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Delhi gets please-all budget
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit with finance minister A.K.Walia before presenting the budget at the Vidhan Sabha in the Capital on Monday.
— Tribune photo by Manas
Will slow down growth: BJP
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Kidney scam
10 girls held for nude dance
Man knocked dead
Property bane for Delhi’s elderly
More DU hostels by next year
Over 30 jaundice cases in Ghaziabad
Metro to reach Vaishali
20 injured in Holi accidents
JNUSU protest against ABVP attack
Minor fire at IT building
Centre gets notice over LPG black marketing
Age of teachers
Rs 200 cr earmarked for
two schools
Fraud in land deal
Mughal Gardens open for visually impaired
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Delhi gets please-all budget
New Delhi, March 24 This includes plan outlay, non-plan outlay and sponsored schemes of central government. Having seen the coming elections and Commonwealth Games, the emphasis has been given to transport. Giving break up of the total budget estimates before the Delhi Assembly House, finance minister A. K. Walia, said that total expenditure includes Rs 10,000 crore as plan outlay, Rs 10,100 non-plan outlay and Rs 100 crore for centrally sponsored scheme. The plan outlay will be financed by the state government’s own sources and the non-plan outlay by the central assistance. Tabling his fifth budget estimates, Walia laid stress on transport in view of the Commonwealth Games and increasing population of Delhi. The government has allocated a total of Rs 2933.34 crore for transport including Metro, road transport and construction of flyovers and bridges. The Metro Rail has been allocated Rs 819.93 crore and Rs 641.21 crore allocated for road transport. Besides, the government has released an amount of Rs 377.30 crore for purchase of new buses in this financial year. A total of Rs 1211 crore has been proposed for construction of flyovers and bridges. The government has also waived off the old irrecoverable arrears relating to pre-discom period. According to an estimate, about five lakh people will get benefit from this scheme of the Delhi government. Giving priority to development and sanitation work in unauthorised colonies, the government has allocated Rs 743 crore. The board for development of unauthorised colonies has been given guidelines for development work. The layout plan of 1477 colonies has been referred to the DDA and the MCD for their verification. The minister said that water conservation is one of the priority programmes of the government and it has proposed an outlay of Rs 1507 crore for water supply and sanitation sector. Of them, Rs 300 crore has been allocated for unauthorised colonies.
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Will slow down growth: BJP
New Delhi, March 24 This will slow down the development of Delhi and worsen the condition of Capital. He said that about 23 lakh people are living below poverty line in Delhi. The government is completely mum on improving their conditions. New ration cards will be issued to the people only for show. The finance minister has informed that the government has received application for the regularisation of 1477 colonies. It is obvious that these colonies are not going to be regularised in the near future. Forty lakh people of these colonies have been disappointed by this budget. The government has not provided anything special for the development of the 364 villages of Delhi, said Vardhan. The slogan of redevelopment of the water bodies in these villages has been repeated. No scientific scheme has been included in the budget for cleaning the Yamuna and stopping the discharge of dirty drain in the river. Criticising the government, he said that an unscientific scheme of Rs 1000 crore has been included in the budget for improving the public transport system. No measures have been taken to provide relief from everyday traffic jams. There is indication for operating buses by the corporate houses in place of Blueline bus service. The old claim of constructing one lakh houses for the poor has been repeated in the budget. The government which could not provide houses to the poor during the last ten years, how it will provide one lakh houses within eight months, asked Vardhan. There are false claims of reduction in power theft. The datas about improvement in water supply are also forged. It is a fact that there is scarcity of power and water in Delhi, he said. Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Jagdish Mukhi, said that the government has done nothing to control the spiralling prices of commodities. The government’s claim to construct one lakh houses for poor people is totally false and misleading. To complete the construction of Munak Canal is also totally false. The claim of finance minister that the power companies have reduced the theft by 26 per cent, why then the subsidy of Rs. 409 crore to the DISCOMs, Mukhi questioned.
