New Delhi, May 26
A planning commission in the MCD will be set up soon to accelerate the pace of organised development in Delhi. Besides, the commission would streamline planning system and accomplish preparation of zonal plan and layout plans, said Vijender Gupta, chairman, Standing Committee of MCD today at a seminar, ‘Chalo Shahar Banaye’, organised by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).

Former Delhi chief secretary Shri Omesh Saigal, eminent town planner R.G. Gupta, Jasbir Malik, RWA advocate in Supreme Court besides leading figures of education, health and other sectors and representatives of trade and RWA bodies participated in the seminar.

In a unanimous resolution adopted at the seminar, it was said that the law of the land must be respected and implemented in letter and spirit. A cut-off date to regularise past deeds is the need of the hour and stringent laws be made for rehabilitation of those persons affected by sealing and demolition.

The resolution also demanded the government to encourage concept of solar energy, water harvesting and recycling of solid waste in larger interest of Delhi.

In the larger interest of Delhi, Omesh Saigal advocated Amnesty Scheme for Delhi and said that such scheme was launched in Bhubaneshwar in the past which was also held valid by the Supreme Court.

He blamed poor planning for the current mess in Delhi and said that as per planning norms, three per cent area is necessary to be commercial for the city and regretted that larger portion of three per cent was awarded for development of offices instead of shops. 

New Delhi, May 26
Bhartiya Janata Party MLA Vijay Jolly today demanded immediate halt to demolition drive in Sainik Farms saying that property worth several crores of rupees has been razed causing a colossal national loss.

“Citizens are made to suffer due to rampant corruption among inspectors, engineers and staff of the MCD building department (South Zone),” Jolly alleged.

The MLA claimed that first the constructions were allowed by the officials who demanded bribe for it. Afterwards the matter was brought to the notice of the courts of law. As a result, the property owners were now facing demolition drive, the MLA added.

He said, “Delhi High Court had never ordered for demolitions in Sainik Farms. Instead, it had demanded to know what action was proposed to be taken against erring officials and staff of the MCD for dereliction of duty while being posted in the aforesaid area and for allowing constructions. The commissioner was directed to file action taken report within four weeks. However, suddenly the sword of demolition was struck on the innocent law abiding citizens of Sainik Farms,” Jolly alleged.

On the issue of high boundary walls constructed in Sainik Farms, it was ordered that boundary walls beyond 1.5 meters in height be demolished.

Pleading the case of Sainik Farm residents, the MLA stated that the colony was surrounded by dense forests and was not gated. Nearly 3 to 4 lakh people of the adjoining colonies pass through the area. “Recent cases of robberies and dacoities at the residences of former Chief Secretary, Punjab, Vinod Khanna, a doctor from R.M.L. Hospital, former ACP Delhi Police T.S. Bhalla and one O.P. Bhutani led people to erect high walls in the area,” he said.

He said that citizens of Sainik Farm would not mind demolishing their front walls in case Delhi Police guaranteed for their safety and security.

Jolly claimed that the Sainik Farm residents welfare association led by S. L. Kapur (IAS) would move Delhi High Court tomorrow seeking relief on the issue.

The MLA, who raised this issue in Delhi Assembly budget session, stated that Sainik Farm Colony came into existence in 1967 and started building up 38 years ago. It is spread over three hundred acres of private land of six villages namely Devli, Khirki, Khanpur, Maidangarhi, Saidullajab and Neb Sarai. The colony has 5,000 houses with 40,000 population.

There is a total investment of Rs 5,000 crores in the area. The citizens pay house tax and income tax regularly. “Yet on the issue of parity with other 1,432 unauthorised colonies pending regularisation – Sainik Farm is unfairly discriminated and kept out of the proposed list of colonies to be regularised,” Jolly said.

He said that Janak Juneja Committee report of 1996, Tejender Khanna Committee report of March 2006 and the latest K.K. Mathur Committee report was submitted to the Central government on December 19, 2006 recommending regularisation of Sainik Farms, along with Mahindru Enclave and Anant Ram Dairy colonies. “But even after five months, the regularisation proposal of Sainik Farm is hanging fire,” Jolly said.

New Delhi, May 26
Cool winds along with light drizzle continued to bring down the mercury and giving much-needed respite from the usual summer heat at this time of the season in the Capital.

For Delhi, weathermen predict partly cloudy sky with a possibility of dust storm or thundershowers 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 maximum temperature in the Capital was 38.4 degree Celsius, three degrees below normal. The Met department has forecast possibility of rain or thundershowers for tomorrow.

Parts of the city were hit by a squall as three weather systems active over parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh ushered in cool climatic conditions in the midst of hot summer.

Meanwhile, favourable weather conditions in the Arabian Sea and along the equator indicate the onset of south-west monsoon over Kerala by Tuesday, the Meteorological Department said today.

As per the Met officials, conditions are becoming favourable for the onset of south-west monsoon over Kerala during the next 3-4 days, which means that the monsoon may also keep its date with the rest of the country, including Delhi.

