New Delhi, October 10
Former union minister and BJP leader Vijay Goel was today detained after he drove a Blueline bus to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s residence here to protest against the ‘’insensitive attitude’’ of the Delhi government towards the killer buses.

“I did this to drive home the message to the Chief Minister that Blueline buses are being run by inexperienced drivers like me, putting the lives of Delhiites at risk,” Goel said.

Sheila Dikshit should also travel on Blueline buses and experience the risk for herself, he said, referring to the Chief Minister’s reported remark some months back that she would rather walk than travel on a Blueline. Goel demanded that experienced persons should drive Blueline buses.

The total number of people killed by the rampaging buses this year has soared to 96, with 11 people crushed to death in the past four days.

The BJP leader and former union minister was taken to Parliament Street police station after his arrest from the vicinity of 3, Motilal Nehru Marg residence of the Chief Minister. 

New Delhi, October 10
The Delhi Congress today expressed concern over the spate of Blueline bus accidents in the Capital, but ruled out immediate phasing out of the buses as they would cause hardship to the residents.

Expressing satisfaction with the steps taken by the Sheila Dikshit government on the issue, DPCC president J P Agarwal said that the party was in touch with the government on the matter. The government is taking steps in the right direction. It has sent notices to nearly 3,000 buses and is taking action against illegal operators, he said.

Agrawal said that the government was also working on running a high-capacity bus fleet. But the immediate phasing out of the buses was not an option, as it would cause enormous hardships to people. — PTI 

New Delhi, October 10
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the union home secretary and the solicitor general to personally appear before it October 22 to explain the central government’s stand on evolving uniform guidelines for release of those sentenced to life terms and languishing in jails beyond 14 years.

Furious that none of the union government counsel was present before it as it took up the hearing of a public interest suit seeking evolution of guidelines for release of such prisoners, a bench headed by Justice H.K. Sema ordered personal appearance of Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta and Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati. The bench, which also included Justices L.S. Panta and D.K. Jain, was all the more furious after noting that the union government was yet to file its detailed affidavit on the crucial issue even as all the states and union territories had already submitted theirs.

During last hearing, the court had ordered the union government and Delhi government, which had defaulted in filing their affidavits, to file the same by October 10.

The Delhi government has filed its affidavit but the union government not only failed to do so, none of its counsel was present in the court for hearing either.

The lawsuit was filed after the Haryana government then headed by Om Prakash Chautala ordered in late 1999 premature release of nearly a dozen prisoners sentenced to life terms in the run-up to the assembly elections.

Many of them, released even before serving a five-year term, had been chosen for their proximity with politicians, said advocate Anil Sharma in his petition seeking evolution of uniform guidelines for release of those serving life terms.

New Delhi, October 10
Slamming the government for its failure to demolish illegal constructions in some VIP bungalows in the heart of the Capital, the Delhi High Court today sarcastically asked whether its occupants are above law.

Implementation of guidelines for bungalows should start from top and not from bottom, a dismayed court said while directing the ministry of urban development to take action against unauthorised constructions in Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone (LBZ) and give a report by January 16.

Are they above the law? If you allow the VIPs to carry out illegal constructions, allow the judges and common people to do that, a division bench of Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Khanna remarked.

Action was yet to be taken for illegal constructions in 55 bungalows including those belonging to railways minister Lalu Yadav, leader of opposition L K Advani, union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and senior bureaucrats including intelligence bureau chief, amicus curiae Rekha Palli told the court.

The judges also said that if the competent authority does not stop the illegal constructions, there will be a tendency on the part of others to go for illegal constructions.

They said action for removal of illegal constructions must be taken by the CPWD department to maintain the sanctity and legal position of the bungalows because of their heritage status.

Palli told the court that the directorate of estates surveyed the Lutyens’ Zone and found 71 bungalows had violated the revised guidelines issued last year.

So far, the CPWD department officials have demolished unauthorised constructions in only 16 bungalows, she said adding that despite repeated directions from the bench, they failed to take action in remaining 55 bungalows as they were occupied by VIPs including railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

In september 2006, guidelines for the Lutyens’ Zone were revised by the urban development ministry with the PMO’s approval for type VII and type VIII bungalows which allowed construction of additional area space, garage, servant quarter and rooms for security personnel. In 2004, the court had taken a suo motu cognizance on a media report that illegal constructions at some of the bungalows had come up violating building by-laws.—PTI 

Greater Noida, October 10
A woman was strangled by her lover on Tuesday in village Kulesra under Surajpur police station due to some dispute over money. The woman, who had come out on bail from jail as an accused in the murder of her husband two years ago, was living with her paramour in Kulesra along with her five kids.

