New Delhi, May 16
It may sound unbelievable but it is true. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which has been in the eye of a storm because of the recent demolitions and sealing in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has been rated as the most trusted brand in a recent survey by none other than the monthly magazine, Reader's Digest.

Reader's Digest's trusted brand survey-2007 has rated the DDA as the most trusted brand in the real estate category.

According to the DDA, the gold trophy for this was presented by union minister of tourism Ambika Soni at an award presentation ceremony in Mumbai recently.

The survey was conducted by Nielsen Media Research.

According to the DDA officials, a two pronged methodology was adopted. The first step was to mail questionnaire via the October, 2006 issue of reader's digest wherein about 300,000 mail-outs were sent to subscribers. The second part comprised telephone survey conducted by Nielsen Media Research during October-November, 2006 wherein about 3,500 interviews were conducted.

The sample consisted of top 50 per cent of Asian consumers aged 20 years and above, well educated secondary or above and top 50 per cent of affluent population. The award was given in 40 categories of consumer products ranging from automobiles such as car to hotels and even jewelry and sanitary-ware etc.

The questioning was of two levels. In the first level, interviewee was asked to name the most trusted brand amongst the nominees. The level two comprised evaluation of brand attributes on a 5-point rating scale comprising trustworthiness, credible image, innovation, quality, value, understanding of customer needs etc.

An assessment equation was used to obtain total rating score by multiplying total number of votes with an average score of 6 qualitative values. The gold trophy is given to a brand whose rating score clearly excels other brands in that category. 

New Delhi, May 16
The Leader of Opposition, Delhi Legislative Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi wrote a letter to Delhi Lt Governor Tejender Khanna regarding fixing of terms and conditions and procedure for construction of shop on the first floor in the existing shopping centres of Delhi.

Mukhi claimed that he had given valuable suggestions on behalf of Delhiites to the Tejender Khanna Committee.

For immediately increasing number of shops, he claimed he had suggested that permission be granted to all single-storey local shopping centres, convenient shopping centre built by the NDMC, the MCD, the DDA, land development offices and other agencies, for construction of shops on the first floor.

He said that he was happy as the urban development minister had assured him to include his suggestions in the Master Plan 2021. Floor area ratio (FAR) of all shopping centres has been increased from 60 per cent to 100 per cent. "With this increase, one can construct first floor on their shop. But so far, civic authorities have not taken any step in this regard," Mukhi alleged.

New Delhi May 16
Thousands of applications filed under the RTI Act 2005 for getting land-related information from registrar of cooperative societies are pending. According to the RTI Act, the applicants should be provided information within a month after the submission of the application form. If it is not done, the official concerned should be punished. "But it is not done," sources said.

The office of Registrar of the Group Housing Societies was in limelight due to Dwarka Society scam.

The sources said that about 30,000 RTI applications were received by various departments, including Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), MCD and education of the city government.

As per the data available on Delhi government's website, about 27,055 RTI applications received by various departments have been disposed off by providing the much-needed information. About 2,542 applications are pending with various departments, with maximum being with registrar of co-operative societies.

The maximum information has been sought from the Registrar of Co-operative Societies which has 1,569 RTI applications, followed by education department 1,117 and Delhi Jal Board 518.

Maximum RTI applications are in connection with the land-related details. About 960 applications were filed by residents in the Civil Lines area and 620 were filed by the people living in Sadar Paharganj zone.

Registrar of Co-Operative Societies has been the main defaulter in not providing the correct or complete information. Most of the house building and group house building societies fall under Registrar of Co-Operative Societies. These societies were provided land at concessional rates for housing. "In these societies, most of the original members have sold their plots or flats.

Still they are dominating the managing committees of the societies, as the power of attorney holders are not allowed to be member of the societies," V. N. Bali, a resident of Ram Vihar in East Delhi, said. He had sought an information on number of original members who had left the society. 

New Delhi, May 16
The Supreme Court today stayed till further order the directions of Delhi High Court directing the authorities to register vehicles in Delhi only with low-floor including buses.

The High Court in its order has directed that the condition shall be duly incorporated in the permit issued by STA (state transport authority).

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran issued the orders on a petition filed by Gakko Bunka Education Society which challenged the ban on registration of vehicles without low floor in Delhi on the ground that the ban would cause huge losses to the bus operators and transporters who had already invested in booking of the buses for plying them in Delhi.

The court also issued notices to the Union Government and Delhi government on the petition. —UNI

Faridabad, May 16
Denying reports of infighting among party workers, the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Ved Prakash Vidrohi said that none of the total 1,204 elected representative of the HPCC or those in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) had resigned from the primary membership of the party.

"The state unit of the party has emerged stronger and united in the past two years and there is no reason to believe the 'rumours' of any resentment among the party workers or the PCC cadre at any level," Vidrohi said in a statement issued here today.

He said the party had issued show cause notices to two PCC delegates and two co-opted members after reports in the media that they had expressed support to a suspended MP of the party.

Claiming that while these persons had neither tendered their resignations nor expressed their views to the party leadership about any kind of resentment on any issue so far, he said the notices were issued after reports in a section of media about their reported statements. He said the party would take proper action if the allegations were found true.

The PCC delegates in question include Lahiri Singh and Jagbir Singh. According to party leadership, the total 1204 elected representatives include 822 district delegates, 166 PCC delegates, 48 AICC members, 137 block presidents and 31 district presidents.