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Kidney scam
New Delhi, March 24 The police personnel, identified as Rakesh and Naresh
Kumar, surrendered before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) in the Patiala House Court, which had issued a
non-bailable arrest warrant against them last week. The court sent the duo to one-day judicial custody in the Tihar jail. Four more policemen - head constables Devender Singh and Vijay
Bahadur, and constables Kaleem Beg and Surender Rathi - who too accepted bribes to let go Amit Kumar, are still untraced. Last month the Delhi Police had arrested assistant sub-inspector Ravinder Kumar and registered a case against him and the six police personnel for corruption and various other charges under the Indian Penal Code. According to the first information report (FIR), the policemen allegedly extorted money from Amit Kumar, who was nabbed in Nepal February 7 and is now in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI). — IANS |
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New Delhi, March 24 Suresh Kumar, a 42-year-old resident of West Delhi’s Moti Nagar, and his accomplice Dalbir Singh, a resident of Tilak Nagar, were arrested Sunday night for organising an obscene DJ dance party at the Prince Palace Hotel in the New Moti Nagar industrial area. Sleuths of the Delhi Police said it was the eighth time when the duo had called 10 bar dancers from Mumbai to perform an “obscene dance show” to entertain clients here. Deputy commissioner of police (Crime Branch) Anil Shukla said the duo were arranging such dance shows for the past six-seven months. They charged Rs.1,500 from each customer. “Following a tip-off, we conducted a raid at the hotel and found nine customers in obscene condition with 10 semi-nude girls. All the 10 girls and nine customers were arrested,” Shukla said. “Audio CDs containing obscene songs were also seized. During investigation it was found that Singh had arranged for the girls from Mumbai and was acting as conduit,” he added. — IANS
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New Delhi, March 24 The police said the information was received around 7.50 a.m. that a man was lying in a pool of blood on the Delhi-Mathura highway in Badarpur area. The victim, later identified as Gopal Dutt, was admitted to a hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead. “Prima facie it looks like a case of hit and run. We have registered a case and investigations are on to trace the vehicle and its driver,” a police officer said. — IANS
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Property bane for Delhi’s elderly
New Delhi, March 24 Over 41 percent of the city elders who complained of harassment lived in posh localities in South Delhi, it revealed. Nidhi Raj Kapoor of HelpAge India said the survey, ‘Delhi older persons property victimization survey 2007’, found that 52 percent old people in Delhi face harassment for property or know someone who is harassed. Fourty nine percent of victims were men and 28 percent were women. The survey, concluded August last year, saw 1,183 elderly people aged 65-91 being interviewed randomly through a questionnaire in 30 localities of Delhi. “Although we distributed 5,000 questionnaires, only 1,183 people responded. Of this, 78 percent were males and 21 percent females. The rest were anonymous,” the report said. “Most of the people were too scared to respond, thinking that their perpetrators would not take it too kindly,” Kapoor told IANS on Monday on the sidelines of a media workshop on issues concerning the aged. According to her, no study was earlier carried out on the subject. “As far as we know, no such survey on property abuse of the aged has been carried out before, although surveys on emotional and other such forms of abuse have been. But since we kept receiving letters from old people concerning this issue, we decided to carry out this survey,” Kapoor said. “An interesting aspect of this survey was that 5 percent of the perpetrators were the spouses of the harassed. In most cases, men complained that their wives supported their children when it came to property disputes, thus adding on to the torture inflicted,” she noted. The major perpetrators of harassment were, however, the children of those surveyed - according to the survey, a good 49 percent. “Elders come under tremendous pressure to either sell off their property and shift to a smaller and cheaper accommodation so that the price fetched can be put to their child’s disposal.” “At times, they are forced to transfer their property in their son’s or daughter’s name and are abused if they don’t pay heed,” she added. The harassment figures were: Central Delhi 20.8 percent, West Delhi 15.27 percent, East Delhi 8.3 percent and North Delhi 5.5 percent. HelpAge India now plans to conduct a similar survey in Mumbai, Kapoor said. — IANS
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More DU hostels by next year
