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BJP upbeat as thousands turn up for poll rally
Cong replies with big mahapanchayat
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Worker perishes in IOC fire
Six held for duping trader of Rs 6 crore
US author gets Lions award
Special people open book fair stall
DDA starts daily review of work for Games
Artscape
Noida yet to tackle scourge of dengue
Centre opened for differently abled
Rattled by bad Gurgaon roads,
Jr Hooda orders recarpeting
Expectant mothers walk the ramp
3 more rail stations planned
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BJP upbeat as thousands turn up for poll rally
New Delhi, August 31 Highlighting the inadequacies of the Congress government, Advani said all unauthorised colonies would be regularised if the BJP was voted to power. The rally was organised by the Anadhikrit Colony Mahasangh at the Ram Lila ground under the leadership of Vijay Goel, BJP’s national secretary. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L. K. Advani said the number of people gathered in the ground was a clear indication that they were ready to dislodge the Sheila Dikishit-led Congress government in Delhi. Showing enthusiasm for the assembly elections to be held in November in Delhi, advani said, “I have seen a number of rallies in the ground, but I have never seen such a huge gathering. It is for the first time that people from every nook and corner of the Capital have come to register their unhappiness with the Congress government.” People living in these colonies have a right for basic facilities. If the BJP is voted to power, these facilities will be provided to them, he assured. Welcoming people, BJP’s national president, Rajnath Singh said, “I never imagined that such a large number of youths would be there in the rally. Since Independence, the Congress has been at the helm of affair in Delhi as well as Centre maximum times, but it can never provide basic facilities to the citizens.” Sheila Dikshit has been Chief Minister of Delhi for 10 years but she never thought for regularisation of unauthorised colonies. Just three months are left for assembly elections and she has declared for provisional authorisation. A slip is being issued to the RWAs for eligibility of authorisation. These are the ways to deceive the citizens, Rajnath Singh said.Once election is over the Congress would forget all promises being made nowadays, he said. He assured that once the BJP was voted to power, all unauthorised colonies in Delhi would be authorised. Speaking on the occasion, Chief of Delhi unit of the BJP, Dr Harsh Vardhan, said Dikshit was spending crores of rupees in advertising for regularisation of colonies. But in record no regularisation has been done. There is a process for regularisation like zonal plan and district plan are formulated. Sites for school, hospital, post office, park and other basic things are demarcated before regularisation. In case of Delhi nothing has been done. By announcing for regularisation of colonies, the Congress government is deceiving the citizens, he claimed. Delhi Master Plan 2020 is nothing but a disaster plan. Now time has come when people will reply the Congress government in Delhi by exercising their franchise in favour of the BJP in assembly elections, he said. Vijay Goel, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Prof Jagdish Mukhi, Professor V. K. Malhotra, Anita Arya, Pawan Sharma were among the others who spoke on the occasion. |
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Cong replies with big mahapanchayat
New Delhi, August 31 A large number of RWAs took part in the Mahapanchayat, organised in the leadership of Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar and Congress MLA Mukesh Sharma. The mahapanchayat resolved unanimously to vote for Congress in the ensuing assembly elections for the third time and give a befitting reply to the BJP for its dubious role on the issue of unauthorised colonies. Addressing the gathering, Sajjan Kumar said that instead of asking for regularistion of unauthorised colonies, the BJP has been calling them illegal constructions. He said that through an NGO, Common Cause, the BJP had taken stay order from the High Court against constructions in unauthorised colonies. Kumar said that Congress has always been pleading for the cause of unauthorised colonies and that was why the decision had been taken to issue provisional authorisation certificates to them. He said that in order to regularise these colonies the Congress government amended the Master Plan by notifying the change in the land use of agriculture land into residential use, but the BJP has always opposed unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters. Congress leaders stated that during BJP rule in Delhi, not only jhuggis were uprooted but also unauthorised constructions were demolished. Lakhs of workers and labourers were rendered unemployed because of closures of factories. And now, when the assembly elections are approaching, the BJP was shedding crocodile tears. It was informed that the government was doing development work in unauthiorised colonies on war footing. At least Rs 28,000 crore have been sanctioned for the purpose. It thanked the Delhi government for giving Rs 160 crore to the MCD for sanitation work. |
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Worker perishes in IOC fire
New Delhi, August 31 A total of seven persons — all labourers— were injured in the blaze. However, one of them died during treatment and the rest are recovering in Kailash and Metro Hospitals. Being Saturday, it was an day off for the employees, but according to the officials, there were some labourers inside the building. They were carrying out preparations for the Indian Oil Day function that is to be held on September 1. Devendra, Gurdeep, Kujral and Dev Sharma managed to jump from the building. The cause of the fire is still not known but according to sources, it could be short-circuit. Around 22 fire fighters were pressed into action to control the fire, which spread from the fourth floor to the fifth floor. According to sources, the Noida police failed to reach the spot on time and it was the Delhi police that took charge of the situation. “A committee comprising four members has been constituted to find out the reason behind the fire and to take necessary precautions to ensure that such incidents do not take place in future,” said Jai Gopal, general manager, human resource. “IOC is taking care of all those injured in the fire,” added Gopal. Gopal informed that Dinesh was seriously injured and died during treatment. His body has been sent for postmortem. He also informed that the IOC would be giving some compensation to Dinesh’s family, which will be declared soon. “Devendra is in a critical condition. He is suffering from facial injuries and cervical problem and has been kept on ventilator in the ICU. Whereas Gurdeep and Kujral are in the trauma centre with some minor injuries, Dev Sharma is in the casualty ward,” informed Dr Paully, Kailash Hospital. |
