New Delhi, August 2
The CBI raid on the premises of Ashok Malhotra, a close associate of senior Congress members and who runs canteen at Delhi Assembly Secretariat, has triggered a political war between the Congress and the BJP.

While the BJP has demanded resignation of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the Congress leaders including the CM and Delhi transport minister Haroon Yusuf denied their involvement in issuing VIP registration numbers to luxury cars owned by Ashok Malhotra.

The Chief Minister said that allotting VIP registration numbers was the job of the transport department. It should be asked from the minister concerned.

Denying categorically for allotting VIP numbers to Malhotra, Yusuf said that he had never met him. He had no information that Malhotra owned vehicles with VIP numbers.

However, he admitted to have recommended for VIP numbers but that had been done after recommendations from the Central ministers, secretaries, chief secretaries, judges, journalists and other influential people. Earlier, the issuance of VIP registration number was banned. When it was opened for public it was given to a number of people but after receiving recommendations, he clarified.

Sources said that Ashok Malhotra got allotted the VIP numbers through his political connections. Whenever he sought a VIP number, he got it recommended by a senior Congress leader. Malhotra was a Congress activist. When the BJP was in power in Delhi, he managed to get contract to run the Delhi Assembly Secretariat canteen. Since the day he got the contract, he had been seen in the corridor of power. He made good connections with senior politicians and senior officers.

His costly luxury vehicles were seen parking outside his house at Mukherjee Nagar. On the street, all vehicles parked outside belonged to him and no body used to raise objection to it. During the day these vehicles used to be parked there and during the night, it was in the service of ministers, senior politicians and officers, sources said.

Meanwhile, Delhi unit president of the BJP Dr Harsh Vardhan demanded resignation of the Chief Minister as this bungling had been found being carried out during her reign. He also demanded that the CBI should make public the names of Congress leaders involved in the bungling and cases be filed against them. "Ashok Malhotra was previously a three-wheeler driver and later he had a canteen. He cannot do this bungling alone," he said.

However, when asked how Malhotra was given the canteen contract during the BJP government in Delhi, Harsh Vardhan sidelined the question.

He alleged that the Central and Delhi governments had made efforts to protect the leaders involved in the bungling. "The Delhi government yesterday announced a superficial inquiry into the case. This inquiry should be done by a retired judge of Supreme Court," the BJP Delhi president demanded. 

New Delhi, August 2
One person was killed today when a Blueline bus hit his motorcycle in Okhla. Sachin, 25, succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the accident.

"Speeding Blueline bus hit the Hero Honda motorcycle from behind. One person has been killed in the accident," said a police official.

"The driver of the bus, Balvant Singh, has been arrested," he added.

The bus that used to ply on route number 429 has also been impounded.

Faridabad, August 2
The first substantial shower of the monsoon submerged major parts of Faridabad, the oldest industrial city of the Haryana, exposing the district administration and the Municipal Corporation in the process.

Name any area, including the areas around the mini-secretariat and the office of the Municipal Corporation, and they were found waterlogged during the nightlong rains. The water on the roads continued for some hours in the morning in so-called high-profile areas. The worst affected areas are the older colonies and the irregular colonies and the roads leading to them where water stood even in the evening. The pitiable civic condition of Faridabad and the nearby Ballabgarh, which comes under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF), has starkly called the bluff of the authorities who boast of conceptualising high class amenities and infrastructure during off seasons.

According to many, Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has urged the local authorities to work with a new vision and a proactive approach. The general impression is that the district administration and the MCF are not ready to meet the challenges facing this cosmopolitan city.

Not to talk of the old colonies, the so-called posh areas and residential sectors of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) had problems of waterlogging. The areas around Mini Secretariat and the MCF were a nasty site.

The worst sufferers appeared to be the older colonies like Janata Colony, Dabua Colony, NIT (2), Oriya Colony, Sanjay Colony, etc. There are more than 100 unauthorised colonies in Faridabad and Ballabgarh, which have different intensity of problems due to waterlogging even in a moderate rainfall. These colonies are low-lying areas.

