New Delhi, May 31
The Delhi Cabinet today approved a marginal increase in the city bus fare and charges for autorickshaws and black and yellow taxis being plied in Delhi.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, after the Cabinet meeting, said her government had taken into consideration all aspects while deciding the issue of revision of bus fares and charges of auto-rickshaws and taxis in the Capital city.

All possible care had been taken to ensure the common man was not burdened. Hence, it had been decided to increase the bus fare in respect of journey up to 4 kilometres from Rs 2 to Rs 3 whereas there would be no increase in the charges for remaining slabs.

The maximum fare in city buses would also continue to be Rs 10 for a journey of 12 kilometres and above. The last revision of bus fares was effected on December 31, 1999.

The Chief Minister further said the marginal increase of Re 1 would not pinch any passenger as the increase was nominal despite high cost of running of vehicles due to the enhanced price of petrol, cost of maintenance and enhanced salaries of the staff.

It had been decided to increase autorickshaw fare for the first kilometre from the existing Rs 8 to Rs 10 and thereafter for every additional kilometre from the existing Rs 3.50 to Rs 4.50.

The last revision in respect of autorickshaws was effected on February 5, 2003.

As regards black and yellow taxis, the revision was marginal as the charges for the first kilometre had been enhanced from Rs 13 to Rs 15 and thereafter for every additional kilometre from the existing Rs 7 to Rs 8.50.

She said the issue of increase in charges for monthly bus passes had been postponed for the time being.

The Cabinet had also decided to enhance cash assistance to all Kailash Mansarovar Tirath Yatris hailing from Delhi from the existing Rs 10,000 per yatri to Rs 25,000 to meet the cost of arrangements for the yatra.

The government had been providing assistance to the Kailash Mansarovar Yatris in the form of cash for lodging, food and medical examination of yatris.

The government would have to incur an additional expenditure of Rs 12 lakh per year on this head.

The Delhi Cabinet noted with a deep sense of regret the loss of lives in the peaceful agitation of the Gurjar community in Rajasthan on May 29, 2007.

It conveyed its condolences to the bereaved families and in this regard observed a two-minute silence as a mark of respect to the departed souls.

The Cabinet also wished early recovery to the injured. It hoped for an expeditious, peaceful and harmonious resolution of the issues.

The Cabinet also congratulated students and teachers of all government schools in Delhi and parents of students on their remarkable success in the board examinations this year, which had shown extraordinary increase in pass percentage.

New Delhi, May 31
There has been an alarming rise of about 18 per cent in the number of women smokers in India and about 22 per cent of women consumers use smokeless tobacco, according to Dr A. K. Dewan, Senior Consultant, Department of Surgical Oncology, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre here, on World No Tobacco Day today.

Dr Gauri Kapoor, Consultant, Dept of Surgical Oncology, RGCI, adds, "New research has found smoking causes more breathing difficulties in women than in men. In India, betel quid chewing is widespread among rural women. In addition, women also suffer from general respiratory problems. Female smokers are more susceptible to osteoporosis or "brittle bones". Also, smoking during pregnancy significantly increases the chances of the infant dying of sudden infant death syndrome, spontaneous abortions, delivering a pre-mature baby, delivering a low birth-weight baby, impairing the child's long-term growth and intellectual development.

Noida: Kailash Hospital organised a photo exhibition-cum-film on No Tobacco Day today.

Dr Gambhir, cardiologist and director of cardiology at Kailash Heart Institute, while addressing a press conference, informed smokers had 40 per cent heart attacks.

Each cigarette smoked reduced the life expectancy by seven minutes and one pack of cigarette per day increased the incidence of heart attack by seven times.

The effects were much more ominous in women among whom heart attacks occurred 16-19 years earlier in smokers than non-smokers. Among men smokers, heart attacks occurred seven-eight years earlier, informed Dr Gambhir.

He also informed quitting smoking reduced the incidence of heart attack by half in one year and the risk became equivalent to non-smokers at 10 years after quitting smoking.

Creating a 100 per cent smoke-free environment would help protect the public from the serious harmful effects of tobacco, including carbon monoxide emitted in the air by the smokers.

This increased the longevity of generations to come, informed Dr Gambhir.

New Delhi, May 31
Insaf Ali, a 26-year-old resident of Rajasthan, allegedly spying for Pakistan, has been arrested from Old Delhi Railway Station in North Delhi here today

Ali was caught by Special Cell sleuths yesterday from the railway station following a tip-off. He was delivering an envelope to a passenger going to Pakistan by Samjhauta Express, the police said today.

