New Delhi, July 20
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today announced that her government would facilitate the commissioning of 50 new CNG stations in the Capital city and make Delhi a CNG capital to ensure clean air for the residents.

Apparently reacting to reports of long queues at CNG filling stations, she said that CNG supplies for all public and private vehicles would be ensured in ample quantity.

Along with the along with union petroleum minister Murli Deora, she today visited a CNG station and participated in a consumer meet of CNG users. Representatives of the Transport Operator Associations covering buses, taxis, autorickshaws were also present at the meeting.

Union minister of state Ajay Makan, local MPs Krishna Tirath and Sajjan Kumar, and local MLA Barkha Singh and chief secretary Rakesh Mehta were also present there.

Dikshit said her government was determined to overcome problem of pollution in the city. It had successfully introduced the world’s largest CNG public transport system in the capital city.

In all, 100 new CNG stations would come up in Delhi/NCR before commencement of Commonwealth Games 2010. Ten new CNG stations were being planned every year to meet the challenge of increased CNG demand in view of the forthcoming games in the capital.

She revealed that the average sale of CNG in the current month was around 11.8-lakh kg per day with peak sale touching 13.5-lakh kg per day. IGL is augmenting its capacity in Delhi by adding 54 new high-powered electric-driven compressors. This will add nearly 25% to the existing capacity, 21-lakh kg/day to 26-lakh kg/day. Rising prices of liquid fuels have given a tremendous boost to CNG conversion. , she said.

Dikshit added her government would ensure clean air. It has taken a step further to switch over light motor vehicles goods carriers to CNG. The city government has been providing relief in VAT, sales tax and registration on purchase of battery-operated vehicles which emit no pollutants.

Murli Deora said his ministry would provide all possible assistance and co-operation in ensuring ample quantity of CNG, which is cheaper and safe fuel apart from being a substitute of diesel and petrol.

He claimed that his ministry had marginally enhanced rates of petroleum products. The rates of petrol, CNG, kerosene and diesel are the cheapest in the world in India. To meet this ever-increasing demand, IGL has plans to expand the dispensing capacity of CNG by 30% to 40%.

This will be done by installing new electric motor-driven compressors and 120 CNG dispensers by December 2008. IGL is also in touch with DTC to allow utilisation of their depots at six locations for multiuse.

The petroleum minister indicated that a scheme to provide an insurance cover to CNG autorickshaw drivers which has been implemented in Mumbai would also be introduced in Delhi.

A number of suggestions, including opening of more CNG stations, revival of two CNG stations on NH-8 and uniform rate of CNG, were presented by various CNG users.

An interactive session on the supply of CNG in Delhi was also held.

New Delhi, July 20
Under intense public pressure to trace the motorcycle-borne armed desperadoes responsible for over a dozen incidents of indiscriminate firing and looting in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, the Delhi police has constituted several special teams to nab them.

Senior police officials said that these teams had raided several places in the Capital and the adjoining areas. The teams have also sent the photo identification sketches of the two suspects to all the police stations and police pickets specially erected to catch the suspects who have been striking all over the city.

Meanwhile, the police said that it had intensified its drive to physically check the two wheelers and had taken the help of the department of transport to verify some registration numbers, which had been given by some eyewitnesses.

However, the police believes that the suspects have been using stolen or snatched motor cycles to carry out the strikes.

The police has also sought the help of general public to help them trace the suspects and announced a handsome cash award for providing crucial information that would lead to their arrest.

The police said that there have been numerous calls from the public in the last few days and every bit of information given by the public was being vetted.

Police commissioner Y. S. Dadwal has instructed all the district deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) to ensure adequate foot and mobile patrolling in their respective areas to instill confidence among people.

A large number of people, including traders and shopkeepers, have come out openly and have said that there was a tremendous sense of insecurity among the citizens because of these incidents.

New Delhi, July 20
The BJP Delhi Pradesh president, Dr Harsh Vardhan, has assured industrialists that his government would formulate an industry-friendly industrial police if elected to power in the National Capital Territory of Delhi in the forthcoming assembly elections.

Addressing a large number of industrialists at the party headquarters here last evening, the Delhi BJP president also said he would also constitute a Delhi Industrial Development Board to look after their interests.

About 500 industrialists of the Capital had responded to the call of the BJP Delhi Pradesh Industrialist Cell in connection with the problems of the industries and industrialists of Delhi.

It included industrialists of all planned and non-planned industrial areas of Delhi.

Prominent industrialists from Jhilmil, Shahzada Bagh, Wazirpur, G.T. Karnal Road, Confederation of Delhi Industries & CEPT, Badli, SMA, Bawana etc. industrial areas were present at the meeting.

The Delhi BJP president said during the past 10 years of Congress rule, the industries of Delhi were almost dead.

“The Industries Department of Delhi has become an entity on paper only. Three lakh industrialists are contributing to the development of Delhi. They are paying crores of rupees as taxes to the government. Yet they are not being provided even the basic industrial amenities. Instead of providing facilities to them, the Congress government machinery is harassing them. The BJP will remove all discrepancies and develop Delhi as the industrial capital again,” he said.

The Delhi Industries Cell in charge Shyam Lal Garg said industrialists of Delhi have to suffer harassment by more than 50 government departments. Due to lack of coordination between various departments, corruption and redtapism, the industrialists of Delhi are a harassed lot. The credit goes to them that they are contributing to the development of Delhi smiling.

He said that if the BJP comes to power then single window system will be implemented where the people concerned of various departments shall solve the problems of the industrialists at one place.

Industries Cell president Anil Gupta said the condition of about 50 planned and 25 non-planned industrial areas of Delhi is hellish. Even the basic amenities are not available in these areas. Nobody is there to look after the industrialists of Delhi.