New Delhi, March 24 The hostel, to be set up at the Dhaka Housing Complex of the university, will have an energy efficient building, solar water heating and rainwater harvesting. Besides blocks for 500 students with accompanying faculties, the hostel will have a provost flat, two warden flats and two resident tutor flats. The construction is expected to get over by September 30,2009. Out of the approved construction cost of Rs 23.33 crore, 40 per cent will be shared by the ministry of tribal affairs and the remaining 60 per cent by the ministry of development of North Eastern region. The ministry of tribal affairs has already released Rs 2.6 crore from its share in the first week of March and the land for the hostel will be provided by the university as per UGC norms. According to ministry officials, a committee comprising representatives from the ministry of tribal affairs, the ministry of DONER and Delhi University will regularly monitor the progress of construction work and meet every quarter for inspection and discuss related issues to ensure timely completion of the project. |
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Over 30 jaundice cases in Ghaziabad
Ghaziabad, March 24 During February, 55 cases of jaundice were detected in the district hospital. According to government hospital sources, on an average 50 to 60 cases of jaundice are detected in hospital’s lab tests every month. During June to October, last year, the number of such cases went up to 80 or 90 per month. According to Dr. Deepak Saxena, in view of a large number of Ghaziabad residents being afflicted with jaundice, the water works department of Nagar Nigam should ensure supply of clean and healthy drinking water. Dr. Ravindra Singh has advised the people to boil water before use. By boiling water, all germs get killed which cause jaundice and other stomach ailments, Dr. Ravindra Singh added. |
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Metro to reach Vaishali
New Delhi, March 24 The Memorandum of Understanding for the Rs 260-crore project was signed between DMRC director (Projects) Vijay Anand and GDA vice-chairman S.K. Dwivedi. According to DMRC spokesperson Anuj
Dayal, the DMRC will extend the Indraprastha – Yamuna Bank – Anand Vihar ISBT Metro corridor into Ghaziabad territory for about 2.57 km up to
Vaishali. The cost of the rolling stock will be borne by the DMRC, while the GDA will provide land for the project, free of cost. The GDA will provide 2.50 hectares of land for station and other facilities, including parking. The operation and maintenance of the link will be carried out by the DMRC, which will be exempt from all state taxes. The DMRC will complete the entire work in around two and a half years beginning today. Two stations—Kaushambi and Vaishali—will be elevated. |
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20 injured in Holi accidents
Ghaziabad/Noida, March 24 A family returning after playing Holi in Ghaziabad was involved in an accident in which 11-year-old boy lost his life on the spot while three others including his parents were seriously injured. Biharipur resident Umesh was returning after playing Holi late on Saturday night. Umesh, wife Jyoti, 11-year-old son Deepak and Amit were knocked down by a speeding vehicle at Vijay Nagar crossing. While the four were lying injured on the road, another vehicle crushed Deepak, killing him on the spot. The police rushed the three to the district hospital from where they were referred to the GTB hospital in East Delhi. In Jhajhar, a policeman’s foot was fractured by two drunk brothers who had trampled on it with their bike. The two brothers were arrested. At many places, clashes took place between groups of people who wanted to forcibly throw colour on unwilling people. The police arrested 15 persons from various places. About a dozen persons were injured in clashes in village Nawada under Kokode police station. In Noida, about 15 persons were arrested. Most of those involved in clashes were heavily drunk, the police said. |
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JNUSU protest against ABVP attack
New Delhi, March 24 The latest violence happened on March 16, when the allegedly drunk ABVP leaders of the university attacked one first year student during the Chandrabhaga Hostel night celebrations. “This is not the first time such incident has happened in the university,” said Avdesh, president, JNU unit All India Students’ Association (AISA). “ABVP goons have repeatedly carried out such attacks on the secular, democratic-minded students of the university. It has not been long since these people created a ruckus at the presidential debate in front of the whole student community.” As a balancing act, the university administration has withdrawn the hostel facilities of one of the alleged ABVP accused, Saurabh Dubey and declared one guest Anup out of bounds of the university campus, pending inquiry. “How could the university treat the oppressor and the oppressed equally,” said PK Anand, president, JNU unit Students’ Federation of India. “Something that is more shocking is that the university administration has not taken any action against three other accused, Santosh Pathak, Manoj and Ravi.” JNUSU supported by several other secular organisations have demanded immediate action against the ABVP leadership. The organisations have also demanded the reconstitution of the proctorial board that is allegedly biased in favour of the reactionary forces. Meanwhile, ABVP has organised another demonstration in front of the administrative block protesting against the victimisation of its cadre. “Our students have been beaten up so badly that some of us have received serious injuries,” said Manoj, vice-president, Delhi state ABVP. “Authorities cannot withdraw hostel facilities of Saurabh, as there has not been any inquiry into the case as yet.” The organisation has claimed that it was the SFI leaders, who attacked one of their cadre near the security.
