undertake the third leg of the journey of the Char Dham tour from Gangotri to Kedarnath in lesser time. This break in the journey would save 50 kilometers and three hours on the third leg from Gangotri to Kedarnath”.

Earlier, the journey used to take approximately 12 hours but now with Camp Maneri (Uttarkashi), the same journey will take much less time.

Pilgrims from all over India and abroad flock to this eco-sensitive region of Garhwal in large numbers to offer prayers at these Holy Shrines from April until mid November every year.

The Char Dham Camps, conceptualised by Leisure Hotels, are the first of its kind branded accommodation available in this circuit. By providing quality accommodation and consistent F&B standards, Leisure Hotels has been able to cater to a wide audience comprising domestic and international travelers.

The package cost for the Char Dhams is Rs 2,250 per person on twin sharing basis and Rs 3,600 per night for single occupancy that includes accommodation and meals at all the five camps.

New Delhi, April 19
The Bone and Joint Decade declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 84 countries, including India, has been a complete washout, feels Arthritis Foundation of India (AFI). Even though the target was to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment for patients, one out of every two women in India is osteoporotic today.

The Government of India, a signatory to the Bone and Joint Decade, has not taken up serious measures to improve the quality of life for people with musculoskeletal disorders like arthritis, osteoporosis etc. With no national intervention programme, the government is clueless about addressing the problems related to musculoskeletal disorders, says AFI.

To make things worse, there is no clear data available on the number of people with serious bone ailments like arthritis, osteoporosis etc. “A few small surveys have been conducted in urban areas and a guesstimate would be that only 10 per cent of people are aware of osteoporosis,” says Dr Sushil Sharma, Chairman, AFI. These specialists feel there is a pressing need to launch an Integrated Bone and Joint Campaign and that it should be included in the National Programme as in the other countries.

According to the AFI, one in five men in India is suffering from osteoporosis whereas in case of women it is one in two. The government should realise osteoporosis and osteomalacia in women is a great challenge because discrimination against the girl child and neglect of women in society has a strong relationship with the disease. Joint diseases account for half of all chronic conditions in people aged 60 and over.

New Delhi, April 19
The Board of Directors of Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) met today to approve the upgradation of its leadership bandwidth in the management of BSES companies — BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd. (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd. (BYPL). Mr Lalit Jalan, has been appointed Chairman of BRPL and BYPL and also been nominated as Director on the board of BRPL.

Mr Jalan was appointed CEO of BRPL and nominated on the board of BYPL in 2005 and under his leadership both the companies of BSES have been able to achieve significant results, including a reduction in load shedding by 95 per cent, reduction in AT&C losses to 29.9 per cent (BRPL) and 39.1 per cent (BYPL), a release said.

On his appointment as Chairman of BRPL and BYPL, Mr. Jalan, said, “We at BRPL and BYPL always endeavour to provide uninterrupted, reliable and quality power ensuring highest levels of customer service. This determination will continue to be our driver in the future also.”