The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Delhi and neighbourhood

	CM flags off low-floor CNG buses Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 6 Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today flagged off the first lot of DTC low-floor CNG buses at Rajpath. She expressed hope that with the introduction of low-floor buses, the dream of improving public transport system in the Capital would come true. She stated that these buses would accelerate the pace of phasing out the Bluelines. Twelve green-coloured buses were lined up at Rajpath today. Two of these buses are meant to train drivers. The ‘pista green’ coloured non air-conditioned low-floor buses have features like hydraulic doors and in-built speed governors. These buses using polyurethance paint, is disabled-friendly with features including, 230 horse power engine, roof mounted CNG cylinders, gas leakage detection, alarm system, full air suspension, automatic transmission, anti-skid and anti-lock breaking system, preinstalled speed governors, steel radial tubeless tyres, pneumatically-controlled doors, rear engine and alfa-numeric dual display for destination boards. The buses launched today will run on route number 500 between Shivaji Stadium and Saket Terminal connecting Super Bazar, Regal, India Gate, Tughlak Road Police Station, Safdarjung Airport, AIIMS, Khel Gaon Road and Malviya Nagar. The conductors will use automatic ticketing machines and the bus crew will wear a uniform. The depots identified for garaging these buses are at Subhash Place, Mayapuri, I.P. Estate and East Vinod Nagar. Describing these buses as a Divali gift to commuters, the CM expressed confidence that these buses would help in curbing accidents. She said that women would be allowed to travel free of cost on Bhaiya Duj from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Dikshit informed that 525 such buses would be added to the fleet of DTC. Twenty-five out of these would be of red colour and would be air-conditioned. The number of CNG buses would be doubled within two years. This would raise number of such buses from 3,000 to 6,100. It would also create 18,000 employment opportunities. Dikshit exhorted the DTC to offer posts of drivers and conductors to women. The DTC is all set to facelift the existing bus shelters. 1,000 bus shelters would be ready by 2008. The GPS-based tracking system would also be brought in shape soon, as tenders for the same has been issued. The CM said that the study for commissioning of a monorail in Delhi had been completed. The HCBS route between Ambedkar Nagar to Ambedkar Stadium would be commissioned soon. The five HCBS corridors have been identified. Dikshit emphasised the importance of modernising and expanding the DTC bus fleet. An efficient, reliable and comfortable bus system will encourage citizens to opt for public transport rather than cars and scooters. The shift of commuters to public transport will not only reduce air pollution but also ease traffic congestion and reduce accidents. Transport minister Haroon Yusuf said that a new chapter was added to the history of Delhi with the launch of low-floor buses. He said that the HCBS route would bring a sea change in the public transport system, as plying of buses in a dedicated lane would curb accidents. While talking about the menace caused by the Blueline buses, he said that the government had taken measures to normalise the situation. As many as 1,400 civil defense personnel have been deputed on bus shelters.
	Pollution level rising: CSE Vibha Sharma Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 6 The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has warned the Capital, “The time to breathe easy is over, as air pollution is reaching to a critical level again.” The analysis of the recent air-quality data carried out by the CSE, in the Capital, shows that pollution level is swinging up again. Delhi is in danger of losing the benefits of the CNG programme, as pollution level is creeping up to the pre-2000 level. Last winter, the pollution level increased for the first time and, this year, the pollution level is already as high as what was in the pre-CNG days, the CSE said. Saying that measures will have to be taken to control the growing air-pollution, Sunita Narain, director, CSE said, “Delhi will find itself in the choked and toxic haze of the pre-CNG days, when diesel-driven buses and autos had made it one of the most polluted cities.” She said that when the CNG programme was initiated in 2002, the annual average levels of restorable suspended particulate matter (RSPM or PM10) in residential areas was 143 microgram per cubic metre. They dropped to 115 microgram per cubic metre by 2005. The upward swing is noticeable since 2006, when the annual average levels have jumped to 136 microgram per cubic metre. The monthly average level of RSPM in the winter of 2006-07 was as high as 350 microgram per cubic metre. The level can be even higher this winter. “This year, the daily level of particulate, smaller than 2.5-micron size (PM2.5) have reached 240 microgram per cubic metre. Studies in the US indicate that an increase of 10 microgram per cubic metre of PM2.5 is associated with significant increase in health risks. High exposure to PM2.5 can lead to increased asthma, lung diseases, chronic bronchitis and heart damage. Long-term exposure can cause lung cancer,” the report states. Nitrogen Oxides, emitted from vehicles, have been increasing in the city to dangerous levels. “In the past five years, the city has done all to reduce pollution. But in spite of all its measures, pollution levels are on the rise,” Narain added. Private vehicles create pollution and consume space. Delhi has more than four million registered vehicles. 