New Delhi, July 28
The Delhi Cabinet has given its nod for the construction of the second phase of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) at Vasant Kunj. It has also okayed the setting up of a science and technology park at NSIT Dwarka and released funds to the MCD for the construction of parking area over covered nullahs for 576 buses.

Talking to the media after the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said that Phase-II of the ILBS would include academic, research, clinical and residential blocks, support services, Delhi Organ Retrieval and Banking Organization (DORBO) and additional capacity of beds in two general wards and ICU.

The institute would also be equipped with a helipad to deal with emergency situations. Phase-II will be an integral part of Phase-I premises. It is proposed to be constructed as a world-class building fully integrated with Phase-I of the institute. The estimated cost for construction of Phase-II spread over an area of 6.575 acres, would be Rs 223.29 crore and the project would be completed within two years, the Chief minister said.

She stated that the ILBS, 280-bedded (teaching) super-specialty autonomous institute is being set up as a world-class, state-of-the-art facility which would comprehensively provide a modern set-up for diagnosis and treatment, dedicated research and advance training in the field of liver and biliary diseases.

The ILBS is aimed at being an autonomous, professionally self-sustaining teaching hospital and institute, which will be a torchbearer model for healthcare in the country.

The institute aims at amalgamating the academic skills of a university, clinical acumen of the super-specialist and the managerial skills of the corporate world.

Dikshit stated that the Cabinet has approved a proposal for setting up of a science and technology park on public private participation model at NSIT Campus in Dwarka sub-city with an aim to foster industry-institute partnership in the areas of advanced technology.

She explained that the park would be fully developed over a period of three to four years. The National Association of Software Service Companies (NASSOCOM) and its associated consultants have assessed over 20 potential areas of research for this park, which include bio-technology, information and communication technology etc.

Dikshit added that this park is envisaged to house research and development units of Indian and multi-national companies and to serve as a knowledge hub in the National Capital Region. This platform would further act as a catalyst in the proposed mechanism for academia-industry interaction.

The Cabinet has decided to release an amount of Rs 325.50 crore to the MCD for covering the Kushak and Sunheri Bagh nullahs for the construction of parking area for 576 buses during ensuing Commonwealth Games. Parking of 336 buses would be possible by covering the Kushak nullah behind Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and for another 240 buses by covering the Sunheri Bagh nullah from Lala Lajpat Rai Marg to Dyal Singh College along Lodhi Road. The work is expected to be completed by March, 2010, the Chief Minister assured.

New Delhi, July 28
BSES today asked farmhouse owners in the National Capital Territory of Delhi to check the category of the power connection in their respective premises as any misuse would invite heavy penalties.

A spokesman of the BSES here said it had come across a large number of cases where electricity connections were being used for purposes other than those sanctioned.

This practice is especially prevalent in farmhouses, where customers are using the premises for residential purposes or as a weekend getaways, while the electricity connection is under the agriculture category.

This is a gross violation of the prevailing DERC and Indian Electricity Act, 2003 guidelines.

“There are around 5000 (BRPL 4863, BYPL 82), agricultural connections “cumulatively consuming around 17500 KW of electricity in BSES licensed area.

A large majority of these connections are in elite farmhouses,” the spokesman said.

BSES is now planning to crack down on such blatant misuse of electricity connections causing a significant monetary loss to BSES.

The discom is shortly planning to undertake a house-to-house survey in farmhouses to check this misuse.

The category of an electricity connection is governed by the nature and use of a property.

For example, a domestic category connection is only meant for residential purposes.

It cannot be used for commercial and industrial purposes.

Similarly, a commercial connection is only meant for commercial activity. It cannot be used for any other purposes.

The category of an electricity connection and its use for any other purpose, other than that authorised is construed as category misuse and can invite heavy penalties going up to 24 times - under the Indian Electricity Act, 2003 and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) provisions, the spokesman said. 

Noida, July 28
A retired joint secretary from Indian Audit and Accounts Service has been murdered in his house in Sector-34, Noida. The senior citizen is believed to have been strangled on Sunday evening. The reason for murder is not known. Police has sent the body for autopsy.

According to the police, robbery was the motive behind the killing. Security guards said the elderly person was seen buying vegetables on Sunday afternoon.

The body of 79-year-old Raghunandan Prasad Srivastava, living in Flat No. 52-C in 12-B Block of Dhawal Giri Apartments in Sector-34, was found in his bedroom. His body was first seen by the maid Maya when she came to the house for work in the morning. Maya quickly informed the security guard Koshlinder Singh after which the police came in from Sector-24.

Maya told the SSP and the SP City that the elderly man’s hands and feet had been tied with a waist band. She untied him. Police did not find household articles strewn around.

Raghunandan had one son and two daughters. His son is in Bangalore. One daughter is in Lucknow while second daughter is living in the same sector in Nilgiri Apartments. She reached the spot along with her husband Rakesh Prasad.

SSP R.K. Chaturvedi said security guard and maid have provided some significant leads during their questioning. After his retirement some 19 years ago, R.P. Srivastava busied himself in social service. A fortnight ago, he had organized a dental camp in the sector. After the death of his wife one and a half years ago, Srivastava was living alone in the house.

