New Delhi, July 25
Even as commuters continued to be at the receiving end for the third consecutive day today because of severe shortage of buses, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit claimed that the situation would be normal by next week.

"More and more buses are coming on the roads with fitness certificates from the government. Hopefully, the situation will be perfectly normal by next week," Dikshit told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Delhiites have been facing great difficulty for the third consecutive working day today as the majority of the Blueline buses stayed off the roads because of lack of mandatory fitness certificate from the authorities.

Dikshit had on Friday last directed that the Blueline buses would have to stay off the roads till they got a fitness clearance from the government.

Of a total 3,616 Blueline buses, a little over 1,000 plied while the DTC deployed over 2,500 buses but their combined strength failed to meet the commuters' demand during early hours. "We are taking several steps and the situation has been improving gradually", Dikshit said. Admitting that overspeeding by Blueline buses had become a matter of great concern for all since it took many lives on the roads, she said had there been control over speed, there would have been no necessity to install the speed governor on the buses.

"We had no idea how careless they are.

They have no right to overspeed and endanger the lives of people. They had no control over speed, so we had to intervene..., she said. 

New Delhi, July 25
Blueline bus operators expressed their confidence saying that the government had no alternative to their service and it will have to invite them to normalise bus service in the Capital. The Delhi Transport Corporation has only 3,100 buses which are not enough to commute the residents.

"On the pretext of accidents, banning Blueline buses is not fair. DTC buses are also involved in accidents," a Blueline spokesperson said.

"Bus drivers are not only responsible for accidents cases, the government should be held responsible as it has no planning to educate people about traffic rules. The Blueline operators have trained drivers. Even if the government is not satisfied, it should have a training programme for them", Gola, a bus operator said.

T. R. Khera, another bus operator, said that it was not possible to bring 6000 buses in a year because assembling a heavy vehicle was a tough job. Maximum 50 buses of normal body were assembled in one month. Low- floor bus bodies were complicated, and would take take more time for assembling.

As far as the kilometer scheme was concerned, he said that it was too early to give a definitive statement on the scheme. Rate of the CNG is Rs 19 per kg and 3 kg was spent on one kilometer drive.

The government policy should keep the gas rate and bus average in view, he said.

He said that kilometer scheme would be finalised at a cabinet meeting to be held tomorrow.

Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf said that the DTC already had 3,100 buses and 500 fleet of new buses would come till September. Tenders have been invited for 2,000 buses, which would be brought by next year. Apart from this the Blueline buses, which have been declared fit will also operate.

Giving his version the DTC Chairman Anshu Prakash said that buses are at the depots for shift change of drivers and conductors. Moreover they come back to the depots for maintenance including fuel and routine checks. A total of 200-250 buses are not in condition to ply on roads and some are running on diesel. A maximum number of buses have been pressed into service during the crisis, he said.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said that instead of concentrating on buses, the Delhi government should concentrate on Metro rail as this was the only solution of transport crisis in the national Capital. Population of the city is increasing every year.

Lakhs of people come every year from various states of the country. The government should make permanent arrangement of transport, he said.

Delhi unit president of the BJP Dr Harsh Vardhan said that due to withdrawal of DTC buses from schools and NCR region students and commuters coming from the neighbouring states are major sufferers of 
the crisis. 

New Delhi, July 25
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has cautioned the Capital's power transmission and distribution companies and consumers against any complacency with regard to availability of power. "We are just about turning around.

We are in a delicate situation and can turn right back, if we do not keep the trust that is beginning to show between the power authorities and the consumers", she said.

Inaugurating the FICCI conference on "Five years of Power sector Reforms in Delhi: A Review", the Chief Minister said the measures adopted so far have started yielding the desired results and from 2009, the National Capital Territory of Delhi will be power surplus.

Dikshit said that we needed to remain ever-vigilant as "the ingenious Indian mind has already brought out gadgets that can stop electronic power meters."

Such crime, she said, would be dealt with swiftly and sternly as we cannot afford to allow the atmosphere of understanding between discoms and consumers fail."

Haroon Yusuf, minister of power and transport, Delhi, pointed out that one of the most disturbing features of the pre-reform situation was the unconscionably high levels of T&D losses which had risen to around 50per cent. "While the target under the reform process was to reduce losses by 17per cent, the loss levels have come down to less than 24per cent in the NDPL area, to less than 30per cent in the BRPL area and to less than 40per cent in the BYPL area."

