New Delhi, June 9
The Delhi Chief Minister today assured that jhuggi dwellers would have a respectful address in a four-storeyed complex with ownership right. The city government had decided to construct flats in large numbers by using monolithic technology which would be instrumental in construction of thousands of flats in a short span of six months.

At a concluding function of a workshop organised under Sanjha Prayas, the Chief Minister assured that the government would start construction of flats in July. The programme was attended by officers of the Delhi Jal Board, NDPL, Delhi Transco Ltd, the Delhi Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Classes or Minority Corporation, the Delhi Khadi Village Industries Board, the Industries Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Delhi Transport Corporation, the Social Welfare, Food and Supplies Department and the Delhi Co-operative Housing Finance Corporation who interacted with the participant.

She assured the jhuggi dwellers her government would make available easy loan for the flats which would be located in a well-developed area with schools, dispensaries, shops, playgrounds etc.

All amenities, including transport, would be provided so that poor people did not face difficulties and accepted their new localities as their permanent place.

She further said the workshop had helped in confidence building among slum dwellers and they were able to put forward their difficulties without any fear.

She said work on Sanjha Prayas started in March this year. Till now, 20 slum clusters in East Delhi and slum resettlement colony Savada Ghavera had been covered. About 6,000 families were shifted from Yamuna Pusta Nangla Machi in eight blocks of Savda Ghavera. She announced that her government would provide health and training facilities to women.

The number of tankers for water supply and number of buses were being increased in resettlement colonies.

The New Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) had promised to electrify the area within two months and install streetlights. They would start giving individual connections on August 15.

The Delhi Health Department had promised to make one dispensary functional by Monday in B block of Savda Ghevra.

A gender resource centre may also be opened in the area to take care of health and vocational training issues.

The main issues raised by residents in the workshop included livelihood. As a result of relocation, women had lost their jobs and men had to commute long distances to reach their workplace. 

New Delhi, June 9
Delhi today experienced the season's hottest day so far at 44.9 degrees Celsius, five degrees above normal, as an intense heat wave swept through parts of north-western India. The hot and dry conditions are expected to prevail over few more days, the Met department said. As the mercury soared, people preferred to remain indoors to escape from the unrelenting heat.

Since the advent of June, Delhiites have been reeling from scorching heat with the last Saturday-- June 2--recording 44.1 degrees and the mercury settling around 44 degrees the next day. Frequent power outages in several areas of the national Capital have added to the woes of sweltering residents.

Even the minimum temperature has been hovering almost four to five degrees above normal since June 1.

Today the minimum was recorded at 32.8 degrees five degrees above normal, a degree less than yesterday's 33.5 degrees.

In absence of any respite from the hot and dry weather, the Met department had forecast a further rise in the temperature over north-west India, already in the grip of the heat wave. In Delhi, it predicted mainly clear sky with dust-storm or thunderstorm in some areas. The temperature was expected to settle around 45 degree.

New Delhi, June 9
Delhi transport department today launched the CNG bus service from Red Fort to Fatehpuri and from Fountain to Old Delhi Railway Station.

A total of 15 buses have been made operational on the routes. Of them, 10 will ply between Red Fort and Fatehpuri and five from Fountain to Old Delhi railway station.

The service has been launched for 15 days as a trial. The amount to be charged by the buses has been fixed at Rs 5 per passenger. The move was resisted by rickshaw-pullers who feel it will affect their livelihood. Wholesale markets of various goods are located in Chandni Chowk, Khari Baoli, Fatehpuri and other adjoining areas. Rickshaws are not allowed to come on main road of Chandni Chowk. Only on streets, rickshaws are allowed.

The Delhi government has launched the bus services following a direction from the court as the area was very congested and was difficult to move on roads. Before taking this decision, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi passed a resolution appealing to the Delhi government to launch bus service to avoid traffic snarls in Chandni Chowk, main market of the walled city.

New Delhi, June 9
The police yesterday arrested a man in North-West Delhi for allegedly abducting a woman and fraudulently marrying her.

Manoj, who was facing kidnapping charges for allegedly abducting Savita (name changed) in 2002, had married her four years later with the aim of forcing her to withdraw criminal charges against him, the police said. Manoj, who was allegedly already married, then started living with Savita in his rented house in Aman Vihar in Sultan Puri.

Faridabad, June 9
The shortage of power and water has caused unrest among the residents in both the rural and urban areas.

While the residents of two villages of Palwal region resorted to blocking the traffic on the main roads against the short supply of power and water, it is reported that this could have been due to a clash between the villagers and the employees of the power department. Some employees of the power department had been allegedly beaten up by the residents of Gulavath and Aurangabad recently.

The employees union had staged a demonstration in Palwal town yesterday and demanded arrest of the accused who had been involved in beating up the employees and holding them hostage in the village a few days ago.

The residents of Chandhut village in this subdivision had staged a blockade on Palwal-Aligarh Road yesterday on the same issue.

The villages where the residents came out on roads today include Ratipur and Bamnikhera. The residents alleged that they had been facing inconvenience due to non-supply of power that had also affected the supply of drinking water in the village. While the villagers at Ratipur disrupted the traffic on Palwal-Hathin Road for about an hour, the traffic on National Highway Number Two, also known as Mathura Road, was affected adversely as the residents of Bamnikhera, located about 8 km from Palwal towards Hodal, stopped the traffic on both sides. The blockade was lifted after intervention by the authorities who promised a remedy to their problem.

The total number of road blockades on shortage of water and power in the district has reached to four in the past three days.