Greater Noida, August 2
The Congress workers have lent their support to about a dozen problems of farmers, including not changing the 'abadi' land. Farmers, in a mahapanchayat, have said that they could go to any extent in the fight for their rights.

This appeared to have salutary effects. The officers of the Greater Noida Authority had not only invited them inside but even listened to the problems of the farmers and assured them that all their justifiable demands would be looked into.

CEO Sudhir Singh and Dy CEO P.C. Gupta had to ultimately invite the farmers for a meeting. A delegation of Congress leaders and farmers' representatives submitted a charter of demands to the authorities which included higher land compensation, development of villages, undertaking a fresh survey of Abadi land, employment to original natives of the area, allotment to plots for farmers, employment for local youth in the industries and admission of children into schools in the area.

The farmers also demanded the right to sell their land to industrialists directly allowing the GNIDA to play the middleman.

In the mahapanchayat, every one demanded with one voice that authorities should act with a strong hand against the land mafia and colonizers.

The Congress appeared to have lent its full force in the farmers' demonstration in front of the Greater Noida Authority offices. Congress leaders like Devi Dayal, Verinder Dhabha, Joginder Awana and others came into the mahapanchayat at the head of various farmers group.

The speakers said that despite GNIDA having exploited the farmers for a long time, the farmers have not lost their balance. But Greater Noida Authority should not try to test farmers' patience, the speakers warned.

The farmers of the area were fighting for their right and if pushed against a wall, they could forcibly snatch what is theirs.

Congress leaders from far and wide attended this panchayat and gathering of farmers.

New Delhi, August 2
Simple things like writing, changing clothes, or even control of bladder may seem easy to a healthy person, but for a person with a spinal injury this may mean an ordeal.

In order to promote human resource development for training professionals who make spinal injury patients independent in their activities of daily living and help them restore their role in society, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC) has launched Masters Course in Occupational Therapy in affiliation with Indraprastha University. The course is aimed at imparting technical skills to students so that they understand the problems faced by spinal injured and find ways to make patients fully independent to lead a normal life in society.

Starting August, the programme will provide an academically rigorous and practically oriented research-based course curriculum with the objective of providing students with clinical problem solving skills for life long learning combined with advanced bio-medical education. For the total of 18 seats, the two-year full time applied curriculum combines clinically oriented course work in rehabilitation allied health science.

"The specialty of occupational therapy is undergoing a rapid change globally with the development of scientific temper. The demand of the specialty stands much more in developing countries as compared to the West because of the existence of large number of neuromuscular cases (CP,

Multiple sclerosis, Polio) and increase in trauma," says Major HPS Ahluwalia, chairman, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre.

Professionals with this specialisation will empower the disabled by working as teachers, clinicians, researchers in the health care centres and NGOs specially working in the field of disability.

New Delhi, August 2
Dr Anoop Gupta, Infertility Specialist, Delhi IVF and Fertility Research Centre, elaborated on the latest infertility fighting techniques such as IVM and CAT that had not only reduced the cost of the procedure but had also increased the success rate.

Speaking at a function here, Dr Gupta said that with many firsts to its credit such as first ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection) baby of Delhi in 1998, first Millennium baby in 2001 and baby from surrogate mother in 2000, Delhi IVF and Fertility Research Centre continues to venture into new assisted reproductive techniques and new researches in its constant endeavour to improve success rates.

The success rate has surged from 7 to 70 per cent now over the last few years, he claimed.

The ever changing social demographics of people and extrovert approach has given birth to high demand for new concepts such as surrogacy, egg donation, single parenting and pregnancy in lesbian couples. As a result, medical tourism is booming in India.

"We receive at least 10 patients every month from USA, UK and other Europe countries because of world class treatment and low cost," said Dr Anoop Gupta of Delhi IVF and Fertility Research Centre.

In addition to already prevalent techniques to fight infertility problems that almost 15-20 per cent Indians suffer because of increasing urbanisation, pollution, stress, chemical exposure, competition and late settlement in lives, Delhi IVF and Fertility Research Centre now has embarked upon another new assisted reproductive technique for management of infertility called IVM (In Vitro Maturation of egg) and has got two successful ongoing pregnancies.

