New Delhi, April 30
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has proposed modifications today in the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021. It seeks public reaction to the modifications.

The notification in this regard was issued by principal commissioner-cum-secretary V. M. Bansal.

In the modifications, it has allowed small shops and tuition centres for schoolchildren only in category A and B colonies. The shops can deal with 24 items already listed by the union urban development ministry.

The notification said that the local body should carry out a survey in streets or roads in urban villages for this purpose within three months of the notification. Coaching centres and tuition centres are also allowed in the colonies developed prior to 1962 of A and B category. As far as the basement is concerned, it will be subjected to clearance from the Delhi Fire Service and other statutory bodies.

The tuition centres and coaching centres being run from other colonies can continue till the end of May. Thereafter, they should be shifted to conforming locations.

The tuition centres for schoolchildren only, will also be permissible in the ground floor dwelling of any group housing society on maximum floor area of 100 square metre or 50 per cent of the floor area of the flat, the notification said.

In respect of residential premises already under mixed land use, the owner or occupier of the unit is required to declare such mixed land use by filling up a form and pay a one-time registration charges.

This notification came to public just two days after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has restarted the sealing drive and around 600 establishments have been sealed.

Chief of Delhi unit of the BJP, Harsh Vardhan said that this notification would not protect traders from sealing.

General amnesty scheme is the only way to save them from the sealing drive. 

New Delhi, April 30
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi today sealed 254 establishments in various areas of the Capital.

Three commercial establishments were sealed in Darya Ganj, 23 each in Trilokpuri and Kishan Kunj. While, 25 were sealed in Lajpat Nagar-I, Jungpura, Vikram Vihar and Hemkund. Twenty-seven were sealed in Rajouri Garden, Kirti Nagar, Vishnu Garden and Tilak Nagar and 21 in G-Block Sagarpur and adjoining roads. 21 were sealed in Safdarjung Enclave, Malviya Nagar and Dakshinpuri; 33 in Jhilmil and Seemapuri; 19 in Narela and 82 each in Prashant Vihar, Rohini and Keshavpuram.

Meanwhile, in a move to halt the ongoing sealing drive in the Capital, 150 municipal councillors of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Leader of the House Subhash Arya today marched from Jantar Mantar to the office of Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy.

They were arrested near Parliament Street. However, they were released later.

Subhash Arya said that the Congress governments in Delhi and the Centre offered relief to citizens of Delhi in installments to gain political mileage. Relief in installments is not justified. The government should promulgate the general amnesty scheme to give relief to Delhiites against sealing.

The party has time to time demanded regularisation of unauthorised constructions under the general amnesty scheme.

Divya Kumar Jaiswal, Deputy Mayor; Vijender Gupta, chairman, Standing Committee; Ram Kishan Singhal, Rajesh Gehlot and Ved Gupta aslo participated in the protest march. 

New Delhi, April 30
The NCR satellite towns are vulnerable to diseases,including AIDS, Hepatitis B & C and gastroenteric, respiratory, blood, skin infections and effects of radioactive substances due to untreated medical wastes released by its medical centres.

Of nearly 2400 tonne of hazardous medical waste generated by hospitals and medical centres within satellite townships of the NCR in a year, Noida takes the lead of releasing 800 tonne of such a waste followed by 600 tonne of Gurgaon and 500 tonne of Ghaziabad,an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM)survey has found.

Faridabad’s medical centres and nursing homes annually discharge clinical wastes to the extent of 350 tonne as against 200 tonne per annum medical wastes of such facilities located in Meerut, Loni locations beyond borders of Delhi, reveals the ASSOCHAM findings.

It has found that Noida and Gurgaon have a large number of medi centres and nursing homes but lagged behind in creating proper disposals of medical wastes.

Segregation and collection facilities for medical and clinical wastes have been totally neglected not only in Noida and Gurgaon but also in other satellite townships of Ghaziabad, Meeurt, Loni, Bulandshahar, Faridabad, Palwal, Mathura and even Agra, says ASSOCHAM secretary general D S Rawat.