The minister announced that in the next four years, the Delhi government's aim was to bring down the T&D loss levels to around 15per cent.

He said Delhi had entered into power purchase agreements for sourcing power from the Damodar Valley Corporation, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation and the NTPC.

These would ensure that Delhi would be surplus in power 2009 onwards. Even in the current financial year, he said, adequate arrangements had been made to meet the Capital's power needs.

Yusuf said in order to achieve greater resilience, gas-based power plants have been planned to be set up within the NCT at Bawana and Bamnauli with a combined capacity of 2000 MW.

Clearances for the plant at Bawana have been obtained and the work on the ground would be taken up as soon as gas availability was assured.

Further, work on a new coal-based plant of 1500 MW has been taken up by the NTPC at Jhajjar, Haryana. This joint sector project, with the NTPC as the majority shareholder and Delhi and Haryana as minority partners, would make available 750 MW to Delhi.

The distribution licencees too have been asked to set up power plants in order to meet the load-growth beyond the year 2014, Yusuf said.

The inaugural session was also addressed by Rakesh Mehta, principal secretary (Power), Delhi; Lalit Jalan, chairman, BSES ,Delhi and Sunil Wadhwa, CEO, NDPL. 

New Delhi, July 25
The four-member committee constituted by the Woman and Child Development to look into the shocking complaint of alleged sexual abuse of a 10-year-old boy studying in a Delhi school will submit its report within two weeks.

WCD minister Renuka Chowdhury today said parents of the child had been running around from pillar to post for the past one year to get justice but without much success. "The incident is horrifying and shocking and we want to know why did the system take so long addressing the grievance," she said, adding that the committee would give its report within two weeks.

The committee, constituted to inquire into the complaint of Rajan Budhiraja regarding "child abuse and money extortion from his son", comprises WCD Joint Secretary Loveleen Kacker, NCW member Deepa Dixit, HAQ member Bharti Ali and Director Child welfare Kalyani Chadda. It held its first meeting today.

According to reports, the boy studying in a school in the northwest Delhi was sodomised for three months by three staffers of the school. His tormentors included a manager, a teacher and another employee. The parents came to know of the incident when the child became mentally and physically ill. After he was taken to the hospital, they learnt that the boy had become the victim of brutal sexual abuse and was being sodomised daily for past three months.

The child managed to identify his alleged abusers after which an FIR was also lodged.

Following this, two of the accused were arrested while the third is said to be absconding. According to the minister, not only did the two arrested persons join back at their work in school, they also started threatening the parents.

In response to the question on why did she intervene in a matter that clearly was a state matter, she said it was only when the parents found the system not moving in the right direction that they decided to approach the ministry. "Being a victim of sexual abuse, the child was traumatised.

The parents decided to approach me under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme. If nothing else, at least the system will get moving in the right direction for the parents who have now been running from pillar to post for the past one year to get justice. I also want to know where and how did the system fail to take care of a child who will now have to relive the horror of the abuse for days to come," she said.

New Delhi, July 25
The Delhi High court today pulled up subordinate courts for being insensitive in granting bail to people accused of minor offences.

People accused of minor offences are not released on bail. The courts are becoming insensitive. We have become used to prisoners languishing in the jail for years. We care only when the issue is highlighted, a division bench comprising Justices R S Sodhi and H R Malhotra said.

The courts comments came while taking suo motu congnisance on prisoners languishing in the jail for minor offences, which had led to overcrowding in the prison. The bench also held that it amounted to violation of human rights.

Referring to the case of the Indian doctor Mohd Haneef detained in Australia for recklessly providing support in the failed Glasgow terror attack, the court said, a lot of hue and cry is being raised in the case of Haneef for human rights violations.

Are people living here meaningless? Are there no human rights for the prisoners languishing in the jail without sufficient reasons, the bench questioned, adding that the state had no justification whatsoever to keep a man in jail without reason. The bench also pointed out that most of those prisoners are people living the below poverty line."Show us a single case where a tax-payer is languishing in the jail for petty offences. Most of them are poor people and we are hurting them by not providing a decent life and by putting them in jail", the bench said. 

New Delhi, July 25
A Delhi court has acquitted five persons of the charges of committing gangrape of an Uzbek woman by terming her testimony as doubtful.

