New Delhi, July 24
The affluent youngsters in the city are not keeping their adventurous side to themselves. They have come out literally on the streets to flaunt their wheels.

Over a hundred bikers zoomed through the lanes of Connaught Place on Monday, displaying various stunts and having fun at the expense of the ones, who had to involuntarily witness the drama.

“Almost every Saturday night, the roads, well maintained and wide, in and around Connaught Place are turned into racetracks by these young racers, most of whom come from West Delhi to offer prayers at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib,” said a senior police official.

On Monday, even the police became a silent spectator to the Bollywood action on roads of Connaught Place. “The police had no choice, the bikers had overpowered them in number. Its amazing how some hundred people can take the city for hostage and people become helpless,” said an eyewitness.

“It’s a total hooliganism. These people have got easy money and so, they feel that everything is at their disposal. The responsibility that come with hard work is absent,” said Achint, who rides a bike to his office everyday. The youngsters had come to Jain Dhaba at around 3 am after attending the Gurudwara Banglasaheb Gurupurab celebrations.

According to the police sources, the youngsters abused families gathered at the restaurants around and beat up the Dhaba owner when he informed them that the Dhaba was shut.

“After harassing the public around the Dhaba, the youth came down to the Gole Dak Khana to wait for their friends,” said the police official. “This was the time when we got the information. The entire area was cordoned off and 15 PCR vans were deployed to nab them.” However, the bikers started throwing stones on the police vehicles and damaged the camera of one of the media persons.

Meanwhile, the police has claimed to have arrested them and the court remanded them to 14 days judicial custody.

New Delhi, July 24
Commuters continued to be at the receiving end for the second day of the week today as most of the Blueline buses remained off the roads, as they were yet to get the requisite clearances from the authorities.

The scenes at the bus stops and other places were a repeat of yesterday with over crowded buses and auto rickshaws on over charging spree.

In a drive launched three days ago by the state government, only 950 Blueline buses of total 3,800 buses have been able to get clean chit from the transport officials so far to ply on the road. Altogether about 3,500 buses, including 950 Bluelines buses, were operating on the Delhi roads.

Today, a total of 558 Blueline buses were scanned. Of these, 364 have been declared fit. The buses are being checked at Wazirpur, Rohini-II, BBM-I and II, Maya Puri, Hari Nagar, Sriniwaspuri, East Vinod Nagar and Burari fitness centre. A total of 1,272 Blueline buses will ply on road from tomorrow. The enforcement personnel have impounded 1,526 TSRs for over-charging. Besides, 16,762 challans have been issued against the auto-rickshaws.

About 1,100 DTC buses ferrying schoolchildren would be available for the general public after school hours, according to a senior transport official. Yesterday, 250 Blueline buses were cleared by the DTC officials for running on the roads, while more were queuing up at the depots to get their vehicles repaired, the official said.

He added that most of the buses were either devoid of speed governors or having defects due to which they were not able to get the green signal for plying. The official said that the special drive at its 10 depots across the city would continue as hundreds of Bluelines buses were to get the clearance certificate. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had on Friday issued directions that the private fleet should not be allowed to ply unless they conformed to all norms like installing speed governors.

Meanwhile, in order to impose some kind of traffic discipline, the Delhi government is contemplating action against pedestrians, if they are found flouting road rules. “Our priority would be to make pedestrians aware of the road-safety rules. But if needed, we might consider action against them,” Dikshit told reporters here on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting yesterday. It may be the last option to penalise the pedestrians for violating the safety norms, she said.

Replying to a query on safety of the public on road, she said traffic police had been asked to educate people about traffic-related issues. A special drive would be launched to make people use foot-over-bridges and subways. Delhi transport minister Haroon Yusuf has said that government was planning to install global positioning system to monitor Blueline buses, traffic jams.

Ghaziabad, July 24
After the alleged bungle in Agra University answer books, the unchecked answer books of the main examination of Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, have been recovered from heaps of litter at the evaluation centre in SSV Postgraduate College, Hapur.

A team led by Meerut University vice-chancellor S.K. Chaturvedi reached Hapur. A decision has been taken to file a case against three and seal the evaluation centre, it is learnt.

Though it was not clear against whom the case is being filed, college principal R.D. Sharma is perceived to be guilty.

Meanwhile, a lecturer of SSV PG College, Hapur, had filed a report with the police that six answer books were missing which had been given to examiner B.S. Raghav of Pilkhua.

SSV College was one of the evaluation centres of Meerut University where answer books of recently conducted main examinations were brought for evaluation.