The chamber has therefore mooted a proposal to set up at least 10 medical waste management facilities in the NCR to segregate infectious and non-infectious hospital wastes. The proposed centres could be funded through the public- private partnership model for which larger allocations should be earmarked from the state governments concerned.

Releasing the report, Rawat said that rough estimates reveal that Noida medi centres throw away nearly 800 tonne per annum of medi waste as against 600 tonne of Gurgaon, 500 tonne of Ghaziabad, 350 tonne of Faridabad and around 200 tonne of Meerut, Loni.

“In all, the NCR excluding Delhi disposes off 2450 tonne per annum of medi wastes in a haphazard manner and cause stink and degrade the environment of the townships”, says Rawat.

The chamber estimates further reveal that NCR has approximately 780 large and medium hospitals and 4600 nursing homes and most of these hospitals and clinics lack segregation and treatment facilities. 

New Delhi, April 30
The law faculty students from Delhi University, who have been detained by the dean, SN Singh allegedly due to low attendance, are terming the step as “arbitrary and cruel”. Students claim that they have good attendance and the step would ruin their future and career.

Some 275 to 300 students have not been allowed to appear in the ongoing exams. Of these, over nine students are from the final year.

Poonam Yadav, student at the law faculty and general secretary, National Students’ University of India (NSUI) says, “What is happening is extremely unfair. There is a requirement of 66% attendance for appearing in the examination. The attendance sheets for January and February were put on display in mid-March, which was extremely late. And, those for March and April have not been put till date. Due to this many students are suffering.”

Reportedly, students met the dean to register their complaint in the last week of April. “The Dean tore our application and threw it. He told me that he would ruin my career and future in presence of over 50 students. This kind of vindictiveness is not on from someone who holds such a position. Then we appealed to the VC and I moved the High Court which gave a stay order on April 24,” said Poonam.

“I missed one hour and was not mentally fit to take the exam. I had to call the police to get my admit card. I have 90% attendance in three papers and one is suffering, many students are in the same boat.”

The dean has shown leniency to one girl who had 45% attendance, she alleged. “Why should she be special. Our careers are at stake. Many of us have already had placements and have jobs but we stand to loose if we cannot appear in exams. This is extreme harassment,” she said.

However, the law faculty is reserved in giving its opinion. “We are aware of students agitation. Many have been detained but there is a bar council rule that calls for 66% attendance to appear in exams and if the dean is implementing this perhaps a bit strictly, we cannot fault it. We understand and bear with the suffering students,” said a teacher on the condition of anonymity. 

New Delhi, April 30
The Institute of Clinical Research India (ICRI) today introduced a new teaching methodology, ‘Blackboard’ (Virtual Learning Environment).

It is the only institute in India that will facilitate such a methodology of teaching and the new batch of students (2008 – 2010) at ICRI will be exposed to this system. A pilot project was undertaken to check on its feasibility and has been very well accepted by the students, a spokesman claimed.

Blackboard is a patented programme providing virtual learning environment. It provides access to library resources, journals, study materials, papers, lectures, and updates from the partner University in UK, Cranfield University. This method facilitates direct dialogue with the faculty at Cranfield University, UK, over the Internet. Also, it will enable the students to submit papers/reports online and get immediate feedback. It is a secure system and no papers are leaked or shared with others. There is special software called Turntin which checks plagiarism automatically -– the non-original work is detected and the students and faculty are alerted. It also allows annotations and editing from both sides i.e. students and faculty and facilitates archiving.

S R Dugal, chairman, Board of Directors, ICRI, while interacting with the media said, “India is emerging as a key player in the field of clinical research on a global platform. Our aim is to constantly benchmark ourselves to international best practices in our domain. We strive to become the future torch-bearers for similar institutes in India and the introduction of the Blackboard is a step in this direction. We are confident the students will benefit immensely from this teaching methodology.”

