New Delhi, July 5
The Delhi High Court today stayed the summons issued by a lower court against two accused in the Uphaar tragedy case for allegedly intimidating Neelam Krishnamoorthy, president of Association of Uphaar Tragedy Victims.

Justice B N Chaturvedi, after hearing the counsel of Sushil Ansal and Deepak Kathpali, stayed the order of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACCM) and issued notices to the NCT Government and Krishnamoorthy.

The court also directed the respondents (NCT Government and Neelam) to file their reply by November 13 when the matter would be taken up for hearing. ACCM Kamini Lau had issued summons to the Ansal brothers and their two employees, P S Sharma and Deepak Kathpali and directed them to appear before her on July 9. The ACCM had issued summons to them on a complaint of Krishnamoorthy, who alleged that she was abused and threatened by the two employees of Ansal brothers on May 10. Krishnamoorthy, who had lost her two minor children in the tragedy in which 57 others were asphyxiated during the screening of Hindi blockbuster 'Border' on June 13, 1997, alleged that her pictures were taken on May 10 when she was coming out of the courtroom after attending the proceedings.

The trial in the case has reached its end as the prosecution has completed the recording of evidence with the testimony of 115 witnesses.

The court here, in pursuance of the Delhi High Court's order to conclude the 10-year-old trial by August, is now hearing the final arguments in the matter on a day-to-day basis. 

New Delhi, July 5
Vijender Gupta, Chairman, Standing Committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), today claimed that the online system for depositing property tax introduced this year proved successful.

Giving details, Gupta disclosed that this year up to June 30, total property tax recovery was to the tune of Rs 392 crore which is Rs 55 crore more as compared to the last year during which up to June 30, Rs 337 crore were collected. In all, 5,06,874 property tax payers had filed their returns and deposited property tax. Of these, nearly one lakh property tax payers had paid their property tax on line. Out of these one lakh property tax payers, 36,000 tax payers made payment through credit cards and about 50,000 payers deposited property tax through cheques.

The total payment received through credit cards was to the tune of Rs 9.20 crore whereas about Rs 50 crore were received through cheques.

The chairman further disclosed that as compared to previous years, this year various government agencies had deposited their tax before June 30. This year up to June 30, Rs 20 crore were received from these agencies which is an all-time record. Gupta said that it was clear from the above data that owing to the efforts made by the MCD, awareness was visible amongst government agencies to deposit their tax on time. Next year other government agencies will also be encouraged to pay their tax by June 30.

Gupta disclosed that Property Tax Department of MCD was preparing a database which would enable it to identify those properties which are under tax net but their owners were not paying the property tax. When this database is prepared, the record of property tax deposited by every property tax payer could be identified with the click of a button.

Gupta further said that efforts were being made to increase the number of counters for receiving property tax. During the next financial year, cyber cafes situated in various parts of Delhi will be authorized to receive the tax. MCD will register such cyber cafes.

Faridabad, July 5
Besides regular maintenance and service works, the Haryana urban Development Authority(HUDA) plans to start development projects worth Rs 180 crore in the city in the next one year period. These include development of some sectors, construction of two over -bridges and a railway under -pass and an indoor stadium.

The biggest project in terms of funds is the construction of low -cost dwelling units under the Ashiana scheme for the urban poor. The department has proposed to spend an amount of Rs 64 crore on this scheme and it will be launched in Sector- 56 and Sector- 56- A. The plan and the estimate have been submitted to the chief engineer ,HUDA.

The second major project is the construction of the second carriage way byepass road to ease congestion on the National Highway (No 2). The byepass will run parallel to the eastern periphery on the rear of the sectors along the Gurgaon canal. This Rs 35- crore scheme had been hanging fire for the past several years. This road would also come as a major relief to the residents of new sectors developed by HUDA in Ballabgarh and the R- Zone located across the Gurgaon and Agra canals, and where the majority of private builders have their housing projects. The department also plans to spend Rs 26 crore on the augmentation of the water supply by 10 million gallon daily (MGD) .

The department has assigned consultancy works to a firm for the construction of a rail over -bridge on HUDA bye -pass near Sector- 59 here, on which Rs20 crore was likely to be spent. Another over -bridge at Bhadkhal railway crossing and an under -bridge at Old Faridabad railway crossing will also be constructed after the railway ministry clears the project. The total cost on these two schemes was likely to be Rs 15.5 crore.

