New Delhi, June 21
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) today termed the Congress government’s announcement to regularise unauthorised colonies as an election stunt and a betrayal to people. The party has promised people of taking effective measures in this connection if voted to power in the assembly elections to be held in November.

Delhi unit BJP president Harsh Vardhan said this after the working committee of the Delhi BJP passed a resolution regarding unauthorised colonies.

Leader of opposition in Delhi assembly Jagdish Mukhi moved the resolution in the working committee and Mewa Ram Arya, a senior party leader seconded it.

Addressing a press conference, Vardhan said that the BJP government first took the work of regularising unauthorised colonies in 1971. At that time, 54 unauthorised colonies were regularised. Then, in 1977, the Janata Party government in Delhi for the second time decided to regularise 607 unauthorised colonies. It regularised a total of 567 colonies.

When the BJP came to power in Delhi in 1994, a decision was taken to regularise all unauthorised colonies that had come up by March 31, 1993. It had sent a list of 1,071 such colonies to the Centre for approval. But the Centre led by the Congress party rejected the proposal.

In 2004 when the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had decided to regularise such colonies, the Delhi government under Sheila Dikshit did not take any step in this regard even after four years of the decision.

And, now, when only five months are left for the assembly elections, the government has announced this. The government is cheating people. The terms and conditions for regularisation as per the Master Plan — 2021 are very stern and complicated and, until there is a change in the land use condition in the Master Plan not a single colony can be regularised, said a BJP leader.

The regularising announcement is misleading. Such an announcement was made at the time of MCD elections also. But the Congress got a befitting reply in the form of its defeat.

The BJP resolution also mentioned the spiraling prices of essential commodities. The present rate of inflation has broken the record of the past 13 years. The life of people has become miserable.

BJP Delhi unit in charge Thawar Chand Gehlot, MP Vijay Kumar Malhotra, party leaders Vijay Goel, Anita Arya, Charti Lal Goel, BJP office bearers, BJP district presidents and members of the pradesh working committee were also present.

New Delhi, June 21
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed a chargesheet in the ACP Rajbir Singh murder case, alleging Vijay Bhardwaj of killing him. Vijay Bhardwaj is a Gurgaon-based property dealer. The court has summoned him on June 30.

A CBI official informed that the chargesheet was filed before the special judicial magistrate of the CBI court in Ambala under Section 302 of the IPC and Section 25/27 of the Indian Arms Act, 1959.

It was found that the revolver used to kill the ACP was the one lost by a DCP of the Haryana Police during an encounter on July 21, 2007 in Bhiwani district. Now, the CBI is investigating as to how the revolver reached Bhardwaj.

ACP Rajbir Singh was shot on the night of March 24 this year. An FIR was registered against Vijay Bhardwaj after three days.

The case was transferred to the CBI on June 2, after the ACP’s family demanded an inquiry alleging that Vijay Bhardwaj was merely a puppet and the real culprits were ‘some higher authority’ who had some vested interest in his death.

The CBI has examined 125 witnesses and gathered proofs on the basis of forensic tests, oral communication and circumstantial evidence. The agency has come to the conclusion that Vijay Bhardwaj shot the ACP with a .32 bore revolver.

New Delhi, June 21
More than 500 resident doctors returned to work at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital here after calling off their five-day long strike yesterday. A delegation of doctors met Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit after resuming services at the hospital.

The Chief Minister has promised doctors of a hotline connecting three police stations — IP Estate, Kamla Market and Daryaganj to the hospital. A 24-hour PCR van would be deployed at the hospital.

The Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) decided to resume duties after several rounds of meetings between the hospital authorities and their representatives.

The resident doctors and interns had declared a strike on June 16 against an alleged attack on a doctor by the relatives of a patient.

“We have met all their demands. Seventy-five home guards have already been deployed at the hospital,” said Dr Swaraj Batra, medical superintendent, LNJP Hospital.

The hospital authorities have temporarily called group D workers from other hospitals. “We would soon issue advertisements for permanent recruitment,” informed Dr Swaraj.

The hospital administration said that life-saving drugs were made available at the hospital and informed that the government had assured them of adequate supply of oxygen.

According to the RDA representatives, they decided to call off the strike only after positive results were seen.

“The services were resumed immediately after the home guards were posted at the hospital,” said Dr Kuldeep, president, RDA.

New Delhi, June 21
In a major reshuffle, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Tejendra Khanna has transferred several senior IAS and IPS officers.

Nita Bali has been transferred from the DSCSC to the Delhi Finance Corporation as chairperson and managing director. She will also hold additional charge as the chairperson of the DSIIDC.