To facilitate Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), all the students will be provided with a laptop. Also, all the campuses have been made Wi-Fi enabled with LCD panels in all classrooms.

Dugal said that clinical research had emerged as a global industry and hence the courses, faculty and practices at clinical research institutes – all need to be global, adopting the best practices from all over the

world. The institute has collaborated with Cranfield University, U.K., – Europe’s academic centre for strategic and applied research. This partnership has given ICRI, a global magnitude to clinical research learning in India and they are developing some of the best practices in the industry and working towards creating world-class talent pool in clinical research.

ICRI was conceived with the objective of meeting the growing demand of skilled clinical research professionals. The choice of courses offered by the institution is specially made to suit the requirements of a large number of people with varied experiences.

New Delhi, April 30
A day after her first wedding anniversary, a 24-year-old woman was on Wednesday found hanging at her home in northwest Delhi, with her parents alleging that she had been murdered by her husband and in-laws over dowry demands.

As a mob of 250 surrounded the house refusing to let the police bring down the body of Astha Jain, demanding that her husband and in-laws be first arrested, the police said they had found a suicide note in which the woman blamed her in-laws for her death.

Astha Jain married Amit Jain, whose family runs a steel manufacturing factory in Rajasthan on April 29 last year. Her body was discovered hanging from the ceiling of her bedroom at her Pitampura house in the afternoon.

On hearing about her death, the victim’s father, Ashok Jain, an affluent paper merchant in the Indian capital, and nearly 250 relatives and friends gathered outside the house and stopped the police from removing the body.

“We will not let the police take her body till they arrest Amit Jain, his father Ram Prasad and his mother Aasha on charge of murder. They have murdered my daughter for dowry and hanged her from the ceiling,” thundered a furious Ashok Jain.

“Astha’s in-laws were after dowry. Their lust for money killed my daughter. Since her marriage, they have been demanding cash and a car. We had given them a Mercedes car and huge amounts of money,” he said.

“On Holi day they made more demands and now on her first marriage anniversary on Tuesday, they had again harassed her for more dowry. Astha’s brother-in-law had also left his wife for dowry,” he said.

A suicide letter recovered from the scene read: “I am committing suicide as my in-laws have been harrassing me for ... dowry.”

A large number of policemen at the site appeared helpless in front of the angry crowd.—IANS

Greater Noida, April 30
Hundreds of farmers from about a dozen villages, including Ghora- Vachhera and Dara, picketed at the Greater Noida Development Authority office here yesterday.

They were protesting against the delay in disbursement of land compensation at the rates fixed in 2005. The farmers had reached the authority office early in the morning and put their padlocks on office doors.

A large number of them having forced their way into the offices, told the officials to vacate the offices. When officials and employees did not go out, the farmers locked them in .Till evening nobody tried to come out nor was anybody allowed to go in.

Addressing the farmers, Kisan Morch president Ramesh Havaldar said that none in the government, administration or authority had time to listen to the farmers’ grievances, hence they were forced to violate the law.

Later, the farmers, however, agreed to suspend their agitation for a fortnight on the intervention of the district magistrate and the SSP.They threatened to resume the agitation if the compensation was not disbursed by May 15.

A few farmers had fainted during the dharna. An old farmer couple had to be removed to hospital. 

New Delhi, April 30
The BJP has given a call for strike on May 2 in protest against the steep price spiral.

Delhi unit chief of the BJP, Harsh Vardhan has asked all the traders and industrialists that they should actively participate in the campaign against price spiral.

By observing a complete strike, traders and others should show solidarity with the suffering people.

He said that workers of all the 280 mandals should come on the streets for public awareness against rising prices.

The traffic will not be obstructed anywhere so that people may not face any difficulty. The Congress government in Delhi under the leadership of Sheila Dikshit has failed on all fronts.

The government is more interested in taking commissions and constructing anti-people corridors. Vardhan said that it is a matter of enquiry that whenever the Congress comes to power, the prices increase very fast.