The man has absconded after killing her. Police have registered a case, on the complaint lodged by the daughter of the deceased, and sent her body for postmortem.

Shabana, 45, originally from village Karnel in district Farrukhabad had murdered her husband Tahir two years ago after she developed illicit relations with another man. She was later arrested and sent to jail by police. Shabana’s lover Devinder, alias Dharaminder, had got her out on bail. Since then she as well as her four daughters and a son had been living with her lover in Kulasra village.

Devinder was employed as a security guard in a Noida Phase-II factory. The couple fell out for Rs 400 on Tuesday evening and Devinder strangled Shabana with her ‘dupatta’ and fled. Her daughter and son were present in the house when Shabana was killed, the police said.

CO police said a police team has been constituted for tracing Devinder.

New Delhi, October 10
Tunnel boring machines (TBM), last used by the DMRC between 2002 and 2004 for its Phase-I underground Line 2, are getting back to work. The machines are undergoing final testing procedures at the Mundka Casting Yard for being used in Central-Secretariat-Qutub Minar, Central Secretariat-Badarpur and Airport Express Link sections of the Phase-II.

One of these impressive 80-m long and 520 tonnes monster machines that helped the DMRC achieve new technical heights in its underground section between Central Secretariat and Delhi University underwent final testing at the casting yard today.

TBMs are used to construct tunnels. As they advance, they cut through the soil and also put in place rings of the tunnel. For Phase-II, 12 TBMs will be used. The first TBM will begin work from December 2007 between Malviya Nagar and Green Park.

It will be brought to Malviya Nagar by the end of this month in pieces and re-assembled underground. The entire process of re-assembling the machine will take more than one-and-a-half months, DMRC officials say.

In the 12.53-km Central-Secretariat-Qutub Minar link, six TBMs will be used in the CTST-Saket section in 7.16 km, in 20.01-km Central Secretariat-Badarpur section four TBMs will carry out work in 4.29 km between Udyog Bhavan-Khan Market-Lajpat Nagar and in the 19.20-km Airport Express Link, two TBMs will help in tunneling in the 3-km New Delhi-Shivaji stadium section.

For Phase-I, two TBMs were bought from Bangkok Metro while one TBM was bought from German manufacturer Herrenknect. Machines purchased from Bangkok Metro were used for tunnelling between Patel Chowk to Connaught Place, Kashmere Gate to Chandni Chowk, New Delhi and Connaught Place. These were the first TBM machines used in Delhi.

Incidentally, each pair of TBM has a crew of 12-15 persons to handle its various activities. Each TBM has an operator, who is highly qualified and handles the programme-operated panel. Usually two generators, providing a total of 1000 KW each, are used for each pair of TBMs. One generator is kept as back-up. Power consumption for the cutter-head is approximately 500-800 KW. The diameter of a TBM is 6.2 metres and the finished diametre of tunnel is 5.7 metres.

Each TBM has three main parts–cutter-head, middle body and tail. The cutter-head is made of ST-53 grade of steel, which is very hard and has bits of tungsten carbide that is hard carbon generally used in excavation tools. The weight of a TBM is about 520 tonnes and length 60 to 80 metres. It takes approximately 90 days to dismantle and refurbish a TBM.

The TBM progresses about 300 m in a month depending on type of soil type whether rocky or soft.

To ensure safety of buildings above the TBMs, influence zone is calculated and study for soil settlement and building conditions is done. The building condition is surveyed on the international standards called Burland Classification. Crack metres, settlement metres, inclinometers and strain gauges are used to ensure that buildings are not damaged.

Incidentally, the oldest TBM in the world was used on 16th March 1853. This “wisdom patented stone cutting machine” was used for constructing Hoosac Tunnel (a rail tunnel) through Hoosac Range which is an extension of Vermont’s Green mountains in the US. This machine failed after excavating three meters.

The first TBM was successfully used in 1882 in England. Major international projects in which TBMs were used include Channel Tunnel between England and France, Singapore Metro.