When the envelope was opened, secret documents related to the Indian security forces were recovered between the layers of a wedding card, said a police officer.

Hailing from Pali in Rajasthan, Ali had with him several documents related to the deployment of the Army and the BSF in Rajasthan.

He acted as a conduit for extracting information and then passing it on to his Pakistani "masters".

Documents and details related to deployments in Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur and details as to military exercises and operations were seized from him.

During interrogation, he allegedly revealed that earlier he used to work as a casual labourer in a cloth factory at Pali in Rajasthan. During his stay at a relative's house at Hyderabad in Pakistan, he was lured to work for Pakistani intelligence by an ISI officer, Shoaib Hassan.

After imparting training for the new assignment, he was tasked to cover the activities of the Army/ BSF in Jodhpur area. In January this year, he allegedly sent vital information regarding Army.

New Delhi, May 31
Vikas Yadav, prime accused in the Nitish Katara murder case, today submitted before a court here a list of 13 witnesses who would be deposing to prove his non-complicity in the offence.

Yadav, in a list of witnesses submitted before additional sessions judge Ravinder Kaur, mentioned 13 names including his father D P Yadav, an Uttar Pradesh politician.

He, however, refused to divulge certain specific information such as address and father's names of certain witnesses alleging that they may be targeted by the police to dissuade them from deposing in his favour.

The accused also sought liberty from the court for impleading some more witnesses to prove his innocence in the five-year-old murder case. The list included the names of record-keepers of chief judicial magistrate's court, Ghaziabad and Paharganj police station here and father-son-duo of Amit Gandhi and Ashok Gandhi. —OC

New Delhi, May 31
Congress members of the Delhi legislative assembly and MLAs of the Nationalist Congress Party in the national Capital met Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to condemn the police firing that led to the killing of innocent persons in Rajasthan.

They offered their deep condolences for the families of the deceased. They requested the Chief Minister to convey their sentiments to the UnionHome Minister.

Dikshit assured them of apprising the Home Minister of their sentiment of grief.

Meanwhile, the unrest in Rajasthan over the Gujjar community's demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe list spread to the national Capital today with protests taking place in several areas.

Members of the community blocked roads, leading to major traffic snarls in the morning hours, and burnt the effigies of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as they staged demonstrations at several places.

Protesters, including women, pelted stones at vehicles in the Khanpur locality of South Delhi and blocked vehicular movement in Dullupura, Kondli and Malviya Nagar areas, the police said.

A demonstration also took place outside the residence of Raje in Bikaji Cama Place in South Delhi. A large number of Gujjars assembled at Jantar Mantar, shouting slogans against the Rajasthan Government.

With protests taking place on the highways leading to the Capital, the police have tightened security at all borders. The flyway connecting Delhi with Noida in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh was closed for traffic to avoid any trouble. Gujjars had hit the streets in Khajoori Khaz locality of North East Delhi yesterday to protest the police firing on members of their community in Rajasthan. The agitation continued to paralyse normal life across Rajasthan for the third day today with protesters blocking highways and indulging in arson, stone pelting and clashes with police in many areas.

Hundreds of Gujjars blocked the traffic at DND flyover for two hours. Demonstrations were reported from several other places in the district.

Raguraj Singh, Bhim Singh and other volunteers of the Gujjar Samaj Ekta Manch sat on the road near the DND flyover toll plaza and blocked traffic. Later, they went to Delhi to attend a panchayat at Jantar Mantar.

At the district court, advocates burnt an effigy of the Rajasthan Chief Minister at the Noida Phase II crossing on the Noida-Dadri road and blocked traffic for an hour.

At Greater Noida, Gujjar property dealers and students held a demonstration at Pari Chowk and blocked traffic for an hour.

Other road blockades by the Gujjar community were reported from Jhundpura, GT Road, Dadri, Dankore, Rabupura and Aligarh road in Jevar.

Meanwhile, in Mewla Maharajpur village in Faridabad, protestors set a DTC bus on fire and blocked the traffic on national highway near Badarpur border this evening.

While effigies of the Rajasthan Chief Minister were burnt at several places in Faridabad, a memorandum was submitted to the district administration by a delegation of the community members today.

Raising slogans against the Vasudhara Raje government, the protestors condemned the police firing.

The police had a tough time in bringing the situation to normalcy as the blockade by protestors was reported from four places this morning.

"Though the total number of persons who staged dharnas at these spots was not much, the protests lasted from 30 minutes to two hours," claimed the police.