Vijay Kumar Dev, IAS secretary-cum-commissioner (food and supplies) has been given the additional charge of chairman of the DSCSC. Whereas, Jayshree Raghuraman, IAS, who is on leave till July 15, has been posted as the managing director of the DSCSC.

In the Delhi Police, S. Prakash, joint CP (special branch) has been posted as joint CP (operations), Ujjwaleshwar Mishra, additional CP (operations) has been posted as additional CP (special branch). He will also hold the charge of additional CP (operations) till further orders.

Neeraj Thakur, DCP (special branch) has been posted as DCP (crime and railways), I.D. Shukla, DCP (4th battalion, Delhi Armed Police) has been posted as DCP (anti-corruption), Manish Kumar Aggarwal DCP (North West district) has been relieved on transfer to Pondicherry and Anil Shukla DCP (crime and railways) has been relieved on transfer to Arunanchal Pradesh.

Apart from this, P. Dass has been transferred from Goa and posted as DCP (4th battalion DAP), Narendra Singh Bundela, additional DCP-1 (South district) has been posted as DCP (North West district), R.K. Jha, additional DCP (crime and railways) has been posted as additional DCP-II (West district), M.L. Meena, additional DCP (West district) has been posted as additional DCP (security) and P.C. Hota, DCP (anti-corruption) has been posted as DCP (2nd battalion, DAP).

New Delhi, June 21
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) yesterday held a demonstration at the Jharkahand Bhawan to protest against the alleged killings of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) activists in the state.

Joined by several women and students’ organisations, the representatives submitted a memorandum addressed to the governor of the state.

“We demand a CBI inquiry into the killings of more than 17 activists across the state along with an inquiry into the implementation of the NREG scheme. There is wide scale corruption in the department,” said Sandeep Singh, president, JNUSU.

The protestors alleged that the activists, who raise their voices against the corruption, are targeted and killed.

New Delhi, June 21
Delhi University (DU) will release its first cut-of list on June 26. DU has received approximately 82,000 forms this year. Of which, it has received 10,400 forms from students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC). While it has received more than 12,000 forms from students belonging to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes.

The University offers 5,000 and 7,400 seats to the OBC and the SC/ST students respectively.

According to a university official, some 5,800 OBC candidates from Delhi have applied for admissions this year.

Some 58,000 students have applied in the general category. Over one-fourth applicants hail from states including, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. 

Ghaziabad, June 21
Four children – three girls and a boy, of a family have been mysteriously missing from Khora colony for the last one week. The parents of the kids are running from pillar to post but are still clueless about their whereabouts. And to top it all, the police has not yet registered the complaint of the hapless parents.

Rakesh Kumar’s family lives in a rented accommodation in Deepak Vihar locality in Khora, which falls under Indirapuram police station. His children Khushbu, Jyoti, Chanchal and Gulu are missing since June 14. They had left their house at around 8:30 p.m for their father’s vegetable shop in Sector 56 in Noida. But they never reached there. When Rakesh returned home at night he learnt that the children were missing. After checking at all possible places, he informed the police post of Khora colony about it. But when the cops at the police post did not offer any help, Rakesh went to Indirapuram police station.

The police asked for the photographs of the children but did not make any efforts to trace them.

This is not the first time when a child has gone missing in Ghaziabad. Over 50 children have gone missing from the town during last two months.

The divisional commissioner of Meerut Devinder Chaudhary had recently expressed his displeasure to the district magistrate and the SSP of Ghaziabad about the 46 missing children.

The commissioner had ordered to start citizens’ programme in the areas with maximum number of missing children to spread awareness among the people and to advise them to remain alert.

New Delhi, June 21
Come July 1 and eight magistrates’ courts here will begin functioning for two hours every evening in an attempt to clear the staggering 897,373 cases.

The sittings will be held in the four district courts at Tis Hazari, Patiala House, Rohini and Karkardooma. Officials hope that this will lead to the quick disposal of around 300,000 cases in the initial phase.

“Initially, two metropolitan magistrates (in each of the courts) will hear cases in the evening but the number will soon be increased. The system will work on a rotational basis,” said an official involved with the project.

The courts will operate from 5.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. on all working days.

“The evening courts not only mean additional working hours but introduce a system which enables the common man to seek justice without wasting his time,” the official pointed out.

“There will be no added burden on the exchequer given that the existing infrastructure will be utilised,” he added.

The concept of evening courts was first mooted at the conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts here last year, with Gujarat and Tamil Nadu having already taken the lead in the matter.

The legal community is, however, divided on the issue.

“If we attend court proceedings in the morning as well as in the evening, when we will get the time to prepare for our cases?” wondered advocate K.K. Jha.

