New Delhi, August 14
A woman was allegedly attacked by her son-in-law, who tried to burn her alive today.

The incident occurred around 10.45 am, when Shahnawaz went to his in-laws' house in Alipur. He had a heated argument with his mother-in-law, Pyari over his estranged wife Sheadia. He allegedly threw acid over Pyari's face and chest.

The victim is admitted to Babu Jagjivan Ram hospital. Her condition was stated to be stable.

According to police sources, Shahnawaz married Pyari's daughter 10 years ago. But, for the past two years, she had been living with her parents. "Investigations suggest that the accused used to fight with his in-laws regularly and had threatened them of dire consequences, if his wife did not return to him," said deputy commissioner of police Manish Aggarwal.

The incident comes close on the heels of two unidentified men trying to burn alive a 35-year-old fashion designer.

New Delhi, August 14
Reacting to the Delhi government's proposal of having different power tariffs for peak hours in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, BJP Delhi Pradesh president Harsh Vardhan today said that by implementing this system, the government wanted to loot consumers and benefit the power companies.

The BJP Pradesh president said that the Delhi government by advertising in newspapers has falsely claimed that power is available here with less loadshedding and it is also cheap. It has been claimed in the advertisement that the consumers consuming power from 100 to 200 units have to pay at the rate of only Rs 2.40 per unit. But the unit rate goes up to Rs 3.90 from 101st unit. The government is misleading people by these false advertisements.

The BJP Pradesh president said that by implementing the new metering system, the government wanted to serve the interests of the power companies. Once it succeeds in implementing this system, the power tariff will increase automatically. Under this system, the consumers will have to pay maximum of Rs 6.40 per unit and minimum of Rs 1.60 per unit.

Even in this system, there are three categories. For the first 200 units of power consumption, different charges will have to be paid. After that up to 400 units of consumption, a different charge and above 400 units of consumption, different charges are to be paid.

He further said that peak hours are from 6.30 pm to 10.30 pm.

This is the time when entire Delhi is illuminated and the business goes on. Fixing the maximum rates during this hour, the government has hatched a conspiracy to put additional burden on the traders, industrialists, private offices, etc. Finally this burden will be shifted on the common man.

Vardhan has warned the government against implementing this system.

"This system will not be allowed to be implemented in Delhi," he threatened.

New Delhi, August 14
The prices of onion, potato and tomato have gone up in the National Capital Territory of Delhi because of the sudden decline in the arrival of these three commodities in Azadpur Mandi, according to the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board.

According to Brahm Yadav, chairman of the Board who has been personally monitoring the situation, the reason for the decline in the arrival of these three commodities is because of rains and floods in some of the areas which produce these crops. Yadav said that only 11960.1 tonnes of onion arrived in Mandi till August 13 compared to 13040.6 tonnes in the same period last year. Similarly, only 14014.9 tonnes of potato arrived in Mandi as compared to 16953.7 tonnes in the previous year. The same was the case with tomato.

While onion mainly comes from Nasik, Kolhapur in Maharashtara and some from Rajasthan, tomato is mainly grown in Himachal, Maharashtara and Karnataka. Potato crop is mainly brought in from Haldawani, Shimla, parts of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Most of these areas have been lashed with heavy rains making transport difficult.

Noida, August 14
With the suspected involvement of a number of senior officers in the tree plantation scam, efforts are being made for a cover-up operation in Noida Authority now, it is learnt. The new probe committee, it is alleged, is trying its level best to paint the earlier report as fake and concocted.

Interestingly, plants and saplings are being planted along the Expressway on a war-footing.

This is being cited as the reason why the officers and employees have not been issued with suspension letters even days after the decision to suspend them was announced by the CEO to media. CEO Balvinder Kumar, however, says that no cover-up will be allowed in the matter and if saplings are being planted and ground situation changed, it will be highlighted in the probe. It may be recalled that the Noida CEO had suspended four officials of forestry department when a scam of Rs 1.60 crore came to light on August 8 in plantation of saplings on Expressway.