In fact, three days back, just within 10 days of issuing a prediction for an early onset of monsoon over the Indian mainland on May 24, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) changed its forecast saying that the monsoon over Kerala was not likely so soon.

As per the IMD’s statement on the country’s most awaited weather phenomenon – the southwest monsoon – this year, monsoon set in over Andaman Sea and southeast Bay of Bengal on May 10, about a week earlier than the normal, which is why a prediction for an early onset over Kerala was issued, but in the meantime the situation changed.

“The IMD on May 14 issued forecast for early onset of monsoon over Kerala on May 24 with a model error of 3 days. The forecast was based on a statistical model and its predictors were favouring for an early onset of monsoon over Kerala,” it explains.

However, subsequent to the onset of monsoon over Andaman Sea, a cyclonic storm formed over east-central Bay of Bengal, which moved north-northeastwards and crossed Bangladesh coast on May 15, which disrupted the entire monsoon flow. But the IMD has also reassured that the monsoon was slowly organising back after this disruption.

New Delhi, May 26
The CBSE today announced that it would declare results of Class X secondary school examination 2007 on May 29 at 8.00 am.

The CBSE has arranged for giving out the Class X results on the net Students can get the entire school’s results by giving their school code and e-mail ID on which the result is required. Students will get their results on the following websites: , , and . The individual results can also be known on http//mtnldelhi.in, http//bol.net.in, http//delhi.mtnl.net.in.

Further, the CBSE is also using IVRS or the interactive voice response system to give out the result. The telephone numbers of NIC and other organisations are: 011-24357270, 95-11-24357270, 011-24357270.

New Delhi, May 26
Delhi Minister of Transport Haroon Yusuf today said that 40 per cent construction work of road corridor for high-capacity buses had been done. The corridor is being constructed from Delhi Gate to Ambedkar Nagar. This is a project worth Rs 129 crore. The work of the road corridor was started in 2006 and would be completed in December 2008. Having reviewed the construction work, the minister said that it would be completed before the given time.

He said that Delhi government would improve the public transport system before Commonwealth Games.

New Delhi, May 26
After visiting five foot over bridges (FOB) on Ring Road and ITO, the Delhi PWD and urban development minister, Dr A. K. Walia, issued instructions for the convenience of the pedestrians.

Walia announced that escalators on the FOBs would be commissioned within two months. The escalators have been delivered at the sites of the FOBs.

He said that in all 25 more FOBs would be commissioned apart from construction of six subways at different locations before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games 2010.

The minister added that this would provide a safe, convenient and tireless passage to the pedestrians apart from curbing accidents on roads due to fast-moving traffic. The commissioning of escalators would depend upon the volume of traffic at a particular point whereas ramps and stairs would be provided on all FOBs and subways.

Walia directed the PWD to make provision of a ramp on FOB at ISBT, Kashmere Gate as the same could not be constructed due to constraint of space. Another FOB on Ring Road at Satya Niketan is under construction.

Walia found that pedestrians in large number were making use of the FOBs at different places.

Faridabad, May 26
The district police have been unable to trace a 15-year-old girl allegedly abducted by some persons about six months ago in the city. This was stated in the complaint that was taken up in the monthly meeting of the District Public Relations and Grievances Committee meeting held at the MCF auditorium here today.

The police officials were asked to speed up the investigation and report the progress in the next meeting. The Health Minister of Haryana, Ms Kartar Devi chaired the meeting, which claimed to have solved a total of 15 complaints which included problems concerning pollution, encroachment, presence of liquor vends in the residential areas and parking issues.

According to details, the girl is daughter of one Pala Ram, a resident of Indra Colony, near Sector 21-B here. The complainant after failing to get a favourable response in the matter lodged his compliant with the committee, about a week ago.

It is reported that while there could be dozens of complaints regarding the police inaction and alleged corruption in the department, only a selected few are able to get through the scrutiny process to be included in the Grievances Committee, which meet each month.

Residents of Gopi Colony Chowk of Old Faridabad raised the issue of illegal opening of liquor vends in the area, which has residences, religious places and educational institutions. They demanded immediate removal of these vends from the area.

It is learnt that there had been some complaints in the past from various areas regarding the matter and the residents of Tigaon, a village on the outskirts of Ballabgarh had even staged a dharna for several days to seek closure of vends operating near their houses.

Residents Welfare Association of Sector 48 raised the issue of release of polluted water by the thermal power station in the NIT area. They demanded immediate solution as it was claimed that it had been causing inconvenience to a large population.

Meanwhile, it was reported today that leakage from the pipe carrying waste water from the plant led to flooding in Janata Colony area and the polluted water entered several houses. The officials were directed to submit the action taken report in a fortnight. The attention was also drawn towards a similar problem on the bypass road near sectors 8 and 9 here, where unauthorized dumping of waste had been a cause of concern.

The district authorities, however, informed the committee about the various development projects and schemes.