The court staff would work on a shift basis but this luxury would not be available to lawyers, he pointed out.

Another lawyer, Rajiv Sinha, also opposed the project, saying, “It is unethical. How can we work 24 hours a day?”

Earlier this year, Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj in written reply in the Lok Sabha, had stated, “Apart from setting up evening courts, we have requested the High Courts to increase their working hours by 30 minutes or to reduce the number of holidays.

“It is up to the respective Chief Justices to take action in this regard.”

Gujarat was the first to introduce evening courts in November 2006 and the response was overwhelming. — IANS

New Delhi, June 21
SRIJAN-2008, the one-day animated film festival was held at the NCUI Auditorium here today. The festival was organised by MAAC (Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics).

The festival that witnessed a huge turnout of youngsters who are keen to pursue a career in animation showcased the films made by MAAC students and the budding animators from North India.

Kingshuk Gupta, senior vice-president and head of corporate communications – MAAC said, “The idea behind SRIJAN is to promote animation as an industry and to impart knowledge among the youth about the career prospects offered by it.”

Indian filmmakers who have been a part of Oscar winning Hollywood flicks like – ‘Golden Compass’, ‘Beverly Hills’, ‘Night In The Museum’, ‘Happy Feet’, ‘Superman Returns’ and ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ expressed their views.

V.K. Gupta who has worked as a technical director in Hollywood blockbusters like – ‘Golden Compass’ and ‘Beverly Hills’ addressed a seminar. He is regarded as an industry stalwart. He has also worked with Disney and Cinesite Europe.

V.K. Gupta said, “The VFX industry here is evolving at a fast rate. An increased usage of special effects is found in the films made by the Indian film industry. It is a myth that India does not have quality VFX artists. The success of ‘Golden Compass’ at the Oscars proves, where Indian studios worked for the VFX scenes proves our mettle.”

Some his award winning works were also screened.

Deepak Ganguly of Tata Elxsi addressed a session on pre-production and character designing. Tata Elxsi is a well-known studio in India which has done special effects in films like – ‘Dhoom’, ‘Funtoosh’, ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ and ‘Veer Zaara’.

He said that the interest of youngsters in the industry is burgeoning.

“I feel that India has the best to offer in animation and special effects. A large number of animated works are out-sourced to India. Moreover, according to an industry forecast by Anderson Consulting, the animation industry is poised to touch more than USD 1.5 billion by 2009,” he added.

Those present also got a chance to interact with Amit Sharma of Rhythm & Hues, a studio that has worked for films like – ‘Night In The Museum’, ‘Happy Feet’, ‘Superman Returns’ and ‘Chronicles of Narnia’. He spoke on various aspects of visual effects and also showed some works done by Rhythm & Hues.

MAAC, 3D animation and visual effects training academy, is owned by acclaimed producer-director Ketan Mehta.

MAAC has pioneered 3D animation and visual effects education in India. It runs over 60 centers in India, Nepal, the Middle East and Sri Lanka. It has tied-up with the University of Cambridge, London to validate its diploma courses. 

New Delhi, June 21
The sixth centre of Aap Ki Rasoi was opened at Shahdara in East Delhi today. Aap Ki Rasoi is an initiative under the Bhagidari scheme of the government to ensure at least one-time meal to the homeless, poor and destitute.

The centre is a joint venture of the city-government and Neotia Foundation group of Ambuja Cement.

The hunger-free Delhi campaign has been intensified. Many a times street children are noticed gathering eatables from garbage.

The city-government will continue to facilitate NGOs or business houses in distribution of cooked food at the specified centres. The Neotia Foundation will provide fresh cooked nutritious food through Bengaluru-based NGO Akshay Patra. Fresh food will be provided everyday between 12 noon to 3 p.m. at the centres. The government under its initiative permits to utilize night shelters for distribution of cooked food.

Five such centres are located at Nizamuddin Basti, Jhandewalan, Chandni Chowk, Yamuna Bazar, Guru Gobind Singh Hospital and Raghubir Nagar. They were inaugurated by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

The big corporate, business houses, well-to-do individuals and organisations and NGOs have been exhorted to adopt one of the sites for providing meal to the destitute.

Elaborate arrangements were made to ensure smooth distribution of cooked food. Besides, drinking water was also made available.

Area MLA Ram Babu Sharma, chairman of Trans Yamuna Development Board and MLA Narendra Nath, deputy mayor Divya Jaiswal and chairman of Ambuja Cement Suresh Kumar Neotia were present.

New Delhi, June 21
Celebrities like Raveena Tandon and Priyanka Vadra dived into the past to pull out heirloom saris for their weddings. But ever-heard about old saris being turned into shoes?