Two such protests have turned violent and the police had to use force to disperse the mob.

Faridabad, June 9
There has been an unusual delay in action taken against the accused in a land scam that was exposed in March this year. The state government, including the Director-General of Police, Haryana, had ordered an inquiry, asking for strict action against the persons responsible for selling the land that had been acquired by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) near Ankhir village here. Though a case was booked under various sections of the IPC in this regard and the inquiry report submitted by the CIA here indicted several persons, including certain HUDA officials and the office of the tehsildar for the fraud, no arrest was made by the police.

Some of the land involved in the scam had been sold through a draw held here recently. The expose was carried in the columns of this newspaper on March 29. The scam came to light when Vimal Bhatia, a resident of Indira Enclave near Sector 21- D here, entered into an agreement to buy a plot measuring about 108 sq yards located in a privately carved colony near Ankhir village in the vicinity of Sector 48 of HUDA.

According to the complainant, while the owner of the plot did not execute the sale deed, the inquiry into the matter led to the revelation that the land for the plot had been acquired by HUDA. It was reported that while the owner of the land had taken compensation from HUDA against the land acquired this was being sold in an illegal manner and on the basis of forged documents. In response to the complaint lodged with the state government, an inquiry was ordered into the matter.

Bhagat Ram of the CIA- III of the police department who was asked to conduct an inquiry reported that the complaint was genuine and recommended action against officials of HUDA, the owner of the land whose land had been acquired by the HUDA and the tehsildar.

Gurgaon, June 9
Gurgaon district can now boast of a village which has a toilet in each household.

The district administration claims Ransika in Pataudi area emerges as the first village to achieve this success under the Total Sanitary Campaign, a scheme of the central government which is implemented by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) in each district.

The achievement was announced by the district administration at a workshop on the campaign. Sarpanches, panches and block development officers (BDOs) took part in it. Also, a representative of the World Bank attended the workshop.

As per the commitment of the administration, the panchayat of Ransika will get an award of Rs 1 lakh from the government.

The achievement is also being toasted by the administration as the sarpanch of the village is a woman. This development means the campaign against defecation in public in the village has succeeded.

Speaking at the workshop, the sarpanch, Lakshmi Devi, said she and other panches were inspired by the motivational talk given by the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, during his public durbar in Pataudi.

The district administration apprises the state government about the success of the campaign. The state government then informs the Centre about the development. A central team visits the village to ascertain the claim and subsequently ratifies it for the record. It is a nationwide campaign launched by the Centre to improve the human index and social factors.

The sarpanch said there were 113 houses in the village and so far 117 toilets had been set up. This year, 60 such villages in the state were selected for the award (Gram Puraskar) for total eradication of defecation in public but none of the villages from Gurgaon district figured in the award list.

This is despite the fact that a major chunk of the district has been witness to urbanisation and modernisation. Hence, right from the district administration to the state Capital the buzz was about failure on the part of official machinery and elected representatives in the villages in motivating the public.

The strong feeling in official circles here is two more villages will soon achieve the status of 100 per cent eradication of the malaise of defecation in public.

Gurgaon, June 9
Following the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the district administration has assured the industrialists and the affected residents that the service road of 18-feet would be constructed along the railway over bridge at Daultabad railway crossing.

Daultabad Road Industrial Area Association had pleaded before the High Court that a 3-metre service road, as planned by the administration, was not sufficient because this narrow lane could not bear the heavy traffic movement for industries and thousands of residents. Not to speak of heavy traffic, even public utilities vehicles such as ambulances and fire brigade vehicles cannot move on the stretch in case of any eventuality, pointed out Rupesh Jain, general secretary of the association.

Randhir Singh, Additional Attorney General of Haryana, had contended in the court that sometime may be given so that modalities of extending the width of the road from 3 metres could be chalked out keeping in view the ground realities.

"Let the meeting takes place and decision be taken within a period of four weeks so that width of service road is extended to a minimum 18 feet," stated the Chief Justice of the High Court in his order.

It further adds, "No parking, loading, unloading of vehicles or any kind of encroachments shall be allowed to take place by Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner on the service road till the alternative route, which according to the state counsel had already been provided, is made operational, as the construction of flyover has already taken place".

The DC, Rakesh Gupta held a meeting with senior superintendent of police (SSP), sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), superintending engineer (SE) PWD, executive engineer (XEN) PWD, deputy general manager (Electricity), tehsildar, executive officer (EO) Municipal Council and representatives of industrial association last evening to resolve the long pending issue.

Gupta directed the police department to depute at least one constable permanently to manage the vehicle movement there. The DC further directed the Municipal Council to remove all encroachments on the service road immediately. The electricity department was also told to dismantle the electric pole on the road.

Gupta assured that all efforts would be made by the district administration to provide best possible facilities for the industries and the residents. "Best quality infrastructures have been planned for the city so that citizens get international level amenities here," said the DC, adding that the industries and the residents should also understand their social responsibilities and cooperate with the district administration. 

New Delhi, June 9
A delegation of Gujjar leaders led by Delhi unit president of the Nationalist Congress Party leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri today submitted a memorandum to the Union home minister Shivraj Patil, demanding that direction be issued to all state governments to desist from lodging false cases against members of Gujjar community and put an end to the harassment. Later, the delegation met the Delhi police commissioner and sought an assurance that no deliberate and biased action should be taken against the Gujjars in the national Capital. Later they sat on dharna at Rajghat in protest against police 'atrocities' on Gujjars. —OC