"We have achieved two pregnancies in PCOD patients who had 3 and 4 consecutive IVF failures," said Dr Gupta.

"IVM is a new evolving technique offering hope to women who face complications and side effects in normal IVF treatment. (hyperstimulation) also, it is beneficial for women suffering from cancer who can't be stimulated with hormonal drugs to produce multiple mature eggs," he said.

IVF will increase the flexibility of fertility treatment. It will require less drugs, less monitoring and fewer clinic visits thus reducing the cost of IVF treatment.

Dr Gupta said, "Along with IVM, CAT (cumulus aided transfer), refined media, assisted hatching, stringent patient and technique selection, we have come a long way to achieve success rate of about 70 per cent from the meagre seven per cent in last 13 years."

New Delhi, August 2
The protest against the appointment of Y S Dadwal as the police commissioner seems to be gaining momentum in the city. Around 60 independent individuals organised a demonstration right in front of the police headquarters at ITO against the alleged bias that has taken place in the appointment of the Delhi commissioner of police. "We are not here for any individual. We want our Delhi safe," said Madhu Bhaduri, one of the protestors. "Delhi has become the most unsafe city in the country."

Though the protestors claimed to stand for justice and not any individual, they also raised slogans in support of Kiran Bedi. "We chose to stand at ITO crossing, as it is one of the crowded places in Delhi. It hasn't been intentionally decided to hold it in front of the police headquarter," said Santosh Jha, one of the demonstrators. "There have been rape cases committed in the bright daylight in this city. The city is not safe for anyone," said Rajesh Kumar, another protestor.

"In this state of affairs, how can the government afford to bypass Kiran Bedi's potential. She has been recognised for her excellence time and again," he added.

The protestors claimed to be independent concerned people from all sections who got linked together by a chain of text messages. 

New Delhi, August 2
The 5th convocation of the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity (NVA) was held at the IGNOU campus recently. Over 527 fellows from 19 states attended the function and some 25 fellows from Afghanistan, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Nigeria were selected.

The fellows at the NVA convocation come from different walks of life some of them being farmers, fishermen and craftsmen. They are largely people who can make a serious difference to the rural ambience.

Releasing the directory of the NVA fellows, Prof M.S. Swaminathan, president NVA, stressed on the importance of the 'rural genius academy.' He especially emphasised that rural men and women are rich in traditional knowledge and wisdom derived from experience by working with nature and natural resources.

If rural transformation is to take place in the real sense then the contributions of grass-roots academicians are essential since they are not only aware of the problems of rural communities but also have potential solutions.

The NVA is especially interested in identifying and electing suitable rural women and men who have shown leadership qualities as fellows of NVA so that they become role models in their villages. Partners of the NVA and of several other organisations and government agencies working in the field of sustainable development participated in a nation-wide search for nominating such grass roots academicians. A special effort was made to establish contact with people living and working in inhospitable areas, drought or flood prone regions and remote regions. 

Faridabad, August 2
The commuters coming to Faridabad from Gurgaon faced one of the worst nightmares on

Faridabad-Gurgaon Road since yesterday morning to the wee hours today.

At a number of places two-wheeler riders were seen indulging in anti-social acts. The administration appeared to be oblivious of the ordeal of the helpless commuters with no traffic management.

Ramesh Khanna travelling on a Harayana Roadways bus from Faridabad to Gurgaon, lamented that he was never caught in such a massive traffic snarl.

The problem yesterday was aggravated in the evening because of rainfall.

It is about 35-km-stretch coursing through the hills. People going from Faridabad to places like domestic airport, International Airport, Palam, and Dwarka also use the route to beat red-lights.

The road has become a busy stretch now with many people going to and fro to Faridabad and Gurgaon on account of a number of multi-storeyed apartments and high-rise buildings.

It was a pathetic scene on the road with half a dozen policemen controlling the traffic.

The cause for the traffic jam was poor management.