New Delhi, May 26
Jamia Millia Islamia University has announced the setting up of several newly established centres in its library. Dileep Padgaonkar, former editor-in-chief of The Times of India and member of the Minorities Commission, inaugurated them. These centres include: Multimedia Language Lab, Gandhian and Nehruvian Collection, S A I. Tirmizi Reserved Section and the Learning Centre for Differently Abled.

The S.A I. Tirmizi reserved section houses an extensive collection of rare books, which include some very rare early nineteenth century books, such as publications from the College of Fort William. There is a copy of Akhlaq-e-Hindi by Mir Bahadur Ali Hussaini. It contains a translation of the Sanskrit Hitopadesh and Shak Sup Stututi (Thirty Tales by a Parrot) and the Panchtantra. One notable feature of the book is that it replicates the cultural mileu of the era. The book is regarded as very rare.

The Reserved Section also has a copy of the Bahar-e-Ajam by Tek Chand Bahar. This was the only dictionary which was approved and used by Mirza Gahlib, for otherwise, as is known Ghalib rejected all other Persian dictionaries and had very uncomplimentary words for Indian lexicographers.

A very few copies of the book are available in India. The section also has one of the best collections of Urdu literary journals in India.

The Section has been named after the Late Syed A. I. Tirmizi, a former Director of National Archives of India, and an eminent historian in his own right. The Section also plans to collect information about other rare book collections in India and to act as a clearing house of information on rare books, especially rare books in Urdu.

The ‘Learning Centre for Differently Abled’ in the Dr Zakir Hussain Library aimed at primarily supporting visually challenged students and staff members. The Centre is equipped with state of the art modern facility and art assistive technology.

Jamia has already equipped all buildings with ramps in a bid to make the buildings accessible to the differently abled. The Centre has facilities for providing access to the printed material, websites, digital media etc. Modern technology like the screen reading technology, screen magnification technology and optical recognition technology have been installed through various software like JAWA for windows software, talking typing teacher software, open book OCR scanning and reading software and SARA text reader for the visually challenged.

This software will help the visually challenged to access printed books, journals and magazines by simply scanning the text and listening to it without any assistance. The talking typing teacher software, they can also learn to type and operate computers, thereby providing them with an opportunity to enter in the field of IT.

New Delhi, May 26
India is likely to limit the use of transfat in food items as this causes various diseases. Transfat will be listed on food labels of all products to be manufactured in the country from September 1. This is according to recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The nutritional guidelines recommend that transfat is not essential and provides no known benefit to human health. The radical move is a reflection of growing concern over the consumption of transfat. This is a specific type of fat artificially created through the partial hydrogenation of oils, mainly of vegetable origin, claimed Dr Shashank Shah, a leading surgeon in a hospital in Pune.

There is a growing body of medical evidence on the link between transfat consumption and coronary heart disease. A study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that removing transfat from industrial food supplies can prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks and cardiac deaths in the USA every year. While both saturated fat and transfat increase the levels of artery-clogging ‘bad cholesterol’ (low density lipids), transfat has been shown to reduce the levels of ‘good cholesterol’ (high density lipids), thus heightening the risk of heart disease.

Dietary transfat has no known health benefit. Traces of it occur naturally in meat and dairy products, said Dr Shashank Shah.

The primary health risk identified for transfat consumption is an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. The consumption of transfat acids raises levels of Low-Density Lipo-protein (LDL), reduces levels of High-Density Lipo-protein (HDL) that increases the bad cholesterol and decreases the good cholesterol and increases the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol, a powerful predictor of the risk of the cardiovascular diseases. It causes the artery to become clogged and develop heart disease and stroke, Dr Shashank said.

New Delhi, May 26
A Delhi court has taken a lenient view of the minor victim’s consensual marriage with the accused and awarded three years’ rigorous imprisonment to him for her abduction and rape. Though the victim was a consenting party throughout, the fact that she was a minor at the time of offence cannot be overlooked, Additional Sessions Judge S P Garg said, convicting Mohammed Kalim under Section 363 (kidnapping) and 376 (rape) of the IPC.

Rejecting the defence plea that the girl had consented to the relationship with the accused, the court said, minors’ consent, in such cases, is no consent. It also slapped a fine of Rs 3,000 on Kalim, a resident of Bardhaman district in West Bengal. — PTI

New Delhi, May 26
There is some good news for the wildlife adventurers. India’s ambitious first night safari proposed to come up at the outskirts of the national Capital is set to get green signal from Central Zoo Authority (CZA).

Sources said a team of four members including Wildlife Institute of India director, CZA member secretary and experts from School of Planning had visited the spot on April 24 to study its feasibility.

Now, the Supreme Court would examine the proposal before the GNIDA can implement it. The Rs 276-crore night safari project to be spread over 102 acres of land near Mursheedpur Reserve Forest on the Taj Express Highway, is to be constructed on the lines of the Singapore night zoo by GNIDA. — PTI