It does sound bizarre. But with Swati Mehrotra, a customised shoe designer, providing the facility in town, it is very much possible.

“Get me an old sari or a car’s tyre and I would make a shoe of your choice. The tyre can be used as the sole. It is just about how creative my customers want me to be,” Mehrotra told IANS.

Mehrotra, who has also made shoes for well-known designer J.J Valaya, designs her shoes under label SWATI MODO and opened her first retail outlet in the Capital on Wednesday.

“My label is all about customisation. I make all sorts of shoes, depending upon my mood. Whatever clicks my mind, I make it. But I am open to what my customer’s want,” she said

“Basically, I am not restricted to making my shoes according to any trend. I like peep-toes right now, maybe the next time I will make something else,” said Mehrotra, who underwent a professional course in shoe designing.

She caters for both men and women and all her shoes are made by her in her workshop in Delhi’s suburb Ghaziabad.

She also has a growing clientele in Britain and the US.

She said, “My foreign clients keep telling me that they consider India is the best in the art of making shoes.”

Mehrotra sells her customised range of shoes, starting at Rs 3,500 under her sub-brand Seren and she plans to change her display every one-and-a-half month to offer a sense of uniqueness to her clients.

Besides customisation, she also indulges in other shoe-related aspects.

“I have started a shoe laundry where people can get their old and favourite pair of shoes that may be in a dirty or tattered state, cleaned and revamped. This is a known concept in Mumbai, but very new to Delhi,” she explained.

Mehrotra is also open to redesigning people’s shoes.

“I had a male client who asked me to add a five-inch heel to his shoe since he was shorter than his girlfriend. So, I also do such stuff.”

She is planning to expand her business by soon opening another outlet in the Capital and by diversifying into belts and bags. — IANS

New Delhi, June 21
Three members of a family were injured, when robbers attacked them today morning in the Mayur Vihar area of East Delhi.

Bijender Singh, 45, his wife Kanta, 40, and his brother Surender, 31 were returning home to Mehrauli from Ghaziabad when the incident took place on NH — 24, a police officer said.

Surender, who was driving the car told the police that he had stopped the car near the Mayur Vihar phase — II traffic light.

“He stepped out of the car while Bijender and Kanta were inside. Suddenly, three masked youths who were probably following them arrived on a motor cycle and stopped next to the car,” the police officer added.

One of the assailants took out a knife and a countrymade pistol and asked them to hand over the valuables and cash.

“They shot Bijender twice who rebuffed their advances. They injured him in the thigh. Hearing the commotion, Surender returned and got into a scuffle with the robbers. Another assailant shot him on his chest,” a police officer said.

A bullet hit the mirror, and a shard of glass injured Kanta. She rang the police control room, which sent a van to take them to hospital.

“Bijender and Kanta were discharged while Surender was referred to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital,” the police added. “He is stable and will be discharged soon.”

Surender owns a travel agency and his elder brother Bijender is works in a private company. — IANS

Noida, June 21
A 22-year-old woman was gangraped by a ‘godman’ practising occult and his associates but the Uttar Pradesh Police has registered a complaint of molestation, the victim’s family alleged here today.

Om Prakash, the victim’s husband, said that his wife had gone to Jhulla, a neighbour in village Sirsa Khanpur of Greater Noida district, to get medicines for him on Thursday night.

“The ‘tantric’ (occult practioner) asked me to accompany him to a forested area to collect herbs for the medicines to cure my husband,” the 22-year-old victim said.

“On reaching the spot, I found that two men were already present there. Both were drunk. The three then raped me,” alleged the victim.

The victim managed to escape and reached a temple at Luxar village.

The priest gave her clothes and sent her home.

When the family reached Kasna police station on Friday morning to file a complaint, the police alleged that the victim had an illicit relationship with the accused, said Om Prakash.

But when local residents supported the victim, the police registered a molestation case, he said.

“The SO (station officer) delayed the case. Now after 48 hours it will be difficult to prove rape in the medical examination,” Om Prakash alleged.

No police official was available for comment even after repeated attempts to reach them. — IANS

New Delhi, June 21
A 19-year-old girl from Jharkhand, who works as a domestic help here, was allegedly raped by two men.

“Sunita (name changed) alleged that she was raped by Sanjay and Vinod on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday,” a police officer said.

The victim as well as the accused are residents of the Nangloi area in the Capital.

“She revealed that the accused had threatened dire consequences if she informed the police. She approached the police on Friday to register her complaint,” the officer added.

The accused are missing since the incident.

“The victim is from Jharkhand and works as domestic help in Nangloi,” the official said. — IANS