New Delhi, June 29
Hundreds of JNU students held a demonstration outside the administration block in the university in protest against the disciplinary action taken against 11 students.

Jyotsna, joint secretary, JNUSU, claimed, "The demonstration was very successful. The vice-chancellor finally had a meeting with us out there. However, the administration refused to budge from its stance and this is rather disappointing."

She said, "Though the students have been sitting on a relay hunger strike for the last five days, the administration has refused to relent from its position. The authorities have gone ahead and issued the eviction notice against students who have been rusticated. However, we are determined to oppose this."

Jyotsna added that, "The union viewed that the eviction notice will not be tolerated. We will not let out of bounds take place. There will be no physical eviction and no dragging of students out of the hostel."

The students have been sloganeering outside the hostels to prevent the eviction notice from coming into force.

The union is determined to intensify its agitation to get its demands fulfilled on the student eviction notice and the karamchari agitation. The union held a meeting late Friday evening to decide its future course of agitation and for intensification of the agitation. More action can be expected at JNU campus over the next few days.

New Delhi, June 29
BJP councillors today marched from Town Hall to Nirman Bhavan under the leadership of BJP Delhi Pradesh president Harsh Vardhan and Leader of MCD House Subhash Arya.

They were demanding complete abolition of conversion charge and parking fee. They were arrested at Kamla Market. All of them were released later.

Local traders and professionals welcomed the BJP councillors by garlanding them.

Terming the arrest as murder of the right to protest, Vardhan and Arya claimed under a planned conspiracy the Congress governments in the Centre and in Delhi were imposing taxes arbitrarily.

He said these taxes were beyond the capacity of professionals like doctors, advocates, architects, CAs, company secretaries, cost and works accountants, engineers, town planners, media professionals, documentary film-makers, retail shopkeepers and other service providers.

The Delhi BJP leaders warned Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy that he should abolish conversion charges and parking fee, otherwise the BJP would be compelled to take "stern steps".

The local leaders who were arrested today included Vardhan, Leader of the House Subhash Arya, Standing Committee Chairman Vijender Gupta, Vice-Chairman Yogender Chandoliya, Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa, Ved Gupta, Chairman of Various Zones, Anil Sharma, Jaikishan Gupta, Kanwar Sen, Ramesh Chauhan, Harbans Lal Uppal, Rohtash Singh, Avtar Singh Hit, Vijay andit, Suman Kumar Gupta, Braham Prakash, Purnima Vidyarthi and BJP councillors.

Gurgaon, June 29
The Haryana unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today launched a state-wide campaign 'March to the villages' from Gurgaon.

The national BJP leader and former union minister Vijay Goel, who is in charge of party affairs in Haryana, led the march and announced that the 'padyatra' would culminate in a state-level rally on October 27 in Rohtak, the home district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The 'padyatra' by BJP leaders started from Mahavir Chowk, passed through the main Saddar Bazar to Sohana Adda and halted for a public meeting at Khadsa village. The party state president Manchanda also took part in the march.

Vijay Goel demanded that the Haryana government should issue a 'white paper' on the position of power and water supply in the state.

He added that the residents, not only of Gurgaon but also of all parts of the state, were reeling under acute shortage of power and water.

He said that the march was part of the party's nation-wide campaign to fan out in the villages.

Goel asserted that the BJP would not make alliance with any political party during elections in the state.

Greater Noida, June 29
After a lapse of four years, the work on construction of the proposed international airport at Javer seems to have started.

The proposed airport will be part of the special economic zone being set up at Javer on 2,500 acres of land. The international airport will cover 1500 acres of land.

The proposal for the SEZ and the international airport was brought by the state government during 2002-03. But after the change of power at the state government, the projects were put on the shelf.

Now, these have been revised by the Chief Minister Mayawati who recently took up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a meeting.

A nod in principle was obtained by the Chief Minister from Manmohan Singh.

M/s. Ram Bill Consultants are understood have taken in hand the preparation of a project report in this connection which is expected to be ready by the first week of July.

The project report is likely to be submitted to the Centre by the state government in the second week of next month. With this, the process for land acquisition for the project will be taken in hand by the administration.

According to chairman of Noida and Greater Noida authorities Lalit Srivastava, the rules and framework for special economic zone were developed even five years ago, but now many changes have taken place. Thus, the DPR will be prepared keeping all the changes in view.

Srivastava said that airport would be located in Javer and would not be shifted to any other location like Mathura as Noida and Greater Noida had emerged as important industrial and commercial areas.

Faridabad, June 29
In its campaign to cut down power consumption and reduce wastage of electricity, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has planned to light up every house in villages of the district with a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) by December this year.

The nigam has already started facilitating the sale of such lamps at a subsidised price. Mavai, a village in the Old Faridabad zone here, which has about 155 households, has become the first village in the district to be provided with 100 per cent CFL bulbs instead of traditional bulbs.

A spokesperson for the nigam said all 360 villages in the district would be made CFL villages by December-end. This would result in massive saving of power as a CFL bulb consumes less power in comparison to the traditional bulb.

Admitting that the cost of a CFL may be higher than that of the traditional incandescent one, he claimed power bills, which had been an issue of concern for many, could be brought down drastically if a household used CFL bulbs as the consumption was reduced through its use.

Revealing that the cost of a CFL bulb could range between Rs 60 and Rs 120, depending upon the wattage capacity, the nigam spokesperson claimed the durability and lower bills could be economical for the consumer in the long run, besides being helpful to the department due to reduction in overall power demand in a region.