"The star prosecution witness (the victim) has not supported the case regarding the manner of occurrence, its nature and also the identity of the accused," Additional Sessions Judge Narottam Kaushal said. The court acquitted Sunil Puri, Vinod Kumar, Deepak, Ravi Kumar and Bilas, all city residents, of the charges of ravishing 27-year-old woman on February 14, 2000.

"In her cross-examination, she still did not support the prosecution case and deposed that none of the accused present in the court was involved in the incident," the court noted.

It also termed her statement recorded at the Shalimar Bagh police station in north-west Delhi as doubtful, stating that she did not understand English and her translator Trichieva Abron, first secretary counsellor in Uzbekistan embassy, did not appear in the court despite several opportunities.

Lending credence to her medical report, the court said that the doctor who had examined the woman had revealed no history of molestation or rape. The prosecution, however, referred to the presence of semen in the victim's vaginal smears to corroborate the charges, which the court rejected, saying that the same cannot be incriminating evidence as the woman had not levelled allegation of rape.

The Uzbek woman, on a tourist visa, was putting up at Suma Palace hotel at Karol Bagh here at the time of the incident. On the evening of September 14, seven years ago, when she was going towards Pitampura here, two youth gave her lift in their car and took her to a gas godown, the woman alleged.

Two others then joined them and committed rape with her, a security guard allegedly stood guard at the godown, she alleged.

Ghaziabad, July 25
The district police have decided to make elaborate security arrangements for the journey of thousands of Kanwaryas from August 5 to 12.

From 8 am on August 5 to 8 pm on 4 pm on August 10, it is proposed to have route diversions for normal traffic on G.T. Road between Ghaziabad and Meerut.

Apart from having tight security and constant police patrolling, a sizeable number of cops in plain clothes would also be deployed on route, SSP Deepak Rattan said.

It may be mentioned that a number of road accidents and brawls take place between Kanwarya and general public, shopkeepers, drivers en route. This time, the administration and police have decided to make fool-proof security and traffic arrangements.

No camps will be set-up en route this time without permission from the district administration nor any vehicle will be allowed to ply without special permit from Additional DM City.

Special nets and drivers will be arranged near the canal central side Kanwarya routes.

The vehicles will be allowed to ply on one lane of the highway between Delhi, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Haridwar till August 7 but after this date, there will be total ban on the traffic. Vehicles will be diverted from Ghaziabad via Hapur to Meerut. From UP Gate vehicles will proceed via Vijay Nagar Bye Pass (NH 24) - Dasna Trijunction, Pilkhua, Hapur and on to Meerut.

Vehicles for Muzzafarnagar, Hardwar, Saharanpur and Dehra Dun will go via Loni, Bagpat.

New Delhi, July 25
Minister for Education and Sports, Delhi, Arvinder Singh Lovely today inaugurated the tennis complex, with floodlit, synthetic courts. This tennis facility was completed within a year and at a cost of Rs 27 lakh and was partially funded by the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee. aThe DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna and other office-bearers and members were also present on the occasion. The college intends to utilise the courts for the Khalsa Tennis Academy. Lovely, an alumnus of the college, and Sarna also inaugurated the escalator in the renovated science block. This escalator was installed with a UGC grant.

Greater Noida, July 25
Farmers, holding an all-party panchayat in Greater Noida yesterday, threatened to agitate if the Greater Noida Authority and the administration would disturb the Abadi land.

"Don't force the farmers to adopt violent ways" was the message sent by the Panchayat.

The farmers' panchayat also came down heavily on the land mafia and condemned their illegal and criminal activities.

In spite of heavy down-pour, farmers continued their forceful demonstration at the Greater Noida Authority offices condemning the change in the attitude of GNIDA as not in the best interests of the farming community of the area.

The farmers said in clear terms that they would not fall in the trap of the land mafia and will fight their own battle. Former MLA, Nawab Singh Nagar alleged that in the past, farmers were heard by the GNIDA and their views were respected by the authorities but not any more. "Now, the Abadi land of farmers is being demolished without consulting the tillers of the soil.

And if they oppose it, the authorities lodge FIRs against farmers with the police," he said.

Another former MLA, Narinder Singh Bhatti declared that this was the last chance for farmers to take a stand and fight for their rights. He accused the authority officials of adopting a divide and rule strategy against farmers.

The panchayat was also addressed by Congress leader Raghuraj Singh, SP district chief Brijender Singh Bhatti, Dehat Morcha's Kesri Singh Gujjar, and Lok Dal Leader Jatinder Singh.