New Delhi, October 10
Smokers puffing cigarettes would now see pictures of cancerous growth and other harmful impact the smoke would have on their’s as well as on passive smokers’ health, including children who may have to face an untimely, slow and painful death.

However, in view of the protest against the use of skull and crossbones as warning on the cigarette packets, the government has decided to replace them with pictorial warnings of painful death and revolting pictures of cancerous growths in mouth and other parts of the body.

Consequent upon amendment to the Tobacco Act 2003, the government has notified the revised packaging and labeling rule 2007 whereby the pictorial depiction of skull and crossbones as health warning has been removed and replaced by the pictorial representation of the dead body. — UNI

New Delhi, October 10
You may soon not require a ticket to travel by train. Just an SMS will ensure your journey.

Now, a confirmed SMS will serve as a sort of e-ticket for rail travel, according to a proposal mooted by the railway ministry.

This service, if operationalised, will be the first of its kind in the Railways, R.K Tandon executive director (passenger marketing) told PTI here. However, the service will be available only for unreserved tickets, he said.

The proposal is in the exploratory stage. Some banks have shown interest in it and the Railway Board will take a final decision in this regard soon, Tandon said.

The system of using SMS as e-ticket is known as virtual ticketing on mobile, he said adding that “we are in discussion with banks and mobile companies to operationalise the scheme.

The proposal is part of railway ministry’s plan to provide rail tickets at doorstep.

Our aim is to reduce the rush at ticket counters and provide quality service to passengers. We are also installing automatic ticket vending machines at some stations, Tandon said.

Unreserved tickets for local or long -distance train travel constitute 90 per cent of total tickets sold in a day. — PTI 

Director Ashutosh Gowariker finally breathes a sigh of relief as the theatrical trailer of his period love story ‘Jodha-Akbar’, starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, is unveiled this weekend.

“It’s been a gruelling but rewarding time. I’ve been virtually sleeping on the sets. But, finally, we have zeroed-in on January 25 as the release date,” Gowariker told IANS.

“It’s a good week because we get a three-day weekend, Republic Day and all.” ‘Rang De Basanti’ was released during the same weekend, two years ago. “Was it?” Gowariker seemed unaware of the coincidence. “It just seems like the right moment. It’s a pity that we could not make it as scheduled on October 12.”

The director, who made films like ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Swades’, still has one song to shoot, which he will do, as soon as Aishwarya returns from Boston, after shooting her film, ‘Pink Panther’.

The epic’s postponement has given two big films ‘Laaga Chunari Mein Daag’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ a chance to release this Friday, just ahead of Eid.

“We are not attaching trailer to any of the two films,” informed the director. “It goes into theatres independently.”

But, it is just a coincidence that the ‘Jodha-Akbar’ trailer is being released during the same week that the film was earlier supposed to release? “You can call it a pleasant coincidence,” said the director. — IANS

Bulandshahr, October 10
The traders of Khurja town took out a procession to protest against the kidnapping of cloth merchant, Dinesh Jindal as well as to highlight the sense of insecurity among people, especially the traders in Khurja. The incident has created panic as the enquiry has been handed over to STF.

Dinesh Jindal was abducted by three car-borne criminals while he was out on a morning walk with a friend. Police have constituted six teams to find the cloth merchant.

The DG police has given special instructions to STF for recovering the trader at the earliest. This has been taken as a challenge by the police force, it is learnt.

Dinesh Jindal, a resident of posh Geonka Colony, along with his neighbour, Anil Bansal had gone out for morning walk. When they reached a school on the main road at about 6 am, an Indica car had pulled up near them. Three persons came out and pounced on the two who tried to resist the bandits. The criminals forced Jindal into the car and sped away.

By the time the police team reached the spot, a large number of traders and general public had collected there. Later, traders took out a rally and downed their shutters in the market.

New Delhi, October 10
India will host the second ministerial meeting of six Asia-Pacific nations on Monday. It will focus on joint strategies dealing with twin challenges of climate change and clean development.

The ministerial meeting, to be held at Hotel Maurya Sheraton, will launch an action plan around 18 projects, which have been identified by task forces, to spur the use of energy efficient technologies and to tackle climate change without allowing it to come in the way of development.

Eight task forces have been set up in areas of cleaner fossil energy, renewable energy and distributed generation, power generation and transmission, steel, aluminium, cement, coal mining and buildings and appliances.