But the answer books of B.A. political science Ist year code A-139 were found in the heap of waste in the college compound. Some of the answer books were shown by students to media persons. Some of them had not been even checked.

The answer books carried the serial No A-842043, O-605384, A-08442050, 0605391, A-0842052, 0605393, A-0842051, 0605392, A-08442049, 0605390, A-842040 and 0605381.

Quite a few answer books had been taken away by some students, it was alleged. It is feared that similar bungle might be repeated in other evaluation centres also.

Faridabad, July 24
A fraud of over Rs 17 crore has been unearthed here following an investigation into the mortgaging of a land to the Haryana Financial Corporation (HFC) for acquiring loan.

The Haryana Financial Corporation (HFC) thus stands to lose this whopping amount as at least two acres of land shown as collateral security by the loan applicant had actually been the property of HUDA, which had been acquired before the loan was sanctioned.

The loan beneficiary had also been recently booked in a case of another fraud connected with the alleged illegal sale of a land which had also been acquired by HUDA near Ankhir village here.

According to a report, this scam concerned with HFC loan has perhaps been a sequel of the earlier fraud connected with the illegal sale of HUDA land and for which an FIR under Section 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120- B of the IPC had been booked on June 14, 2007 in the Central Police Station here against six persons, including three women.

The complaint had been lodged by local residents Vijay Sharma and Vimal Bhatia, after they found that a plot which they wanted to buy from certain persons had already been acquired by HUDA and the selling party had been trying to sell them on forged papers. While this racket involved a land of about 96 canals and 14 marlas, the complainants learnt that the main accused of this scam had also been involved in another racket in which he had owed about Rs 17.62 crore to the HFC, for which he had mortgaged certain land and property which was on paper only.

The details sought through the RTI Act revealed that a patch of land measuring about two acres had actually been acquired by HUDA, but was shown as part of collateral security by the accused while taking loan from the HFC for industrial unit in Sector-25 here.

It is alleged in a complaint to the authorities concerned that besides two acres of land, the accused had also sold a house in Sector-16 which had also been mortgaged to the HFC for the loan.

The CIA cell of the police had started an enquiry into the matter after the managing director of the HFC had written a letter to the deputy commissioner, Faridabad on February 22, 2006, for recovery of over Rs 12 crore from the party from the said securities shown by the loan beneficiary in the papers. But the officials were shocked when they found that neither the land nor the house shown as security had been the property of the applicant.

According to ongoing investigation while the land in question had been acquired by HUDA on May 5, 1993, the HFC mortgaged this land against the loan in 1994, perhaps without carrying out proper verification of the property shown as collateral security.

Meanwhile, the local police have failed to arrest four of the accused involved in earlier scam concerning the HUDA land, though two other got the anticipatory bail from the High Curt till September 24.

New Delhi, July 24
With the arrest of two tantriks, Mohd Zakir, 25, and Faruq Malik, 48, the south district claimed to have nailed the network of tantriks involved in exploitation of innocent people.

On July 23, a lady complainant reported that she had read an advertisement in a newspaper in June, where a tantrik at Wazir Nagar had claimed all solutions to domestic and physical problems.

After two days, she contacted the tantriks as she was having a domestic problem. When she met the tantriks, both of them demanded Rs 10,000 for a solution.

The complainant arranged the money and was asked to come next Monday, as blessings of their guru works only on Mondays.

When the complainant visited the tantriks on the stipulated date, they asked her to arrange Rs 11,000 more, as demanded by their guru. The complainant sold out her jewellery and paid the money.

Later, she again visited the tantriks along with her two friends and told them that the problems have only increased. The tantriks then called her inside a room and tried to molest her. However, the complainant raised the alarm. Two of her friends, waiting outside the room, entered the room and saved her.

According to the police, Mohd Zakir and Faruq Malik had opened their office at Yusuf Sarai before. On checking the registered maintained by them, it was found that so far, they have cheated more than 85 persons and a majority of them were women.

Greater Noida, July 24
The work on Taj Expressway project is expected to start soon as the proposal for acquisition of land in 30 villages en route has been sent to the administration.

As soon as the proposal from one remaining village in Noida is sent and approved, the work on Taj Expressway project will start apace. The administration has meanwhile asked for fixing a timeframe for acquiring the land.

Director, Land Acquisition, will henceforth review the progress of acquisition at district level so that the construction work is initiated as soon as the land is acquired.

The process of land acquisition has already started, with the proposal of land acquisition having been sent to the government, officials say.