New Delhi, July 5
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today announced the opening of Government Engineering College at Jaffarpur and commencement of session 2007-2008.

Dikshit said that opening of the college at Jaffarpur is also a step towards fulfilling the commitment of her government towards development of rural areas.

The All India Council of Technical Education has approved the college affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University for two undergraduate B.Tech courses from this academic year (2007-08) with an intake of 60 students in each stream. The college will offer BTech in civil engineering and information technology. Counseling will start tomorrow.

The college is planning to offer about five different engineering courses with students' strength of 1200 and plans to develop it as a center of excellence in civil engineering and related fields. 

Gurgaon, July 5
A thief who had stolen three small items had to run away midway from the back door when the owners appear on the scene. However, he failed to take back his bike which he had parked outside the house. An advocate came into picture and tried to shield the thief but he was also arrested.

Haryana police arrested the advocate and his assistant for allegedly conspiring with a thief who had committed a burglary in a house at DLF Phase III.

The police spokesperson informed that a thief had entered a house when there was no one in it after parking his motorcycle a day before yesterday. He broke almirahs and was taking a gold chain, a ring and a mobile phone in his possession when he heard the sound of owners coming to home. He took these three things and ran away from the back door. The owners informed the police about the burglary.

The police reached the spot, found the abandoned motorcycle and took it into their custody. However, the plot thickened yesterday. Anand Prakash, an advocate, called the police station and claimed that he would return all three stolen goods and demanded that the motorcycle of the thief Subhash be returned. He suggested to the police to resolve the case without going into legality.

The police laid the trap. Anand along with his assistant reached the police station to hand over the gold chain and ring and said that the mobile phone would also be returned as it was with Subhash at that time. Anand also handed over the motorcycle's key.

The police arrested the duo on charge of conspiring with a thief. Subhash was also arrested later. The duo got the bail from the court today while the thief's bail was rejected and he was sent in judicial custody.

Ghaziabad, July 5
In a land dispute, three criminals shot two brothers in Habeetpur village under Vijay Nagar police station of Ghaziabad yesterday. While one of the brothers died on the spot, the other is dangling between life and death in a Noida hospital. Angry villagers overpowered the fleeing criminals and lynched both of them.

According to SSP Deepak Rattan, Surender, son of Bir Singh of Habeetpur, had brought a tractor trolley loaded with concrete for his house. As he was about to unload the concrete from the tractor trolley, he had an altercation with three persons who had descended in a white car. During heated arguments, one of the car-borne assailants fired from a rifle, killing Surender on the spot.

Hearing the gunfire, Surender's brother Sanjay came out running for his rescue, he was also shot at. After shooting both the brothers, the assailants were about to flee, but the angry villagers who had gathered there, surrounded the car and attacked them with stones, bricks etc as the weapons of the assailants had got jammed.

One of the assailants was able to escape, while two were lynched by the villagers.

The SSP said police had reached the village on village pradhan's information. But the villagers had taken the two criminals to Fortis Hospital in Noida by that time. They were declared brought dead by doctors. Surender had recently come out of jail on bail in a murder case.

The SSP said both the parties belonged to the same caste and had a running feud between them. Police are trying to nab the third assailant.

Greater Noida, July 5
A foreign woman was robbed by three criminals on a Pulser motorcycle in Greater Noida. When she resisted she was reportedly beaten up also. A small crowd did collect there but as nobody understood her language, they could not guess as to what had happened.

A resident of M Block in Delta Sector, Eva Nozal staying with an NRI lady friend, had come for shopping to Gama Sector on Tuesday evening. She had come to see her NRI lady friend in Greater Noida a few days ago.

As she was walking along the road, three criminals on a black Pulser bike accosted her and robbed her of cash and cell phone at gunpoint. When she resisted the loot, the

criminals had beaten her up. A few people had gathered around her when she raised the alarm, but none could understand what she was complaining about. Later she filed a complaint in Kasna police station.

Bandits atop bikes keep lurking in the area in the evenings. Such loots are almost a daily occurrence. Chain and purse snatchings are also a common occurrence in the area. The police are handicapped for want of a faster vehicle.