963 personal vehicles are added to the city’s roads every day. Little has been done for public transport in the city and ensure connectivity between the growing cities of the NCR. “The environment pollution (prevention and control) authority (EPCA) in its recent report has noted that bus numbers in the city do not even add up to the target of 10,000 set by the Supreme Court in July 1998. An initiative to increase public transport is needed with steps to restrain the growth of private vehicles,” Anumita Roychoudhury, head, CSE’s air pollution campaign, said. According to the society for Indian automobile manufacturers (SIAM), the market share of diesel cars has increased to over 30 per cent in the last 18 months. Its share is expected to be 50 per cent by 2010. This growth in personal diesel vehicle numbers will undo efforts to reduce pollution. Diesel vehicles emit higher smoke, particles and Nitrogen Oxide than their petrol counterparts. According to the WHO and other international regulatory and scientific agencies, diesel particulates are carcinogens.
	Jurisdiction dispute over body Our Correspondent Noida, November 6 The body of a man sighted in Chilla Regulator was not taken out due to jurisdiction dispute between Delhi and Noida police for five and a half hours. Patwari and lekhapal (revenue officials) were called on the spot and even maps consulted to decide as to the police from which state will take out the body. Ultimately it was decided that Delhi Police will handle this case and fish out the body in Chilla regulator on Delhi-Noida border. New Ashok Nagar Delhi Police was informed in the morning that a body was lying in the drain between the Sector-14-A Noida and New End Apartments, New Delhi. Delhi Police on inspecting the location said it was in UP jurisdiction. The Noida police from sector 20 also inspected the spot and said it was in Delhi police jurisdiction only. This started a row between Delhi Police and Noida Sector-20 police on jurisdiction. SP City and other Noida and Delhi Police officials also reached the spot. Ultimately SP City sent for Patwari and lekhapal with revenue maps from the Noida Authority. Then it was decided that the part actually lay in Delhi territory. So Delhi Police were asked to handle the case. The body which was lying in the drain all this while was thus taken out after about six hours. It was a rotten body of a 35-year-old man who had died about four days ago, police said.
	Ex-US embassy employee held Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 6 One Sanjay Kaushik, a former employee in the American embassy was arrested from his residence in Janak Puri yesterday, for his alleged involvement in helping 32 persons to get illegal visas to America. Kaushik, who runs a visa consultancy office in the Capital, was allegedly fired from the embassy, as he helped travel agents in procuring illegal visas. The suspect helped a troupe of 32 persons led by Punjabi singer Dolly Malkit Singh, in procuring illegal visas to America. He had allegedly filled the visa forms with fake details and briefed the candidates for the visa interview.
	Farmers warn against land acquisition Parmindar Singh Greater Noida, November 6 A large number of farmers held a protest meeting at district headquarters here under Kisan Sangarsh Samiti against the forcible land acquisition by UPSIDC in Phase-II, Greater Noida. Issuing a strong warning, farmers said they will not tolerate land acquisition without their consent. “Authorities should not consider farmers’ peaceful demonstrations as a sign of weakness. Acquiring farmers’ land in Greater Noida Phase-II is nothing but injustice to farmers. We know the language of Shahid-e- Azam, Bhagat Singh also, but government should not force us to adopt those methods,” they warned. UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC) which had initiated action under Sections 4, 6 and 9 for acquiring land in Chithera, Dutawli, Palla, Kathora and Bodaki villages has been resented by the farmers. Farmers have been opposing land acquisition in these villages for the past four months for which they had held a demonstration in Dadri Tehsil also. Villagers from these five villages had in a protest meeting and demonstration at Collectorate called for an end to land acquisition in these villages. Ex-MLA Nawab Singh Nagar said acquiring farmer’s land without their consent amounted to highhandedness. District BJP president Rakkam Singh Bhatti said the BJP was one with farming community in its fight for their land and could go to any limit to safeguard their interests. Raj Kumar Bhatti of Jan Morcha said villagers had given the government a majority in recent elections but the government was not interested to solve their problems and is trying to dislodge them from their lands. In a memorandum submitted to the District Magistrate, farmers requested for taking back the acts of land acquisition and asked on to why the villages in the GNIDA Phase-II, under green belt, were being acquired for private companies. The farmers demanded that right to sell or not to sell their land should be left with them without any pressure from the government.
	IIT-D suggests fellowship for teachers Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 6 In an effort to recruit more teachers and overcome acute faculty shortage, the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) in its proposal sent to the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has suggested the government to launch a thousand fellowships for Science teachers across the country. It has suggested that the government should create more fellowships for young faculty members and spend an approximate of Rs 1 lakh per annum on each fellowship. “Creating fellowships is the most important to us. The return on money invested in a young faculty usually exceeds everything,” Prof B N Jain, deputy dean (faculty) said. He added that many academics and scientists “are young, enthusiastic and many have left lucrative jobs abroad to join us.” However, the IIT-D has already launched a similar fellowship program called the ‘Outstanding Young Faculty Fellowships’ for teachers who have taken charge in the past one year. The fellowships, currently 26 in number, offer Rs 1 lakh per annum to the selected faculty for a period of five years. Prof Jain said that the institution hopes to launch some 500 fellowships over the next five years. He said, “The biggest problem the country faces today is quality manpower. But, we can achieve the target through such fellowships.”
