New Delhi, May 22
Underworld don Abu Salem, who was brought to the Capital from Mumbai yesterday, was produced in a city court today in connection with an extortion case and has been remanded to seven-day police custody.

Salem was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini at the Tis Hazari Courts following a production warrant issued against him in connection with an alleged extortion call he made to a south Delhi-based businessman.

Meanwhile, two policemen escorting Salem lost a few thousand rupees in pick-pocketing and their luggage while the gangster was being whisked away after his arrival at the New Delhi Railway Station last night.

Blame it on the chaos that ensued following Salem’s arrival here, the team of anti-terrorist squad of the Mumbai Police had to literally claw its way through the crowd when some miscreants picked their pockets and made good with their luggage.

The two officers, an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) and a head constable, were left clueless when they could not find their belongings after the big drama.

“That we will not get back our wallets was a foregone conclusion, but not being able to retrieve our bags was disappointing,” the ASI said.

The gangster, who had been lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail after his extradition from Portugal in 2005, had allegedly demanded Rs one crore from Rajat Nagrath, owner of Allied Communications in East of Kailash six years ago.

Though there are four cases registered against him here in Delhi, he can be tried in only three cases, which were mentioned in the extradition agreement with Portugal. Salem is facing trial in eight cases in the country.

The court had earlier issued production warrants at three occasions against Salem but a Mumbai court had stayed his production here on his lawyer’s plea on security grounds.

Salem was brought to the Capital last evening by a team of Anti-Terrorist Squad of Mumbai Police on the Golden Temple Express train.

The gangster, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was brought in a second class compartment of the train.

New Delhi, May 22
Bhartiya Janta Party MLA Karan Singh Tanwar has appealed to the Lt. Governor of Delhi to intervene in the matter of demolition of slum clusters in Naraina area where thousands of jhuggies were razed to the ground without serving the slum-dwellers prior notice.

“These people have been living in the area for the last one decade. They have voter identity cards, ration cards and other evidences to prove that they are bonafide citizens of the national Capital,” Tanwar said.

The MLA also said that in the new Master Plan of Delhi, it was mentioned that jhuggi-dwellers would be rehabilitated at that particular place where they resided. “Multi-storied buildings would be constructed to rehabilitate them. But this is only on record. Nothing is being done for welfare of citizens of the Capital,” he alleged.

Addressing a press conference, he alleged, “Demolition action is politically motivated. In Naraina area, the Congress has been defeated for the last many years. Generally, jhuggi-dwellers are called vote banks of the Congress party. But in Naraina, they always vote in favour of the BJP that is the main reason for the demolition action.”

Criticising the Chief Minister for her recent controversial statement on migration, Tanwar said, “Due to strong defeat in MCD elections, the Congress leaders are behaving like mad. The statement of the Chief Minister that the flow of migration from Bihar, UP and Uttaranchal is the main cause of no development in Delhi was pre-planned because these people have not supported the Congress during the elections.”

“The Public Works Department of Delhi government has demolished thousands of jhuggies on April 24 in Naraina area without giving any notice to the poor and helpless in the cluster. When asked why it was demolished, the official concerned of the PWD said that this cluster was built up on the water body land and on the orders of the High Court, this demolition was being carried out,” Tanwar claimed.

New Delhi, May 22
Cool northwesterly winds continued to sweep the Capital, bringing down the mercury and giving much-needed respite from the blistering heat.

Under the influence of a western disturbance, isolated to scattered rain or thundershowers accompanied with squall are likely over the northwest India on Wednesday and Thursday as well.

For Delhi in particular, weathermen predict partly cloudy with a possibility of duststorm or thundershowers with squall with the maximum temperature, hovering around 40 degree Celsius. They say that the windy conditions are expected to continue for the next 48 hours with the possibility of rain or thundershowers in parts of the Capital.

The good part is that in May this year temperatures have usually been running below normal, except for one day last week when the mercury rose up to 42.6 degree Celsius.

In fact, on Monday, the maximum temperature in the Capital was 37.7 degrees Celsius, three degrees below normal as the city experienced strong winds that clocked a speed of 32 kmph. The minimum temperature, however, was recorded at 28.4 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal.

Today the maximum temperature was 39.6 degree Celsius, again one degree below the normal. The Met office says that the atmospheric circulation has not been stable in and around Delhi, resulting in a drop in the day temperature in the Capital. Two weather systems active over Central Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir are the cause of strong winds across the northwestern region. Due to this rain or thundershowers are likely at a few places over Jammu and Kashmir and isolated places over Himachal and Uttrakhand. While there have also been reports of scattered rainfall in parts of Rajasthan, isolated duststorm and thunderstorm accompanied with squall is likely over rest of the northwest region.

New Delhi, May 22
Three candidates from Jamia Millia Islamia University have cleared the UPSC examination-2006 and all three have made it to the IAS batch for 2007.