He had bought this house two years ago. His neighbours said he was a very social and helpful person. A maid working in the house before Maya had stolen Rs 6,000 from his house. Srivastava caught the maid red-handed. Subsequently, he sacked her and Maya was engaged. He had mentioned this to his friend Dr Rathore also, Maya and security guard told the police.

Ghaziabad, July 28
More than six armed men barged into the house of a retired Army Captain in the Nand Nagri area here on Saturday night and killed him and his daughter. His grandson was grievously wounded. After killing the inmates, the robbers decamped with the valuables worth several lakhs.

SSP Deepak Rattan inspected the spot and called dog squad and finger print experts.

The deceased Captain’s son-in-law Anil Yadav, who is a Delhi Police official, was on duty that night. His wife Promode, 36, and son Tishadh, 12, were at home. Anil’s father-in-law retired Army Captain Jai Prakash Yadav, 78, had come to pay a pilgrimage to Hrishikesh on Sunday morning along with his family.

The robbers killed Captain Yadav and his daughter by hitting their faces and heads with some brick-like objects.

However, the police said that enmity could be the cause of the killing.

According to Jai Prakash Yadav’s son Vinod, the entire family was scheduled to leave for Hrishikesh and Hardwar on Sunday morning. When he reached there in the morning to wake them, he found the main door ajar and discovered the body of his father and sister. His nephew who was seriously wounded was found moaning. The things were strewn around in the house. The assailants are believed to have entered the house at around 3 a.m. The way the father-daughter duo were killed shows the killer(s) hatred for the victims. 

Noida, July 28
A 14-year-old maid employed in House No G-152, Sector 41, Noida, by a doctor who had retired from Irwin Hospital, New Delhi, allegdedly committed suicide today.

The maid, Anju, from West Bengal, was employed as domestic help in Dr Vishnue Kumar’s house. Dr Vishnu Kumar and his wife had gone to Delhi, locking the house today.

The maid who had joined Dr Kumar’s service on June 10 this year is learnt to have hanged herself from the ceiling fan.

A large number of domestic helps from the area collected at the doctor’s house and protested, alleging that it was a case of murder and not suicide.

The police sent the dead body for a post mortem and said things will become clear when the report is available by tomorrow.

New Delhi, July 28
The Delhi unit of the BJP today announced its Delhi Pradesh Election Management Committee for the assembly elections to be held in November this year. The Deputy Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra, will be its chairman.

The Delhi unit chief, Dr Harsh Vardhan, said former Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj, former union minister Arun Jaitley, former central health minister, Shatrughan Sinha, former Governor Kidar Nath Sahani and former Lt-Governor of Delhi Vijay Kapoor had been appointed advisers and special invited members.

Giving this information to the media, Dr Vardhan said the BJP Delhi Pradesh had started a strategy for the preparations of forthcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The announcement about the Election Manifesto Committee, Election Propaganda Committee and other committees will be made soon.

He further said the process of selecting candidates for the Delhi Assembly elections will be started soon. Only those people will be given tickets who are committed to the policies and thinking of the BJP and are devoted to the organisation. The main criteria for the selection of the candidates will be the capacity of the candidates to win election, popularity in the area, personal moral qualities etc.

He said the BJP would start the election campaign as the workers were ready. The party will make 10 years of atrocities on the people by the Congress, price spiral, MPs’ purchase scam, terrorism, corruption, sealing, demolition, false assurances of Sheila Dikshit government as issues in the election.

The members of the Election Management Committee are Om Prakash Kohli, Vijay Goel, Anita Arya, Mange Ram Garg, Jagdish Mukhi, Lal Behari Tiwari, Ram Bhaj, Abdul Rasheed, Neera Shastri, H.S. Balli, Ramesh Bidhuri, Poonam Azad, Vijay Sharma, Pawan Sharma, Alok Kumar, Meera Kanwaria, Shyam Lal Garg, Subhash Arya, Arti Mehra, Surya Bhan Pandey, Vijender Gupta, Sahib Singh Chauhan, Yogender Chandoliya, Satyeshwari Joshi Shikha Rai, Anil Sharma, Vishakha Shailani, Jeet Ram Solanki, etc.

New Delhi, July 28
Uday Foundation, an NGO for congenital defects and rare blood groups, held a three-day signature campaign ending yesterday in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida to highlight the issue of lack of staff in the paediatric surgery department of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RMLH).

Long-term leaves were granted for higher studies to Dr Amita Sen in August 2006 and senior pediatric surgeon Shilpa Sharma in March 2008 without making any arrangement for their substitution or replacement.

The campaign called for an action against the authorities concerned who sanctioned these leaves.

Students from colleges like Gargi, Kamla Nehru, Delhi College of Arts & Commerce have extended support and have agreed to talk to the RMLH director in this regard.

The crusade ended up with 3,500 signatures.

The NGO would hand over a written support to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Union ministers of health and women and child development tomorrow to restore the poor state of paediatric Surgery in RMLH.