The four suspended employees included deputy director, Tree Plantation, K.N. Jha, asstt. director R.K. Mathur, inspector Jatinder Prasad and Parmal.

The CEO had also said that criminal cases would be filed against the contractors. All contracts worth Rs 20 lakh would be inspected on the spot and irregularities probed within 15 days. Contractors M/s Maheshwari Landscape and M/s Green Decker were asked to replace 1.61 lakh plants as per terms of agreement.

Those influential officers who felt themselves involved had reportedly started feeling the heat of action in the scam and had thus started bringing their influence in the matter.

A new committee under senior project engineer, Sandeep Chandra was set with senior accounts officer D.V. Mehta and project engineer M.S. Tyagi. But from August 9, the work of planting trees was going on. So far a scam of Rs 1.60 crore had come to light. But according to informed sources, if a probe is ordered into tree plantation during the last 10 years, the Authority could unfold its biggest-ever scam.

New Delhi, August 14
On the eve of the 60th anniversary of Independence, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has demanded from the Centre to strengthen the internal trade of the country and declare 2008 as "Traders' Year".

In the wake of the repeated attempts by big corporate houses and MNCs to dominate India's independent retail trade, the CAIT has also demanded that the Prime Minister constitutes a parliamentary committee to look into issues arising out of the entry of corporate retailers into retail trade and serious objections raised by traders, hawkers, trade unions, political parties and other section of the society. The CAIT has also sought help from the speaker of the Lok Sabha to highlight the matter.

According to the available statistics, Indian retail accounts for around 10 per cent of the GDP, with more than 5 crore retail outlets throughout the country, excluding low cost kiosks and push cart vendors. India has the highest density of retail outlets- for a thousand persons, there are 15 retail outlets in India. Presently, the size of retail market in India is estimated at Rs 15 lakh crore, where more than 5 crore people are directly involved with 20 crore dependants on them for their livelihood. Around 3 per cent of the retail trade is in the organised sector while, the remaining falls in the unorganised one. India's retail trade is expanding by 8 to 10 per cent every year with an addition of 25 million middle class consumers. The size of retail trade is expected to exceed Rs 20 lakhs crores by 2010. With a growth in disposable income, the Indian consumer is becoming more conscious with the development of urban life style. Therefore, India has become the top destination for global retailers.

CAIT secretary general Praveen Khandelwal remarked that allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail trade or wholesale cash and carry business by MNC's would be detrimental to India's domestic trade and, simultaneously, eyes can not be closed towards domestic corporate heavy weights opening chain shops without any restrictions and shaking the traditional kirana, fruits and vegetables retailers. It makes no difference whether the investment is domestic or foreign. The debate is big Vs small and, not, FDI Vs kirana stores.

Khandelwal emphatically said that FDI should not be allowed in India's retail trade. Domestic corporate heavy weights should not be permitted in grocery, fruits and vegetables retail trade. He agreed that there is a growing demand for modern retailing formats that offer a clean and hygienic environment to shop at competitive prices. But, this may not be the cause for the entry of FDI and corporate heavy weights in retail trade and, thereby, allow them to rout our retailers and take away the livelihood of crores of people. 

New Delhi, August 14
The Delhi High Court has asked a city hospital, which was threatened by the wife of a kidney donor not to transplant her husband's kidney to his father, to go ahead with the operation.

Justice Ravinder Bhat passed this order on a petition filed by Ludhiana-based Vishal Bahari seeking direction to the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital to replace the kidney of his ailing father, Devinder Bahri, by his own. He alleged that the hospital authorities had declined to operate his father following a threat from his wife to implicate the hospital staff if they removed her husband's kidney.

Suffering from jaundice and other ailments, the 54-year-old man was admitted to the hospital on July 27. Two days later, it was detected that both his kidneys were not functioning and transplantation was the only option for his survival.

After all medical tests, the doctors suggested that Vishal was fit to donate a kidney to his father. However, following a threat from his wife, the hospital declined to conduct the 
operation.