The three selected candidates are: Meeraj Khalid (207th rank), Raghunath Bharti (314th rank) and Kranti (424th rank).

These successful candidates were enrolled at Jamia’s Centre for Coaching and Career Planning in August, 2005 and received seven months’ coaching there. The coaches at the centre behind this breakthrough are Q. H. Khan and Vipin Sharma.

Faridabad, May 22
Work has either been started or commissioned on about half of the announcements made by the Chief Minister in the past about one and half years. As many as 13 announcements are awaiting sanction.

Haryana Chief Secretary found during a review of 52 announcements made by the Chief Minister in the past about one and half years at the third divisional development review session(DDRS) held at Gurgaon recently.

It was detected during the review that a bill for Rs 37 lakh had been submitted against a project declared unfeasible.

The PWD (B&R) had been asked to prepare a feasibility report on constructing a concrete bridge over the Yamuna river near Hassanpur in Hodal subdivision to replace the existing Pantoon bridge.

It is reported that the authorities concerned declared the project as ‘not feasible’ after carrying out a technical study of the proposal. But the move of the department to raise and submit the bill for Rs 36.90 lakh for just carrying out the study report of the project has left senior officials amazed .

The report tabled at the meeting revealed that as many as 10 announcements made by the CM since October, 2005 in the district have been commissioned or completed, while work on 13 others was in progress.

Another 10 had been approved by the authorities concerned and funds had been allotted. The projects which had been in progress include construction of Mini- Secretariat at Hodal town at a cost of about Rs.3.13 crore, concrete pavements of roads in several villages, shifting of Subzi Mandi (vegetable market) of Old Faridabad, construction of some new roads and supply of drinking water and sewerage network to all villages of Hodal and the city area respectively.

The ‘not feasible’ ones in the official list include up gradation of school at Bhadsahpur village , reopening of vocational institute at Jasana and Kheri Kalan villages and the bridge over Yamuna near Hassanpur.

The total value of the projects ,including those pending was worth over several crores, stated an official.

New Delhi, May 22
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct its post-result counseling from May 23 to June 6.

As many as 29 principals, trained counsellors from the CBSE affiliated government and private schools, psychologists and social scientists will be available on tele-helplines from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The helplines will be operated from 12 centres in Delhi, Chandigarh, Meerut, Noida, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhpatnam, Coimbatore, Mumbai and Jabalpur.

The service will also be provided to students in Yemen, Doha and Qatar. The CBSE website— www.Cbse.Nic.In— will also provide information and techniques to cope with post result stress and anxiety.

Meanwhile, the helpline phones of an NGO have started ringing round the clock with students making queries, reflecting high levels of anxiety. “We have received more than 330 calls on the first day of the helpline launched on Monday and the maximum number were made out of anxiety”, said Abdul Mabood, director, Snehi, an NGO which has been helping students to cope with results- related stress.

New Delhi, May 22
Alert BSES Business and Vigilance teams recently came across a unique case, the customer - a government employee - was trying to have his ‘stolen’ electric meters regularised by using forged documents. The customer, Ramji Ram, a resident of Plot No 28-B, Shankar Park, accompanied by one Sanjay, recently visited the BSES’ Palam Division Office to get his two ‘new’ meters regularised. He even submitted copies of the Meter Change Reports.

The vague request made the Business Manager suspicious and he sought the vigilance department’s help.

On investigation, the accused admitted that he paid Rs 18,000 to one Sanjay to get his meters tampered/snow. After a few weeks, Sanjay asked for another Rs 18,000 to get the tampered meters replaced by ‘stolen meters’. Ramji Ram gave Sanjay Rs 5,000 and both of the prepared MCRs - which was shown to the Business Manager with a request to regularise the connection.

“BSES has a fool proof case against both the customer and Sanjay.

We are in the process of taking appropriate legal action under the applicable legal provisions and sections of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003 and Indian Penal Code,” said a BSES spokesperson, adding that there were many consumers who get tempered by ‘imposters and frauds’.

The BSES spokesperson said that since April 2006, the special courts have sentenced about 60 per cent thieves to jail. The legal and government machinery has begun to take notice of the menace of theft.

“Recently, the Parliament passed a Bill, making electricity theft a cognizable offence,” he added.

Gurgaon, May 22
The police has booked a person for murdering his wife for dowry. The victim Poonam, a native of Faridabad, was married to the accused in December, last year. The accused is a native of village Nathupur here.

According to the police, Poonam was strangulated to death. Her husband,in order to mislead the police, got himself injured and got himself admitted in hospital. The in-laws maintain that the victim died due to electrocution and the husband was injured while saving her.

The relatives of the accused have fled Nathupur. A case has been registered on a complaint of Poonam’s brother.