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Minor fire at IT building
New Delhi, March 24 Several fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the fire was brought under control within 15 minutes. Although no one was injured, but some records were destroyed. Large number of employees rushed out of the building as they saw smoke billowing out of the room. The police has registered a case and efforts are being made to ascertain the cause of the fire. Electric short circuit is not being ruled out as the cause of the fire. Meanwhile, a team of senior income tax officials is trying to assess the damage to the records. |
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Centre gets notice over LPG black marketing
New Delhi, March 24 A division bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Siddharth Mridul asked for a status report by July 19. Acting on a public interest petition, the court also asked IOC to ensure that the genuine consumers get adequate supply of cooking gas. Raj Kumar Kaushik, president of the Society for Voice of Human Rights and Justice who filed the petition, contended that distributors of LPG gas were not supplying cylinders to genuine consumers but these were freely available in the black market. The distributors have failed to take action against the black marketers despite repeated complaints from the public, he claimed.
— IANS |
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Age of teachers
New Delhi, March 24 “The issue was discussed at length,” says DUTA president Aditya Narayana Misra. “We have completely rejected these guidelines from UGC. They are not favourable for the teaching community at large and we deplore the manner in which the vice-chancellor has used this to give re-employment to a retired professor,” says the DUTA president. The DUTA is upset with the fact that the VC has given contractual employment to a professor in the psychology department. The UGC guidelines favour the re-employment of superannuated teachers between the age-group of 65-70 years in the case of centrally funded universities. “We are objecting to what we see to be very selective re-employment and this scheme has come extremely late and only for regular sanctioned posts,” says Rajiv Verma, a member of the DU Academic Council. “Further the number of teachers to be re-employed is limited to 50% and this also requires the UGC’s discretion as it will only consider teachers with favorable track records in their last five years. Further teachers can be employed for 1-3 yrs and their service terminated within a month. This is not fair,” adds Verma. The DUTA in its meeting held on Monday not only rejected the guidelines but also rejected any employment after 65 years. “We find the guidelines discriminatory and have condemned them. Further DUTA is vehemently opposed to contractual employment as this requires changes in the university ordinances and should have been discussed in the academic council and approved by the executive council before being passed,” elaborates Verma. The DUTA also wants the pay package issue addressed as also the urgent need for better service conditions.
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Rs 200 cr earmarked for
two schools
Noida, March 24 To convert the district hospital in Sector 30 into a super-speciality hospital, a budget of Rs 160 crore has been earmarked for the current year. The new schools will be ready by March next. The schools ,one each for girls and boys,can enrol 1800 students. The plots are being identified in Sectors-40, 45, and 91, it is learnt. The construction of building is expected to be taken into hands in April this year. |
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Fraud in land deal
New Delhi, March 24 According to a complaint filed with Delhi Police chief Y.S. Dadwal, the woman Devika Rani, wife of late Chaman Lal, resident of A-55, Kamla Nagar in North Delhi, was the original owner of a property in the community centre-II, Ashok Vihar, phase-II. This was as per the perpetual lease signed on August 11, 1975 with the Delhi Development Authority
(DDA). The deal was duly registered with the registrar (number 2844, dated August 27, 1975), the complaint filed by Indian Institute of Finance head J.D Agarwal said. The
complainant remarked ‘’the dead woman comes on earth from heaven after 12 years of her death to sign the power of attorney.’’ Devika Rani died on August 16, 1988 at the LNJP Hospital as per the MCD records (number 3190 dated August 18, 1988). Surprisingly, 12 years after her death she came alive to sign a power of attorney for getting a conveyance deed executed by the DDA, it added. The latest conveyance deed (DDA file number Pd (11) 71/cl, dl/04/043/234862) was executed in favour of builders — Shakti Towers Pvt Limited on June 3, 2005. The complaint further said it has been observed that the conveyance deed was based on Devika Rani executing the power of attorney on January 20, 2000, almost 12 years after her death, appointing one Rajani Singla, wife of Munish Singla, a resident of 130 Shreshtha Vihar, Delhi as her attorney. “The fraudulent conveyance deed was later registered with registrar VII, New Delhi, on June 29, 2005, vide number 6903 book number 1 volume 1565.” Agarwal, an economist, has urged the police commissioner to investigate the matter in public interest. |
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Mughal Gardens open for visually impaired
New Delhi, March 24 According to a release, 10.30 a.m to 12.30 p.m will be for schools and organisations meant for visually impaired special
children. The time from 2.30 p.m to 4.30 p.m will be for visually impaired special individuals from general public. The entry and exit to the gardens will be from gate no. 12, situated on Church Road, opposite North Avenue. |
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New Delhi, March 24