Every department behaves independently and exploits the industrialists. This situation should end.

He demanded that all 20,000 industrialists of Delhi should be allotted industrial plots immediately. He also demanded freehold rights for the plots in Bawana and other rehabilitation industrial areas.

New Delhi, July 20
Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress Committee activists are not satisfied with the committee policy regarding the selection of candidates and other election strategies. They are not given weightage in making election strategies, they feel.

An office-bearer of the DPYCC said during the municipal election, the Congress suffered defeat due to the party’s internal fighting.

While distributing ticket for contesting municipal election, active workers were not given significance. Nepotism and money were allegedly considered as qualifications for the selection of candidates. Consequently, the party had lost elections by securing only 66 seats out of 272.

Preferring anonymity, the office-bearer said now in the assembly election that is to be held in November this year, the party might suffer a jolt due to unhappiness of the youth. Youth are backbone of any party, he said.The reason for their unhappiness with the DPCC is that their names are not included in the list prepared for expected candidates.

During municipal elections, youth were given 20 per cent seats. But in the assembly elections they are not given even 7 per cent seats. There are 70 assembly constituencies in Delhi.

Not only this but also the DPCC president Jai Prakash Aggarwal does not discuss with youths for election strategy and distribution of tickets. This attitude of the DPCC president may harm the party, they warned.

One of the DPYCC senior members said that he wanted to discuss with Rahul Gandhi but he was not given sufficient time. This is very surprising. On the one hand he appeals to the party to give youth important position in the organisation, one the other he does not spare time to hear their grievances.

All the groundwork is done by youth but they have no place in decision-making. Whenever a rally is organised, the youth are asked to make a heavy gathering. They make all arrangements. On the day of election they are deployed at polling booths to check booth-capturing, bogus voting and other things by rival parties, he said.

DPCC president Jai Prakash Agarwal said, “I am working according to the directions of the All India Congress Committee. There are certain wings in organisation and the head of the organisation talks to the person concerned. As far as DPYCC is concerned, I discuss the issues with its president when I need.”

There is a way to run an organisation. The head of the organisation does not discuss every thing with every member. If any member has any complaint, it can be discussed, he added.

New Delhi, July 20
The Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) has accused the Delhi University authorities of showing disrespect to the ordinances and the decisions of the Academic Council concerning course revisions.

In a statement issued here, it also alleged that the authorities were playing with the system in the name of improving academic standards.

The statement said faculty members across the science disciplines in the colleges had shown their discontent and unhappiness over the course content and structure of the B. Sc. programme ever since it was launched. The exam results of the past years – with a very low pass percentage in many colleges – and the media coverage of the same forced the authorities to look into the programme.

The VC Office got the course modified in January for the current batches as an interim solution.

The past academic year 2007-08 should have seen a serious effort by the authorities in revising the B.Sc. programme. The departments initiated the process of course revision only in February. Faculty members across the colleges, however, in this much awaited process, the statement said.

The VCcalled an Academic Council meeting only on July 12 where a revised syllabus with some minor structural changes was passed. At the protest of Academic Council member Abha Dev Habib and other four members, the council did not approve the Vice- Chancellor’s idea of implementing the revised programme for all three batches this year.

Though the authorities claim that the revised syllabus is what they have received from the departments, teachers of the life sciences departments are still at a loss because the revised course is not what they had worked on.

What has come as a bigger shock to the teaching community is the hasty manner in which this revision has been implemented. In an unprecedented manner, a revised programme has not only been implemented on the first year but also on the existing batches in the second and third year.

This is not only breaking of the ordinances but also holding the university to ransom. It will have serious implications. For instance, the current third year batch will not study ‘Electricity, Magnetism and Electromagnetic Theory’ throughout the programme. The paper has been shifted to the second year in the new scheme. The changes in the structure of the modules will require redoing the time table in a major way, the DTF claimed.

New Delhi, July 20
Osian’s last week unveiled a rare Raja Ravi Varma painting and created a minor flutter in the art circles here. The painting was recently acquired by Neville Tuli, chairman, Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art for an enormous amount of about Rs 6 crore at the Bonhams Auction. This makes it the most expensive Ravi Varma painting ever.

Dated 1881, the exquisite oil on canvas speaks eloquently of the Raj and depicts the Maharaja of Travancore and his younger brother welcoming Richard Temple-Grenville, the Third Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Governor-General of Madras (1875-80), on his official visit to Trivandrum in 1880.

The dimensions of the art work are 106 x 146 cm. As the most sought-after academic painter of colonial India who was an aristocrat himself, Ravi Varma was often invited to state occasions by high British officials and the Indian nobility. He used these opportunities to record their activities on his canvases.

Describing this acquisition as significant, Neville Tuli, founder chairman Osian’s said, “it is very important to bring back to India part of its artistic cultural heritage.” A large number of Ravi Varma’s oleographs have been acquired by Osian’s as well.

Greater Noida, July 20
Anxious that they may not be allowed to marry, minor young lovers in Salarpur village, under Dankore police station area, swallowed poison to end their lives.

The parents of both the girl and boy quickly cremated the bodies though the matter had come to the notice of SP Rural Babu Ram.

A young couple had been in love in Salarpur village under Dankore police station area for quite sometime. Since both of them belonged to the same caste and sub-caste, they feared that their elders may not agree to their marriage. When the elders did come to know about it, they objected to the alliance due to the same ‘gotra’. This had the young lovers worried.

The lovers had left their houses on Friday afternoon and at a tubewell in village jungle both of them swallowed some poisonous substance.

The families could not trace them. Next morning when villagers went out for work, the boy and girl were found dead on the tubewell. The families did not inform the police and cremated the bodies quickly. When asked about it, SP Rural Babu Ram said police might investigate the matter.