	NHRC seeks annual expenditure from DG (prison) New Delhi, November 6 The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Delhi DG (prison) to submit within four weeks the annual statement of expenditure and income of jail industries. The commission has asked the DG to provide the trade-wise statement, indicating clearly the amount paid as wages and the number of prisoners, convicts and under-trials, who had been benefited. The directive came after commission’s honorary representative Chaman Lal visited the Tihar Jail complex on October 22 in connection with a lecture on human rights. Lal in his report stated that the jail industries in Tihar, were making huge profits and spending only a small portion on wages, indicating a need for wage revision. He also expressed doubt over the compliance of the Supreme Court’s directions regarding the payment of a portion of the prisoners’ wages to the victim’s family. In the report, Lal had suggested that the annual statement of expenditure and income of jail industries, indicating the amount paid as wages to the prisoners, convicts and undertrials be obtained from the jail authorities by the commission. — UNI
	DDA land scam case Malhotra, accomplice get bail New Delhi, November 6 A CBI court today granted interim bail to DDA land scam kingpin Ashok Malhotra and one of his associate till November 22 after the investigating agency failed to justify their custody after filing of the chargesheet. Special judge S K Kaushik ordered the release of both the accused on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each and a surety of the like amount and directed Malhotra and A K Mishra to surrender before him on November 23. The court’s order came as the CBI failed to justify its stand to keep the duo in judicial custody while the five other accused were not even arrested in the scam.The court observed that even Lal Mani, who allegedly forged documents to grab the land meant for the rehabilitation of slum dwellers, was not arrested by the CBI. Malhotra had been in custody for the last 90 days.The CBI had yesterday filed chargesheets in the Dheerpur allotment case before the court.—PTI
	Decide Chandraswami’s plea Delhi High Court pulls up CBI; directs a court hearing Rajiv Gandhi murder case New Delhi, November 6 Pulling up the CBI for delay in concluding the investigation in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s murder case, the Delhi High Court today directed a court here to decide the plea of Chandraswami, a suspect in the case, without entertaining probe agency’s objections. The court directed the additional chief metropolitan magistrate to decide Chandraswami’s plea seeking permission to go abroad without taking into consideration the CBI’s objections, which has been opposing the controversial godman’s application on the ground of pendancy of the investigation. If CBI had been serious enough in the investigation and would have had any material, it would have requested the centre to pass an order on the executive side, curbing the travel of the petitioner (Chandraswami) abroad, Justice S N Dhingra said. Had there been any additional evidence collected by multidisciplinary monitoring agency (MDMA) or CBI in the last nine years, CBI would have filed additional chargesheet before the court concerned, the court said. Expressing its displeasure over tardy progress of the investigation, the court said, it may take any number of more years, i.e., 16, 20 or 30 years in completing the investigation by the CBI and nobody knows what would be the ultimate result. The former Prime Minister along with 17 others were killed in a bomb blast on May 21, 1991 and the investigations in the murder were carried on by the special task force. The centre had set up a multidisciplinary monitoring agency under the CBI in 1998 to further probe the conspiracy angle and Chandraswami has been held as one of the suspects in the case.
	Jhuggi scam CBI shielding accused: BJP Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 6 The Delhi BJP has said that the CBI is trying to protect many senior Congress leaders and people connected with the Chief Minister’s office which is involved in the scam of jhuggi plot allotment. This is why the chargesheet does not include the name of a single Congress leader. “The CBI had recovered 17 costly cars with VIP numbers, 100 bank accounts, Rs 17 lakh, 7 kg gold and a diary containing details of the money being regularly paid to the Congress leaders, 6,000 forged documents of the jhuggi plots, many mobile phones and documents written in code language during its raid on the house of Ashok Malhotra situated at Mukherjee Nagar,” Delhi unit BJP president Harsh Vardhan said. Ashok Malhotra had committed the bungling of hundreds of crores of rupees “with the connivance of Congress leaders”. Many officers of the Delhi Secretariat were partners in this scam, Vardhan alleged. The CBI has arrested only one such officer whereas it has let off four other officers due to lack of evidence. “The VIP numbers of the costly cars recovered from Ashok Malhotra were allotted on the recommendations of the office of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and transport minister,” the Delhi BJP chief alleged. The agency like the CBI has arrested neither any Congress leader nor filed any case against them, Vardhan added.

