New Delhi, December 20
As a new year gift, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided to introduce a general amnesty scheme for property tax payers who could not deposit their tax so far. Under the scheme, 50 per cent rebate on outstanding due interest will be given to such tax payers.

This scheme will start from January 1, 2008 and will be available up to March 31.

Giving details, the Standing Committee Chairman of the MCD, Vijender Gupta said that as per the pre-amended Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, the notices were being issued under Section 126 for the revision of rateable value. These notices were normally issued on higher side since all the relevant details of the property were not available with the MCD.

In view of the notices, the assessment of such matter had to be settled within three years from the date of issue of notice.

When even after the issuance of the notices, the assessees did not turn up, a number of ex parte orders were made by assessing authorities over the period of time. After the introduction of Unit Area Method, a number of cases have been rectified but still a majority of the ex parte cases could not be rectified owing to various reasons. One such reason is implication of interest and penalty factor.

Gupta further said that as per section 152 (2) of the amended DMC Act, 2003, one per cent penal interest was to be levied.

Moreover, even after implementation of Unit Area Method, the number of tax payers who have filed the property tax returns is approximately seven lakh as compared to 15 lakh properties as per postal survey.

In many cases, property tax payers are not coming to pay the tax owing to interest component which has gone up to 37.5 per cent, 25.5 per cent and 13.5 per cent for the defaulters of years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively. The amount of interest discourages the tax payers to get their ex parte cases rectified, fresh filing of property tax returns and clearing the tax amount.

It is in this context that the general amnesty scheme is being introduced under which 50 per cent rebate on outstanding interest will be granted to the tax payers who could not deposit their tax owing to certain reasons.

The chairman further disclosed that Section 123A of the DMC (Amendment) Act, 2003 provided that the MCD would maintain a Municipal Assessment Book so as to give a unique property identification code to all owners or occupiers. As such, the MCD has also decided to carry out door-to-door survey of properties for registering properties in Municipal Assessment Book and to give unique property identification code.

The chairman disclosed that for this purpose, various teams were being constituted which would carry out the survey of properties. Each team will be led by junior engineer of the Maintenance Department, Incharge of that Ward.

Gupta also disclosed that the MCD was making all-out efforts to augment its recovery of outstanding arrears of property tax.  

Greater Noida, December 20
Two bike-borne youths abducted a girl student who was on the way to her college at Dankore in G.B.Nagar district. The incident has created panic in the town.

In his report to the police, girl’s brother has named two youths for kidnapping his sister. But the police are looking at it from the angle of a love affair.

The 19-year-old daughter of Chander Bhan Goel, resident of Sahar Pande locality in Dankore, and a B.A. student in Guru Dronacharya Degree College Dankore, was on her way to college on Monday.

On the way she was abducted by two young men on their bike. When the girl reportedly raised the alarm, some people tried to chase the youths, but could not nab them.

The abduction of a college-going girl had created panic in Dankore town. Her brother Deepak Kumar has lodged a report in Dankore police station naming Arif and Zakir who run a coaching centre in the town.

Incidentally, the girl used to go to their centre for coaching. Both Zakir and Arif are reportedly absconding.

The police have arrested about half a dozen young men in this connection. But the police are linking the kidnapping to a love affair. A friend of Zakir and Arif lives in Mount Abu in Rajasthan, where the police are contemplating to send a team. 

New Delhi, December 20
Although the minimum temperature in the national Capital rose a little on Thursday, people continued to shiver, enveloping themselves in layers of clothing and huddling in front of room heaters.

At 5.0 degree Celsius, the minimum temperature was a tad higher than the past few days, when it hovered around the 4 degree Celsius mark. Wednesday recorded the lowest temperature of the season at 4.2 degrees Celsius.

“The minimum temperature is three degrees below normal. The skies will be clear in most part of the day but might turn cloudy later,” an official of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) told IANS.