The protest by the residents of Mewla Maharajpur village here badly affected the traffic movement on the national highway number two at NHPC Chowk where vehicles on both sides queued up to a few kilometers.

The demonstrations were also staged on the intersection near Anangpur village on Surajkund Road, where the traffic was blocked for over half an hour. Blockades were also held at a chowk near Pali village and on the road connecting Faridabad and Gurgaon. The residents of Neemka village, who squatted on the Ballabgarh-Tigaon Road, submitted a memorandum to the local administration and burnt an effigy of the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Meanwhile, the Faridabad district administration has appointed over a dozen senior officials to work as duty magistrates in various areas of the city and district to keep a vigil on the situation. .

In Gurgaon, the protestors blocked roads at several places, including Delhi-Jaipur national highway. About 500 residents of Gujjar dominated villages surrounding Gwalphadi blocked Gurgaon-Faridabad road for more than two hours. They laid burning leather and PVC tyres on the road to make the blockade a success. They raised slogans against the Rajasthan government for the police firing on agitating members of the community.

The situation was brought under control following periodic intervention by the additional superintendent of police Anil Dhawan. The members of the community also blocked the Mehrauli-Gurgaon at Nathupur point. A mob of 300 persons squatted on the road. Significantly, members of the community from some villages contiguous to Gurgaon line Aya Nagar, Mandi crossed over to Haryana to bolster the protest at Nathupur.

The third blockade was on the national highway at Narsingpur point. About 500 persons took part in the over half-an-hour agitation.

Following the blockade, the protestors held a Panchayat at Narsingpur. The panchayat passed a resolution demanding dismissal of the BJP government, registering cases of murder against the police officials involved in the firing and a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to each of the bereaved families of the victims killed in the firing. The panchayat also decided to hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in the national Capital tomorrow.

The irate crowd in the panchayat did not hand over the memorandum addressed to the President Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam to the SDM of Gurgaon.

They insisted that the deputy commissioner of Gurgaon must personally take the memorandum. The deputy commissioner and the district police chief reached the spot. Thereafter, the blockade was removed. The security forces have been put on alert in the district on account of sizeable population of Gujjar community in Gurgaon.

Faridabad, May 31
While the state government was shortly to notify the implementation of its historic decision of raising the minimum wages of industrial labourers and other workforce to Rs 3500, there was no positive assurance from the industrialists and the managements so far. There was an attempt to influence this move and make the authorities delay the notification, thus provide relief to industry owners, it is learnt.

A meeting held by an association of industrialists where senior district officials were invited could be seen as such an attempt, claimed Subhash Lamba, an office-bearer of the district unit of the Joint Trade Union Council (JTUC). He said while labourers and industrial worker deserved a minimum wage of Rs 7000 per month the industrialists' lobby had been trying to delay or stop the implementation of the new wages of Rs 3510 announced by the present government.

Responding to the negative reaction of industrialists towards the revised wages, the Deputy Commissioner cautioned the entrepreneurs against the rising gap between the haves and have nots. He said one should not be exploited to the limit where one turns against one's employer.

He said while nobody was against the earnings of the CEOs everybody should be concerned about the deprived class. Lamba said such meetings held by the industry at regular intervals where senior bureaucrats were invited as chief guest and honoured were direct attempts to influence the government machinery to delay the move which could harm their interests.

Questioning the propriety of spending a huge amount on such functions, he said it was amazing that the industry was now clamouring against the hike which, he added, was minimal.

Associations here claimed the steep hike in the wages had rattled them and they were not in a position to implement it.

The Faridabad Industries Association (FIA) submitted a memorandum to the state government through the district authorities in this connection.

But, in its representation to the labour department on May 21, the JTUC has referred to the parameters adopted by the 15th Bhartiya Shramm Sammelan (labour conference) of 1957 and claimed the minimum wages of a labourer today should be Rs 7000 (vegetarian) and Rs 7300 (non-vegetarian) in view of the current price index.

Lal Babu, convener of the council, said the parameters were based on a study done about the number of calories required by an average person. He said the Supreme Court, in one of its judgments on October 31, 1991, had directed the determination of wages be based on the report of the sammelan. Though the revised wages were likely to benefit several lakh industry workers and employees of the private sector, the labour union leaders asked the government not only for immediate notification but also ensure proper implementation. a collusion between the labour department officials, the labour union has demanded action against those employers who had been flouting working hours' norm and had been forcing the employees to work for 10 to 12 hours daily instead of the prescribed eight hours' work.