New Delhi, July 10
Taking suo motu cognisance of the recent deaths in accidents involving Blueline buses, the Delhi High Court today sought explanation from the government of the National Capital territory of Delhi.

A division bench comprising justice Mukul Mudgal and justice P K Bhasin issued notice to the government and directed it to file a reply stating what action it was planning to take to control the menace.

The court asked as to why the Supreme Court guidelines regarding speed limit and prohibiting overcrowding of buses are being allowed to be flouted. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was also filed yesterday in the court seeking direction to the Delhi government to remove all buses which are more than three-year-old within one month.

New Delhi, July 10
The commuters are at the receiving end as the transport department takes action against Blueline buses for violating traffic rules. A huge rush was seen today at various bus stops due to non-availability of transport.

Of the total 4,200 Blueline buses, 600 buses are already off the road. As many as 250 buses have been impounded.

Santosh Kumar, a resident of the Badarpur area, said, "In our area, already a few buses ply. Now the situation has become bad to worse."

The residents of the Capital are facing inconvenience while going to their workplaces. "Buses get so packed that passengers can be seen standing on footsteps of the gate. It may lead to major accidents any time," Santosh said.

Savita Khanna, a school teacher in Mayur Vihar, said, "Before taking action against the erring Blueline buses, the government should have made alternate arrangement. If a majority of buses are impounded, what will happen to commuters? We do not have alternate mode of transport. Travel by auto proves costly. Metro is not everywhere. In crowded buses, women commuters suffer more. Pick pocket incidents will also increase in crowded buses." Zareen Haleem, a resident of Jamia Nagar, said, "In absence of Blueline buses, people are opting for phat-phat sewa," she said.

Meanwhile, an official of the transport department said that permits of one hundred Blueline buses had been cancelled and licences of scores of drivers had been punched. A total of 604 drivers have been challaned. He said the department would invite tenders from corporate houses for 1,000 buses day after tomorrow.

New Delhi, July 10
Delhi University has come out with its fourth cut-off list for admission to various under-graduate courses. Among the earliest to declare the fourth cut-off on Monday were the Sri Venkateswara College, Acharya Narendra Dev College, Hindu College, Kirori Mal College and Ramjas College.

Admissions to some popular courses like B. Com (Hons) and Economics (Hons) have been closed in almost all colleges. At Sri Venkateswara College, admissions have been closed for most of the courses except for B.A. (Hons) Sociology at 83 per cent for Arts students and 87 per cent for students from other streams, for BA (Hons) Hindi at 62 per cent and for BA (Hons) Sanskrit at 45 per cent.

Seats at Hindu College are available in B.Sc. (Hons) Zoology at 82 per cent and B.Sc. (Hons) in Botany for 71 per cent.

The cut-offs for science courses have dropped by 2-5 per cent in all colleges. At Ramjas, the drop was 5 per cent in Botany and 4 per cent in Chemistry.

At Hansraj and Hindu, there is a dip of 2 per cent each in Botany and Zoology while at Dyal Singh there is a dip of 2 per cent each in Physics, Chemistry and Botany.

At Kirori Mal, Physics (Hons) and Chemistry (Hons) are being offered at 81 per cent and 74 per cent, respectively. Apart from these two, Sri Venkateswara College has declared a fourth cut-off list in courses like Botany (Hons), Zoology (Hons), B.Sc. Life Science and B.Sc. (Hons) Biological Science.

Admissions to Physics (Hons) and Chemistry (Hons) have been closed at Hans Raj, Hindu and Shivaji but they are still available at Acharya Narendra Dev, Dayal Singh, Deshbandhu, Motilal Nehru and Rajdhani College.

Botany (Hons) can be pursued at Hans Raj with 68 per cent, for 71 per cent at Hindu and at Daulat Ram College with 68.3 per cent.

This is the last formal cut-off yet some colleges will advertise fresh admissions and cut-offs on their notice boards for admission to a few programmes depending upon the availability of seats.

All eligible candidates are required to complete their admission formalities in the concerned colleges between July 11 and 13.

Ghaziabad, July 10
A student returning from her college was allegedly gang-raped by five youths in Modi Nagar.

As the victim stepped out from the college gate, three youths living in her neighbourhood met her. One of them offered to take all of them for a treat to celebrate his birthday.

At the restaurant, the group was joined by two other men. After consuming food, she fell unconscious. When she regained conscious, she found herself in a room with hands and feet tied. The youths raped her taking turns. Though the police has registered a report, but no action has been taken so far. The victim's family members met the SSP and demanded action against the guilty. They said the police had registered the case but no action had been taken against the five accused.

The SSP, Ghaziabad, however, assured the victim's family that the accused would soon be arrested. 

New Delhi, July 10
The special cell of the Delhi Police has seized counterfeit currency notes of Rs 5 lakh in the denomination of Rs 500 concealed in a bag. Two persons, Vivek Chaudhry and Kuldeep Grover, have been arrested in this connection.

On July 9, an information was received by the police that a consignment of fake currency notes would be exchanged near Gurudwara, East Vinod Nagar. A police trap was laid and the alleged accused were apprehended. According to the police, the group used to operate in Delhi and the neighbouring areas.

New Delhi, July 10
To check the 'Khosla Ka Ghosla' type of land mafia notoriety, the Delhi Police has issued certain guidelines for people interested in buying land.

After the arrest of Sri Niwas Sharma, promoter, chairman and managing director of the Rajshree group, the anti-land and building racket wing of the crime branch has observed trends in the cases related to property deals.