It is surprising that when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist, finance minister P. Chidarambaram, the vice-chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia are at the helm of affairs, the price spiral is not being controlled, added Vardhan. 

New Delhi, April 30
A city court on Wednesday deferred till May 2 the sentencing of Lieutenant Colonel (retd) S.J. Choudhary, who has been convicted for murdering Krishan Sikand here in 1982.

Additional sessions judge Mamta Sehgal deferred the sentencing on the Tihar Jail superintendent’s official communication that Choudhary was not well and could not be brought to the court.

The court also asked the medical superintendent of the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital to submit a detailed report on Choudhary’s health.

Meanwhile, defence counsel pleaded before the court for a copy of Monday’s judgement, which was refused by the court.

Counsel also pleaded that a family member should be allowed to meet Choudhary, but the court declined, saying it does not have the power to grant such a permission.

“You need to seek the permission from the Tihar Jail superintendent to meet the accused,” said Sehgal.

On Monday, the court found Choudhary guilty under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under Sections 3 and 4 of the Explosives Act.

The sentence can vary from death penalty to life imprisonment.

The case dates back to October 2, 1982, when a parcel bomb sent by Choudhary killed Krishan Sikand at his Sunder Nagar residence.

The prosecution alleged that Chaudhary was angry because his divorced wife had decided to move in with Sikand and the two had planned to get married.

Chaudhary was arrested soon after the crime.

After the arrest and the filing of the charge-sheet, the trial began on May 31, 1984 and the process of recording evidence continued for 15 years.

Despite all odds, the victim’s 98-year-old father H.D.Sikand continued to make attempts for a speedier probe.

During the prolonged trial, the family approached the Delhi High Court several times to expedite the proceedings. The case involved documents running into a few thousand pages.

The CBI had also alleged that the bomb used in the murder was made in Pakistan and was seized by the Indian Army following its victory in the 1971 war.

The investigating agency examined 76 witnesses.

Chaudhary, who was out on bail, pleaded innocence. Nine witnesses have been examined in his defence.

In 2006, Chaudhary filed an application to get the case transferred to another court. The High Court dismissed the plea and observed that the “96-year-old father of the deceased had been in pursuit of justice for so many years and was yet to come to terms with his son’s brutal murder”.

It then asked the trial court to decide the case “as expeditiously as possible”. Finally, in March, the court wrapped up the final arguments in the case. 
— IANS

New Delhi, April 30
BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) has increased the number of administrative circles from the present two to four in its efforts to further streamline the system and provide better service to the consumers.

Two officers of the deputy general manager level, one each for business and operations and maintenance (O&M), will head their respective department in each of the four circles.

The South circle has been split into two — South I, Adchini and South II, Nizammudin. Similarly, the West circle has been split into West I, Hari Nagar and West II, Punjabi Bagh. These in turn will be reporting to head business and head O&M, respectively — who in turn will directly report to CEO Arun Kanchan. The move to split these circles will assist in giving a fillip to AT & C reduction efforts, optimisation of customer care, improved interaction with customers, decentralisation of responsibility and more empowerment to field staff leading to faster resolution of queries

“This area restructuring has been necessitated keeping in mind the explosive growth in South and West Delhi,” said a BSES official. 

Faridabad, April 30
Two buffaloes perished and property of a score of residents was destroyed in two fires that broke out in Bhadurpur and Kaurali villages, about 25 km from here, today afternoon.

The cause of the fires in the two villages, falling in Ballabgarh sub-division, could not be ascertained.

The fire in village Bhadarpur started first. Two buffaloes of Bish Ram were charred to death and properties of Sukhapal and Kamal were damaged in the tragedy.

The fire raged for more than an hour and was brought under control by the villagers. The residents used water from the nearby pond to douse the flames.

The fire in village Kaurali raged for four hours. Three fire tenders battled to bring it under control.

More than dozen heaps of fodder and dung cakes were burnt. Rajesh,whose entire fodder stock was burnt ,found the loss unbearable.