JNU to study smog
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 6
The department of environment, Delhi government, has asked the School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University to study the characteristics of smog, reasons for the formation and management of smog. The school will submit the study report in a year.

The study will encompass the pollution level, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction of wind in all four seasons.
The Capital has been experiencing mist, haze or smog during the morning for the last 4-5 days. Such weather conditions are not uncommon during November, said director, metrological office, Safdarjung Airport.

Low level of inversion and light wind usually causes such weather conditions. Whenever such low-level inversion (stable atmosphere) occurs, the pollutants, especially solid in nature (smoke and dust particles generated by vehicular emissions, industrial and construction activity) are suspended in the lower atmosphere. As the wind is light, the matter suspended in the atmosphere is neither mixed nor dispersed. This causes hazy or smog conditions.

The director, metrological office, Safdarjung Airport said that such weather conditions are likely to prevail for the next 4 or 5 days.

In November, mist or shallow fog is usually seen during the morning. Chilliness in the morning will increase as the month progresses.
However, the month will be pleasant as far as weather is concerned.

Few takers for crafts at global federalism meet
Azera Rahman

New Delhi, November 6
Sitting with their colourful handicrafts strewn all around, most of the 200-plus artisans participating in the federalism festival in the capital wore a disappointed look.

Contrary to their expectations, the sales have simply not picked up.

Deepchand Das, a craftsman from Chhattisgarh, said that he was extremely disappointed with the sales in the festival.

“I thought with Divali around the corner people coming to the festival were going to buy a lot of things. But that’s not the case. They come, see the stuff and move on,” Das told IANS.

Standing next to a range of beautiful hand woven shawls, naturally coloured with a product called ‘Aal’ which gives it the typical red colour and ‘dokra’ or intricately carved brass figurines, Das echoed other artisans in the festival.

Bobby Dey of West Bengal said that after travelling so far and spending on accommodation in the Capital, she expected better sales.

“I have managed to sell things worth only Rs.500 in two days. I have come all the way from West Bengal, weaving some Katha stitch saris specially for this festival.

“After spending on travel as well as accommodation, I expected much better sales,” Dey said.

During the fourth International Conference on Federalism being held in the capital, the five-day parallel ‘Sanjha Safar’ arts festival started Sunday. With nearly 2,000 participants and more than 200 artisans participating, the festival is a big affair.

Besides the crafts stalls, there is a range of food stalls as well, selling a variety of fare, which do not lack crowds, ever.

“People come to the food stalls, eat and then come towards the craft stalls. They take a look around, ask the price and then go on, rarely buying an item or two,” Dey lamented.

Sohan Sah of Bihar — whose stall had a range of hand woven cotton shirts — said that he had managed to sell clothes worth Rs 700 in two days.

“I have been to Delhi on earlier occasions and have had much better business,” said Sah, who works in a cooperative that aims at rebuilding the lives of leprosy patients.

Babita of Manipur said that with the exception of a handful of customers who showed interest towards handmade cane articles, there hadn’t been much business.

“Probably we are sitting on the wrong side of the festival,” she smiled weakly.