A.K. Govil and Amit Yadav allegedly entered into a deal with the Rajshree group and purchased 300 plots measuring 67500 sq. yards.

For this, an advance payment of Rs 71 lakh was made by the complainant through two cheques.

On demanding the relevant documents in respect to the land in question, the alleged party skirted the issue. Subsequent verification revealed that misrepresentation had been made on the part of the accused.

Even the brochure of the land had been changed and the new distance of the place was more than the stated , from all the prominent places, the complainants alleged.

"There is manifold growth in property rates, leaving an impression on public that investment in properties, particularly the upcoming township projects is an easy and shortcut way of earning huge profits," say the police guidelines. "Under the influence of the rising trends in the property rates, thousands of people have invested in property market.

This has given an opportunity to the most clever land mafia." There are a few very important points, a person has to keep in mind before investing in any property. First, one should always decide whether one is planing for a commercial property or a residential one.

The company must be registered, a general common enquiry from other investors and land visits can tell a lot about the reliability of the firm.

The rules and regulations of the state one is planing to invest in should be read thoroughly as the project has to be registered with the state government and the state government license in regard to the particular project must be checked. 

Noida, July 10
Alleging negligence by doctors in the treatment of a 12-year-old boy who had died in the hospital, family and relatives of the boy created a ruckus at the government hospital in sector 30 in Noida, demanding the arrest of the doctors.

The family and friends of the deceased sat on a dharna up to 2 pm and the police from sector 20 had to be called to maintain peace. On the family's demand, the post-mortem of the deceased was got done from Ghaziabad instead of Noida. The CMS has also ordered video-recording of the postmortem.

The police, sector 20 have registered a case of negligence against the doctors who had treated the boy.

Shahabuddin, 12, son of Niammuddin, a rikshaw-puller and a resident of Nithari village, sector 31, Noida had died in the government hospital on Monday during treatment of diarrhoea. Early on Monday morning, when his condition deteriorated, doctor on emergency duty put the boy on ventilator, drip and other life-saving system. But Shahabuddin died with in 45 minutes. The family of Shahabuddin alleged negligence by doctors and created a commotion at the hospital.

According to the mother of the boy, Zahira Khatun, they had brought the boy to the hospital on Sunday evening and inspite of their requests no treatment was started by the doctors. The family alleged that the doctor had demanded Rs 500 from them for starting the treatment of the boy. The CMO Dr Vindoe Kumar, however, said there was no truth in the allegation of negligence. The pulse and blood pressure of the boy had gone very low as a result of which he had become unconscious and could not be saved, inspite of putting on ventilator and life saving medicines, he added.

Faridabad, July 10
Hundreds of Anganwadi workers and their helpers from the district took part in the one -day nationwide strike today .They are demanding regularization of their services and implementation of other pending demands.

The worker held demonstrations at Hodal, Palwal and Ballabgarh towns in the district. They burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Ballabgarh. A memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister was ,however ,submitted to the SDM here.

According to Devendari Sharma, president of the district unit of the Anganwadi Workers Union, the Prime Minister had assured of a proper response to their demands in a meeting held on August 3, last year, after the workers staged an indefinite fast in New Delhi from July 25, 2006 . Their demands government employee status and the minimum wage instead of a paltry honorarium of Rs 1400 and 700 per month ,respectively. There are over three lakh such workers in the country. They number 30000 in Haryana .In Faridabad district they are 2000.

The honorarium given to the workers was released from the financial aid provided by the union government in running its child and woman development projects, which had been started way back in 1975. A committee had been set up on the directions of the Prime Minister in October last year to look into the demands, the matter was again raised by the workers union during the last meeting with him on April 10. The matter was handed over to the union ministry of child and women development, but nothing concrete came out .This led to the strike today.

Urmila, another representative of the workers ,claimed that while the project of child development had been on for the last 32 years, Since the minimum wages of an industrial worker in the state had been raised to Rs. 3510 per month, but the honorarium of Anganwadi workers and helpers remained unchanged. She demanded Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50000 as retirement benefit for the Worker and Helper ,respectively.

New Delhi, July 10
After bringing the private retail chains selling fruit and vegetables under the tax ambit, the Delhi government is now considering a similar step for big private milk suppliers operating in the city.

Contending that milk and milk products are under its purview, the government has sent a proposal to Agricultural Produce Marketing Board (APMB) to include players like Mother Dairy, Gagan, Parag and Paras in the tax ambit, saying they cannot get away without paying one per cent cess. A committee of the APMB in its recent meeting urged the government to notify milk products to tighten the noose around the big milk suppliers asking them to pay the cess as per the AMPB Act.

The committee has already initiated a move to tax big sweet manufacturers to pay tax on 'khoya' consumption which they are allegedly purchasing from the open market.

Gurgaon, July 10
The hoteliers of the state, most of them from Gurgaon and Faridabad, today met here and decided to challenge the decision of the Haryana government to impose luxury tax on hotel rooms in the durbar of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The meeting was held under the aegis of the Hotel and

Restaurant Association of Haryana(HRAH).Participants in the meeting, presided over by HRAH president Col. Manbeer Choudhary, lamented that room bookings for foreigners starts by June-July for the August -September season .The tax comes into effect from August 1.As the bookings have already been done on the existing rates, the industry will suffer a loss to charge as per the revised rates post-facto. Hotel room tariff of Rs 2000 per day will come under the ambit of the new tax. The hoteliers urged the government to put the implementation of its decision on hold for the time being.