“Getting up from the bed in the mornings has become such a pain. Your fingers go numb in the cold and you just feel like sitting in front of the room heater throughout the day and sipping some hot soup or coffee,” said Sharmishtha Das, a resident of North Delhi. — IANS 

Noida, December 20
A man is alleged to have got himself shot at for a mere 20 yd land with a view to framing his rivals in a false case.

The incident occurred in Behlolpur village where one Bhup Singh Yadav got himself shot at for a piece of 20 yd land and later filed a report against four persons accusing them of hatching a conspiracy to kill him.

During investigation, it transpired that Bhup Singh himself got fired upon. Bhup Singh and Charan Singh had adjoining plots of land of 250 sq yd each. Both the parties had been claiming the disputed 20 sq yd land as theirs. On Monday Bhup Singh Yadav and his nephews Tejveer and Satish had erected some pillars on the disputed land and enclosed it with barbed wire also. On Tuesday Satish informed the police that Charan Singh along with his sons Jatender, Raju and Udayveer had shot Bhup Singh. The police in preliminary enquiry suspected the report to be false. There was no tension in the village on account of Bhup Singh having been shot nor anybody had seen him to be shot at. When quizzed by the police, Bhup Singh’s wife Parvesh and Satish spilt the beans and informed the police that it had been done to take possession of 20 yd disputed land, SP Paresh Pandey said.

The police have recovered a cartridge from the bike of Satish. Bhup Singh was taken to district hospital and later to a Delhi hospital without informing the police. The revolver used in firing has also been recovered by the police. A case has been registered against Bhup Singh for cooking up a false case. The report lodged against Charan Singh and three others has been rejected by the police. 

New Delhi, December 20
Global Fund, a Switzerland-headquartered international charity, will provide a $100 million grant to India for battling HIV/AIDS.

The move brings the total approved amount of Global Fund resources to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria in India to $492 million since 2005.

“The Indian government has requested an amount of $747 million to fight the three diseases and so far we have signed an agreement for $492 million, out of which $160 million has been disbursed,” Global Fund executive director Michel Kazatchkine said on Thursday.

“The new $100 million agreement will be utilised to fight AIDS both in terms of treatment and communication efforts,” he said.

He said the fund has helped 80,000 HIV/AIDS patients in India to avail antiretroviral treatment and some 2,45,000 TB patients get treatment. It has also provided 1.5 million insecticide treated bed nets to curb malaria.

“We are happy with our association with India and that too for a social cause. We will continue funding the important work that is being done to provide care and treatment to people living with AIDS and change social attitude towards patients,” he said.

These resources will also be used to tackle stigma associated with the disease through efficient communication efforts and to train more health professionals, said T. Rahman, Global Fund’s team leader of South and West Asia.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss termed the development as “good news for India’s fight against HIV/AIDS”. He said, “These new resources would be put to use in the best possible ways.”

Rajat Gupta, chairman of the Global Fund board, and a group of experts including Kazatchkine are in India to assess the programmes sponsered by the Global Fund.

Apart from officials, they also interacted with business leaders to mobilise resources and help them understand the health condition of their employees.

Global Fund is a charity body with presence in 136 countries, mobilising its resources from both government and private parties.

Global Fund was created in 2002 and several top companies like apparel brand GAP, mobile phone brand Motorola and international bank American Express. Among nations, the US and France are its top patrons.

In India, the World Health Organisation and the UN AIDS are its partners to help the country achieve success in programmes like Stop TB and Roll Back Malaria.  

Ghaziabad, December 20
Ghaziabad will have a hi-tech drainage and sewer system in the next three years as part of Yamuna Plan-II. It is estimated to cost Rs 3,000 crore.

The project is expected to be completed within next three years. Besides Ghaziabad, drainage and sewer systems in eight other UP towns viz. Noida, Saharanpur, Muzzafarnagar, Mathura, Vrindaban, Agra and Etawa will also be modernized and made hi-tech, it is learnt.