"These delegates and representatives were elected in 2005 when former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal was the HPCC chief. None of them has announced or tendered his or her resignation so far, while some political persons had been claiming that a large number of leaders and workers owing allegiance to Bhajan Lal have left the party in various districts," Vidrohi said. He said while no elected representative of the party had resigned, the so-called party workers who had been claiming to resign from the party were not the active members of the party.

They were doing so to enact a political drama to gain a political mileage, Vidrohi said.

Criticising the suspended party MP Kuldeep Bishnoi for seeking resignation of the Congress president, the party spokesperson claimed that he had no moral right to do so since he had not resigned from the party on his own and had been facing action for party indiscipline.

He challenged him to resign from the membership of the Lok Sabha and contest the elections again to prove how popular he was among the masses.

Regarding the recent protest by some residents in Gurgaon over the acquisition of land by the government, he said some political persons, including those from the Opposition, were misleading the people over SEZ and other issues to safeguard their interests.

He said that these persons were engaged in property dealing in the area and had either bought agricultural land from poor farmers at a very low price or were involved indirectly in such deals and they feared a huge loss after the acquisition of land for development of industrial zone in the area.

He reiterated that SEZ and second phase of IMT in Manesar would bring prosperity and speedy development in the region.

Gurgaon, May 16
The leaders of the ruling Congress in Haryana leading the coalition government at the Centre continue to pin their hopes on Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi following the election in the politically important state of Uttar Pradesh.

In an obvious effort to be one-up on the opponents of the Congress who have started making calculations on the possible fall-out of the result of the UP poll in Haryana, the Congress leaders say that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi together form the future leadership of the country. Their argument is that the dynamics of UP election was different in which the voters wanted to see the back of Samjawadi Party government headed by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The anti-incumbency was to such an extent that the voters voted for the BSP which was successful in projecting as an alternative which could defeat the Samajwadi Party.

Hordes of leaders from South Haryana, encompassing Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mewat, Rewari and Mahendragarh had kept themselves busy during the monthlong electioneering in Uttar Pradesh.

A good number of them had taken part in about 150 public meetings. A number of districts of western UP border with the districts of Haryana. While some districts of Haryana have geographical contiguity with some districts of the bordering state, the others have cultural affinity. Hence, the natural phenomenon of the raging debate in some parts of Haryana about the possible political impact of the Congress's alleged poor show in Uttar Pradesh. The debate, according to many, is contextual as the Congress is the ruling party in Haryana.

The opponents of the Congress, especially the BJP, the INLD and supporters of Kuldip Bishnoi (MP), son of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, are of the firm view that the party would not be able to measure up in the next elections in the state, especially as the Gandhi family had lost its sheen.

The Congress leaders argue that in spite of the peculiar situation in UP, the presence of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi enabled the party not to be marginalised from its pre-poll position as was the case with other parties. They further say that the Congress was in any case had not gone to the polls to form a government. 

Ghaziabad, May 16
Hundreds of passports found dumped in Mussori police station area in Ghaziabad yesterday created a scare among police and administration departments.

The police which reached the spot on getting the information started a search campaign around Ganga Canal area and more than 500 passports were recovered.

Ghaziabad District Magistrate MKS Sundram did not rule out the possibility of an organized criminal gang which was engaged in making fake passports.

Some people had spotted the passports lying on road at 5.30 pm on Tuesday and informed the police.

They immediately informed senior officers. Most of the passports had been damaged and disfigured due to dust and water.

During investigations, cops came across a bag full of passports in a field near Maksud Hotel. DM and SSP also reached the spot soon. Some of the passports were found to be handwritten. The passports had validity years stamped as 2015, 2013, 2010 and 2008 and some of the documents were not bearing any stamp even. All the passports found were sealed in a bag and taken to police station. Seeing the condition of passports, the District Magistrate said they appeared to be fake.

The regional passport office in Ghaziabad had been informed about it, the DM said. During last three or four months, a large number of voters identity cards were similarly found dumped in Noida and Ghaziabad areas.

New Delhi, May 16
The police today claimed to have got some vital information in the attempt to murder case of Father George Phillip (38), a priest-cum-principal of St Vincent Palloti School, Sangam Vihar in South Delhi.

Two unidentified persons shot at the principal inside the school premises yesterday. The police said preliminary investigations suggested it to be a case of robbery. —OC

New Delhi, May 16
Wit the arrest of five persons - Anil Kumar (40), Soni (20), Vijay Kumar (19), Badal (25) and Rakesh (24), the South district police today claimed to have busted a gang of dacoits.

The suspects were allegedly conspiring to commit a dacoity in a DTC bus plying between S N Depot to Badarpur. Three button-activated knives have allegedly been recovered from their possession. —OC

New Delhi, May 16
Delhiites got relief from scorching heat due to light showers and storms the city witnessed this evening after western disturbances.

Delhi may have experience of a few spells of rain accompanied by squall till Thursday evening, an official of weather department said.

The mercury today touched 43 degree Celsius in Delhi, leaving residents to sweat it out in the hottest day of the season.

However, when it rained in the evening people got relief.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the maximum temperature of 43 degree Celsius was three degrees above normal and the minimum of 31 degree Celsius was almost four degrees above normal.

An IMD official said that it was the hottest day of the season in the last five years. Last year, Delhi had recorded a maximum of 38 degree Celsius on this day.

On Tuesday, the national Capital had recorded a maximum of 42.7 degree Celsius.