New Delhi, July 28
The narcotics branch of Delhi Police has recovered heroin and chemicals worth Rs 25 crore. Three persons including a Nigerian resident have been arrested.

It was learnt that a Noida-based drug dealer, Ahed Khan, exported drugs to Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa. Acting on a clue regarding a deal between Ahed Khan and a Nigerian national Albert Bernard, a trap was laid near Janakpuri District Centre. The police has claimed that he involved his driver Neeraj in his business.

The narcotics department has claimed that the alleged accused were arrested after the exchange of 500 grams of heroin.

Twenty-one grams of heroin and other drugs were recovered in raids that were conducted at the houses of Ahed Khan and Neeraj.

New Delhi, July 28
Trade leaders of the National Capital Territory of Delhi have rejected the ICRIER survey on retail trade in the country, claiming that its format was defective.

Participating in a seminar here yesterday under the umbrella of the of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), leaders of different trade bodies, while lashing out at the report, claimed that the format of the survey was defective as it covered only 10 metro cities whereas the corporate houses haved already begun their operations much earlier even in tier II and tier III cities. The survey should have also included such cities, they said.

The trade leaders said that because of this, the ICRIER survey could not be regarded as an authentic survey of the Indian retail trade. The 11-page questionnaire in Appendix 4 of the said report is a set of complicated bunch of papers and it is doubtful that the retailers could take out time to answer the questionnaire. The questionnaire is itself not based on ground realities and appears more like a corporate exercise.

The survey seems to be biased and cannot be called an independent one as the ICRIER itself has acknowledged the “considerable help” of the corporate lobby in acknowledgement page of its report which gives a hint of clear dominance of corporate retailers on ICRIER report. The ICRIER is under an obligation to spell out the factum “considerable help” and what prevented it from approaching organisations representing self-organised trade on the same lines.

The ICRIER has called the retail traders as unorganized sector whereas it is an undisputed fact that retail trade is the most self-organised trade in the country, binding more than five crore traders in its distribution channel, the trade leaders argued.

The CAIT is of the opinion that the big industrial houses should not be allowed to enter retail trade. It is true that there is a growing demand for modern retailing formats that offer a clean and hygienic environment to shop in at competitive prices but this may not be a sound reason for the entry of corporate heavy weights in retail trade and thereby allow them to rout our retailers and take away the livelihood of crores of people. Their entry would lead to “Crony (monopolistic) Capitalism”, at the cost of established retailers being rendered destitute, was the consensus at the seminar.

Noida, July 28
Residents of sector — 15A here are fed up with the stray dog menace. The number of stray dogs has increased tremendously.

Residents are fed up with the dog bite cases that are reported every other day, particularly by children and senior citizens.

In accordance with the decision taken by the resident welfare association (RWA) members of sector – 15 A on April 20 this year, the RWA on Sunday held a demonstration outside the house of Ninia Singh. It is learnt that Ninia Singh feeds and protects stray dogs. The Noida Authority, SPCA and the police have failed to persuade Ninia Singh to get these dogs vaccinated and sterilised, alleged retired IAS officer and president of RWA sector – 15 S.P. Bagla. He said that more than a dozen dogs were noticed lying outside Ninia Singh’s house, who lives in this sector, throughout the day and night.

The residents protested due to her obdurate and unreasonable attitude. Earlier, they had raised the issue with the Noida Authority and had also lodged a complaint at sector — 20 police station here.

Residents are now at the mercy of god and feel helpless in protecting their children and senior citizens.

Joint secretary of RWA sector – 15 Kavita Khandelwal had requested the SPCA to sterilise and vaccinate the dogs in accordance with the Animal Birth Control (dogs) Rules 2001.

According to the RWA, the attempts to sterilise and vaccinate dogs have been unsuccessful, because of Ninia Singh behaviour and conduct. She “gets extremely unpleasant and creates a ruckus within the premises of the SPCA hospital cum shelter at Sector –94,” alleged Bagla. 

New Delhi, July 28
Thousands of devotees thronged Kirpal Bagh in the national Capital today and paid rich tributes to Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj on the occasion of his 150th Birth Anniversary which is being observed as ‘Guru Divas’.

The present head of Sawan Kirpal Rohani Mission Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj said it was hard to believe that “we are celebrating 150 years since the birth of the glorious and radiant Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj but he is still very much with us even today”.

“The best way we can celebrate Hazur’s 150th birth anniversary is to live up to his teachings. He enabled us to learn the meditation technique for rising above body-consciousness to enter spiritual realms of beauty, bliss, and love within. Meditation on the inner light and sound leads to the ultimate union of our soul with God,” he said.

A hymn from Gurbani in praise of the Guru was sung by Mata Harbhajan Kaur. Numerous speakers addressed the gathering and narrated incidents from Hazur’s life and work.

Presently, the Mission of Spiritual Awakening started by Hazur is being continued by Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj.

Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission gifted a large number of aids and appliances to the needy and disabled persons in Safdarjung Hospital.

Among the numerous welfare activities carried out on this occasion by the mission, medicines, fruits and eatables were distributed to cancer patients at the Shanti Avedana Sadan, Raj Nagar, here.