The Greater Noida Authority and the Taj Expressway Authority have sent the proposal for acquisition of land in 30 villages to the government. These 30 villages in question lie in Mathura district. In all, the proposal for land acquisition in 84 villages was sent to the government last week.

This leaves the lone village in Gautam Budh Nagar where land acquisition has not been taken up as consolidation work is in progress.

Meanwhile, the process of land acquisition has gathered speed after orders were issued by the government to that effect.

Previously proposals for land acquisition had been hanging fire for months together. Proposals for land in 17 villages, under clause 4 and two villages under clause 6 were held up for the last one year at various stages.

Similarly, the case of 16 villages of Noida Authority is also pending in Lucknow.

The state government while viewing the work process has ordered that a timeframe be decided at every stage in this process so that land acquisition is accomplished speedily.

The administration has now ordered that at every stage 15 days for clause 4 and one week for clause 6 should be the timeframe.

New Delhi, July 24
In a surprising development, the Ashok Ganguly Committee has recommended a common admission system for government schools in the Capital.

This promises a major change for government schools in the Capital. The proposal recommends that nursery classes should be introduced in all government schools and it also specifies that only children with the standard age of four years are eligible for the entry. The minimum age for children entering class 1 would be five.

The recommendations will form part of the discussion proposed for the next Cabinet meeting likely to be held on Thursday.

If the nursery classes are introduced in government schools, it will be a big change from the existing system wherein these schools have classes starting from Class 1.

Further, a mechanism aimed at ensuring the least interference in the working of private schools is also being looked into.

New Delhi, July 24
Delhi police has arrested an alleged dreaded criminal with a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head.

The criminal was allegedly wanted in a murder case by the Punjabi Bagh police station.

According to police, an information was received that the alleged criminal Satyawan will come from Keshav Dwar side armed with weapon and will go towards Lawrence Road. A police raiding party laid a trap near Keshav Dwar.

At about 4 pm, Satyawan was seen and was asked to stop. Satyawan allegedly tried to resist and escape but was overpowered by the raiding party. On search, an English made pistol of .32 bore was recovered from his possession, the police claimed.

According to the police, on interrogation, he allegedly confessed to have committed a murder in Punjabi Bagh area and was wanted in that case.

New Delhi, July 24
The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi University (DU) to reserve seats for the physically handicapped students in health care administration course under the management studies.

Disposing of a petition filed by Poonam Dahiya, a handicapped student, seeking direction to the faculty MBA studies to get her admission in the course, Justice B D Ahmed said, “In future, the university shall reserve at least one seat and carry out the mandate prescribed under the Delhi University guidelines.”

The court however, did not allow Poonam to get admission in the three-year course for the academic session 2007-2010, saying that she did not approach this court on time.

“If admission is now granted to her, it would mean that the university would have to increase the intake of students by one. She would gain unfair advantage over the aspiring handicapped candidates who did not apply as there was no provision for reservation in the course,” Justice Ahmed said.

The Delhi High Court was hearing a petition filed by Poonam after she was denied admission for the course in the physically handicapped category on the ground that the application form did not mention about the handicapped category.

Noida, July 24
The farmers of Dadri villages have refused to give their land for 980 megha watt NTPC Project.

The farmers took this decision in a panchayat meeting on Monday, alleging that NTPC was trying to annex their land.

The farmers said their consent had not been taken for acquiring the land. They will not budge without meeting the top officers of NTPC, the panchayat declared.

In panchayat, farmers expressed fears that this time also, NTPC could ditch them. Farmers threatened to gherao Union Power Minister, Shushnt Kumar Shinde, in case NTPC does not care for their feelings.

It may be mentioned that two new units of 980 megha watt are proposed to be set up to meet the need for power in view of the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi in 2010. NTPC proposes to start power generation here after two years.

In 1987 when Dadri project was set up, NTPC gave many incentives and good terms to farmers for their land.

But even after 20 years, the angularities in the compensation package to the farmers have not been removed.

New Delhi, July 24
The Delhi Metro recorded its highest gross revenue on Monday with earning of Rs 84.61 lakh.

The Metro carried 7.24 lakh commuters, which is its second highest ridership.

The highest ridership of the Metro was 7.36 lakh, recorded on July 21, Saturday.

The gross revenue on that day was Rs 81.6 lakh.

Yesterday, 2.24 lakh commuters used Line 1 between Shahdara and Rithala, 2.20 lakh used Line 2 between Central Secretariat and Vishwa Vidyalaya and 2.79 lakh used Line 3 between Indraprastha and Dwarka Sector 9.

The Metro also recorded the highest number of smart card users yesterday at 2.81 lakh.