“The meeting will provide an opportunity to take stock and to impart the necessary political impetus to consolidate this partnership and promote clean development,” Meena Gupta, secretary in the ministry of environment and forests, told reporters here today.

Foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon stressed India’s commitment to clean energy and climate change. He said that the partnership had elicited positive response from countries like Canada.

The six-nation Asia Pacific Partnership (APP) was announced two years ago in Vientiane and comprises India, the USA, China, Japan, Australia and South Korea, which account for nearly half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

With climate change becoming a global issue and an important agenda at the summit of the G-8, group of the world’s most industrialised countries, India is fine-tuning a climate change strategy, ahead of a key United Nations meet in Bali, Indonesia, in December. The meeting in Bali will seek to extend or replace the 10-year-old Kyoto Protocol and look beyond the post-2012 emission-cut commitments.

India, like China, has maintained that binding cuts will adversely affect its efforts to lift its people out of poverty as rich countries have reached their present state of prosperity through an industrial growth fuelled by coal, oil and gas.

The Kyoto Protocol required industrialised countries to cut their output of six greenhouse gases by about five per cent from their 1990 levels by 2012.

The APP seeks to explore an alternative model through which countries could combat climate change without compromising on development and does not envisage mandatory reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions in stark contrast to the Kyoto Protocol.

The APP’s vision statement speaks of developing, deploying and transferring existing and emerging clean technology; exploring technologies such as clean coal, nuclear power and carbon capture involving the private sector.— IANS

New Delhi, October 10
Exhibition of 18 paintings of Sharmishtha Ghosh ,17, portray real as well as still life .

The week -long exhibtion, which began on Sunday at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, has landscapes and still life from Washington to picturesque Sunderbans of West Bengal.

Sharmishtha, a student of class XII of Shri Ram School,Delhi, has made colours her friends .

Primarily a nature and still life painter, her work of Buddha of Thiksey in Ladakh brings her compassion. Ajanta caves, Aurangabad Fort, Pangong Lake, the scenic drive in the US and other paintings are pensive.

The dazzling sunlight touching the morning dew, rustling leaves in conversation with the breeze, the sound of raindrops falling on tender leaves, the foaming waves washing the shore have fire her imagination .

It is her third exhibition. Her maiden show was at Indira

Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in Delhi in 2006. Her second show was at the State Gallery of Fine Arts in Hyderabad. 

New Delhi, October 10
Subhash Arya, leader of the House in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said that the government should increase the amount of mid-day meals, provided daily in MCD schools, from Rs 2 to Rs 3, per child.

The MCD provides mid-day meals to about 9 lakh students studying in its 1,850 primary schools. Keeping in view the price rise of food articles, the amount of mid-day meal, provided daily to each student, should be increased. To provide nutritious diet to children, an increase of Re 1 per child is essential.

Approximately, Rs 30 crore have been provided for mid-day meals in the current financial year. But, the amount should be increased to Rs 40.5 crores, Arya demanded. Arya said that the MCD was finding it difficult to provide nutritious meal to a child in Rs 2. If need be, the Delhi government can take an approval from the Centre, regarding the matter.

Arya paid surprise visits to various NGOs entrusted with the task of providing mid-day meals to students. He expressed his satisfaction that the meals being prepared by the NGOs were nutritious and hygienic. He asked senior officers of the education department to carry out frequent inspections to ensure that the quality of food items used in preparing mid-day meals were nutritious.

New Delhi, October 10
Enquiry has been ordered in a case of gross negligence that turned fatal for a patient at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

A screw was detected inside patient Gokul Prasad after he was discharged following a heart bypass surgery on October 8.

Two days later, the patient was admitted again and another operation was conducted to remove the screw. However, this time the patient could not recover and died. 

New Delhi, October 10
With the arrest of two inter-state burglars, the police has claimed of solving eight cases of theft.

The suspects have been identified as Mohd Johny and Mohd Mamun. One laptop, one handycam, two cameras, mobile phone, jewellery and clothes worth Rs 4 lakh were found from the duo.

An information was received that the two would pass through Khusro Park in Nizamuddin with stolen goods. A raid was conducted and the suspects were apprehended. The laptop and jewellery were stolen from neighbouring states. The states have been informed about the arrest.

In another case, the Seemapuri police nabbed three robbers, Deepak, Harish and Mohd Israr. Three gold chains, mobile phones, wristwatches, cash, an auto rickshaw and one countrymade pistol were found from them.