Regarding Mavai village, he said all 148 consumers in the village had replaced the incandescent bulbs with CFL ones. This was made possible due to the awareness campaign and the help provided by the village panchayat.

It is reported that while as many as 627 CFL bulbs were purchased by the villagers from the nigam's sale outlet about 200 such bulbs had already been used. About 361 old bulbs were handed over by the villagers to the team of the nigam.

The village has two transformers of 100 KV each and due to the CFL replacement move the overall load on these transformers had been reduced to 67 and 42 amperes from 142 and 11 amperes earlier. The total power consumption in this village had thus got halved, stated a nigam official.

The nigam authorities believe the power supply situation in rural parts of the district was likely to undergo a drastic change within the next six months due to the CFL campaign. Besides this, it is claimed the bifurcation of the rural and urban feeders, which had been on, would also provide much needed relief.

This would ensure at least 12 to 16 hours of power daily in rural areas.

Vijayendra Kumar, MD of the DHBVN, said the problem of power shortage and theft could be a thing of the past soon if the campaign went the right way with cooperation from all fronts, mainly consumers.

New Delhi, June 29
The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) will be actively involved in the planning and execution of the projects by the proposed Delhi Vision Group to be set up by the Delhi administration.

The proposed group will act as a think tank for generating ideas and schemes for the planned development for the growing metropolis for 30 years from now.

The invitation to participate in the proposed group was extended to the PHDCCI when its senior members, led by president Sanjay Bhatia called on Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna earlier this month.

"The discussion was focussed around a host of issues including forthcoming Commonwealth Games, traffic management, Delhi Master Plan, setting up of a state-of-the-art Convention and Exhibition Centre of Dwarka," Bhatia said.

The PHDCCI has taken up the issues relating to the use of residential premises by professionals, redefinition of household industries and enforcement of the Apartment Ownership Act in Delhi.

The Lt Governor referred to the proposed setting up of a Delhi urban regulatory authority with experts as its members to continuously monitor the implementation of the Master Plan.

He also informed that the Delhi assembly is proposing to bring out a Bill on the Enforcement of Apartment Ownership Act which underscored the need for speedy setting up a Delhi real estate commission, which among other things, should take up digitisation of land records.

Regarding the Master Plan, the chamber representatives pointed out that there were number of policy issues that had to be settled, particularly the work on zonal plans, which had yet to commence.

The zonal plans, the Lt Governor pointed out, would be in place in one year's time. A tribunal was also being formed to consider various issues and handle public grievances.

Regarding the organisation of the Commonwealth Games, the PHDCCI pointed out that there was need for utmost coordination amongst the different departments of the government viz the Delhi government, MCD and the DDA.

It was informed that a committee for monitoring the progress of the work had been constituted under the chairmanship of Lt Governor, which would meet every morning. Representatives of the PHDCCI would also be invited to the committee.

Bhatia pointed out that need for reassessing the role of the DDA and limiting it to an infrastructure provider from the present primary responsibility as a house provider, scientific handling of the management, developing Delhi as a knowledge and cultural central application of IT in traffic management, introducing feeder services to the Metro for improving the efficiency of the MRTS.

New Delhi, June 29
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today reiterated commitment of her government to provide all civic amenities including sewerage in all those 1,520 unauthorised colonies which were likely to be authorized soon.

While chairing the first meeting of the Board for Development of Unauthorized Colonies, Mrs Dikshit made it clear that her government would definitely find ways and means to expedite development works and remove bottlenecks simultaneously giving due regard to various observations of courts.

MLAs present in the meeting as special invitees, cutting across party lines, forcefully demanded implementation of 1977 policy of regularization, which had given relief to the residents.

The meeting was attended by vice-chairman of the Board and urban development minister A.K. Walia, chief secretary Ramesh Narayanswami, principal secretaries, other official members and 15 MLAs, including leader of opposition Jagdish Mukhi.

The Chief Minister called upon MLAs to present their suggestions and priorities relating to execution of developmental works in these colonies.

The cause of the suicide could not be ascertained. A paper found in a pocket of the deceased's clothes gave his address.

Apart from making the walled city attractive to visitors, the SPV, to be funded by the state government, would also make the area worth living for locals.

New Delhi, June 29
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in a meeting held here today directed the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and power distribution companies to maintain proper power and water supply in the NDMC area, including Gole Market assembly segment.

The issues relating to maintenance of government flats and upgradation of civic amenities were also discussed in the meeting.

The NDMC, CPWD and DJB have been instructed to work in tandem to ensure equitable distribution of drinking water. It has been decided to construct more underground reservoirs.

A plan of action is being prepared to replace old water pipelines which were laid when the entire area had single-storeyed quarters.

It has also been decided to replace damaged pipelines. The storage level of Talkatora Water Tank would be raised to maintain proper water supply in the area.

As far as electricity supply is concerned, it was reported that load consumption would go up by five times in 6,724 flats in Gole Market area.

It is expected to reach 22 MW as every flat would be requiring load of 3 KW as against 0.6 KW presently. It was decided to upgrade the entire system by 2008.

The disruption in electric supply was reported in the evening in residential areas whereas in commercial areas, it was reported during daytime.

Ms Dikshit stressed the need of proper coordination between the NDMC and the CPWD in providing uninterrupted power supply in the area.

The institute has been counting on the team to perform well in the final round. "We are geared up to face the challenge," said Gaurav Mishra.