The polluted water from eight UP cities will be treated and purified before it is allowed to flow in rivulets of the Yamuna, it is learnt.

This plant was presented in the meeting of Nagar Nigam when Mayor Damyanti Geol and Surinder Prakash, MP, were present. The Nagar Nigam is presently preparing a plan keeping in view the expected population of major cities of UP by 2040. And a survey is underway to assess the disposal of polluted water in eight major cities of the state.

An estimated 2000 km of sewerage lines will be laid in the city and nine sewerage pumping stations and five sewage treatment plants will also be set up.

Old sewer lines will be replaced or thoroughly repaired in the Mahanagar. While 71-km-long drains will be laid and 55 km of drains will be improved.

Mayor Damyanti Goel and Surinder Prakash Goel, MP, apprised the Yamuna action plan officials with the sewerage and drainage system.

Surinder Prakash has earlier served as the chairman of the Nagar Palika Parishad. He advised officials not to trust GDA’s planning and its engineers. 

New Delhi, December 20
Eminent scholar and professor of aesthetics, S.K. Saxena, will be conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Ratna for the year 2007 for his sustained work and outstanding contribution to the promotion of Indian art.

The decision to confer him with the Akademi’s highest honour or fellowship was taken at the general council of the institute, which is the national academy of music, dance and drama, at its meeting on December 18. However, the announcement was made on Thursday.

The fellowship is restricted to 30 living personalities at any given point of time.

Apart from Saxena, the Akademi has also selected 33 eminent persons for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar for the year 2007.

While in the field of music, eight eminent artists, including Vidyadhar Vyas and Govardhan Mishra (Hindustani vocal music), Nandan Mehta, (tabla), Ramoo Prasad Shastri (violin) and B. Krishnamoorthy (Carnatic vocal music) were selected. Sucheta Bhide Chapekar (Bharatanayam), Geetanjali Lal (Kathak) and Sadanam Krishnan Kutty (Kathakali) will be recognised for their contribution to dance.

For their work in theatre, the Akademi has selected eight persons, including Reoti Saran Sharma, Lalthangfala Sailo and Yumnam Rajendra Singh (playwriting) N.C. Thakur and Harimadhab Mukherjee (direction) and Ramesh Mehta (acting).

The Akademi has also selected nine artistes for their contributions and sustained work to promote traditional, folk, tribal music, dance, theatre and puppetry.

The two honours have been conferred on artistes since 1952 and while the Akademi Ratna carries a prize of Rs 100,000, the Akademi Puraskar carries Rs 50,000. — IANS 

New Delhi, December 20
The president of All India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF) M.S. Bitta has lodged a complaint in the Parliament Street police station today against threat calls which seem to have emanated from a Gulf country.

According to Bitta, the caller did not disclose his identity even as he abused and warned of dire consequences if Bitta did not refrain from demanding the execution of death sentence to Afzal Guru, a convict of Parliament attack.

The mobile number on which the call had been made was picked by one of Bitta’s gunmen at his residence in the early morning yesterday. “The call came at around 2.45 am which was taken by one of my gunmen as I was out of station. The person on the line used foul language regarding me and told my staff to tell me that I should stop demanding the execution of death sentence to Afzal Guru or be ready for the consequences,” said Bitta.

The caller made three calls again but the call got disconnected every time the phone was picked. Since Bitta was away in eastern Uttar Pradesh attending a facilitation programme, he asked his staff to lodge a complaint with the police.

Last year too, Bitta had received similar threat calls on his mobile from someone in Pakistan. “I am not the one to get threatened by such calls. I got a threatening call last year as well which the police traced to Pakistan. I shall carry on my fight against terrorism and terrorists with the same zest and vigour as before,” held Bitta. Recently, Bitta was also found to be on the hit list of terrorists who were caught with 6 kg of RDX in Phagwara last week.