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Six held for duping trader of Rs 6 crore
New Delhi, August 31 Arrested persons have been identified as T.N. Zuber, 36, Mahesh Rastogi, 51, Happy Maurya, 24, Manohar Kumar, 34, Ram Pal Chauhan, 42 and Manju Nath, 47. The victim, Satish Bansal of Ludhiana runs a steel alloy business and was looking for expanding his business. He and his friend Jitender Dave of Mumbai thought of buying railway scrap through their contacts. Accused R.P. Chauhan, Dharmender and Vijay Phogat are liaison agents who were on the lookout for such parties. They met Dave and Bansal and showed them a fake letter of intent issued in the name of Northern Railways. This convinced Bansal that he would get the railway scrap without entering into open tenders. Few days later, Bansal and Dave reached Delhi and went to Baroda House. R P Chauhan met them there and showed them some fake papers convincing them that the scrap was theirs provided they paid Rs 5.50 crore through bank draft. An additional amount of Rs 24 lakh was also sought to cover the freight charges from Ahmedabad to Ludhiana. Bansal had come with a bank draft of Rs 5.50 crore, which he immediately gave Chauhan and then prepared another draft of Rs 24 lakh from Punjab National Bank, Connaught Place and gave that also to Chauhan. The cheats, in order to encash the drafts, then opened an account in the name of F&CAO SAB (NR) with the Defence Colony branch of ICICI bank. They managed to do so with the help of one Manohar in the bank. After the account became operational, the drafts were given to Manohar for deposition, which were later cleared. However, before the cheats could withdraw the money, the crime branch held them. The Northern Railway headquarters at Baroda House has confirmed that no railway scrap worth Rs 5.50 crore was being auctioned or sold to anyone. They further clarified that railway scrap was never sold without proper tenders. Efforts are being made to trace Vijay and Dharmender. |
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US author gets Lions award
New Delhi, August 31 Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, born on March 13, 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska, was an erudite in philosophy, science and the pillars of Western literature. Pursuing very fundamental questions on the origin of man and the ultimate source of life, he trekked more than a quarter of a million miles through India, China, Japan and the Philippines— into many remote cultures and much arcane wisdom, including Vedic hymns at the root of mankind’s oldest beliefs. He was the undisputed legend of American pulp fiction, and indeed with more than 300 novels and novelettes to his credit, so prodigious was his output that he was eventually authoring stories under 15 pennames. The vice-governor of the district, Tejpal Singh Khillan, said, “I could have never believed how a young man at an age of 16 years could have travelled more than a quarter of a million miles through India and China and studied so much of philosophical knowledge.” The late author, serving as a catalyst between the East and the West, holds the credit of spending a quarter of a century bridging the gap between East and West, science and religion. He opened the minds of westerners towards the oriental philosophy, while opening our minds for a more systematic use of knowledge. “We truly appreciate the fact that here is a group of encouraged personalities who are stretching their responsibility far beyond their own personal concerns and are taking care for the society. Any true development stems from individual initiative, without which a country cannot make progress. Nothing makes us more happy than being able to do our part in contributing to that,” said Jetmira Kurti from Denmark, receiving the honour on behalf of the late author. District governor, Narinder Kumar Gupta, said: “Hubbard was involved in multifaceted activities to find ways of improving conditions in life. His legacy is reaching to this day far into India – as can be seen in students who improve their learning skills, business professionals who acquire better communication skills or disaster response units preparing for fast and effective organising. He truly deserves the Lions Humanitarian Award.” |
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Special people open book fair stall
New Delhi, August 31 “We made this inauguration done by specially-abled people because we wanted to spread the message to the young generation that how one can make use of energy into positive directions without feeling inferior to anybody,” said Pawan Agarwal, CEO of Ocean Media Pvt. Ltd. Ocean media stall is sharing an amount of Rs 11 on the sale of per DVD as a donation to the Ability Unlimited group for its development. Ability Unlimited India is India’s first professional dance theatre for differently abled people. “It feels great to be honoured in such a way. I am very happy to talk to the people and share my knowledge with them,” said Gulshan, a disabled person. “They are very nice souls. We don’t really get to meet such talented people who are not only courageous enough but optimistic too. They are the real heroes of India,” said Arihant Rastogi, a visitor at the fair. Syed Pasha, chairperson and the artistic director of Ability Unlimited, was also present. He has been working with these people for around 30 years and is also the recipient of national award for outstanding work in the field of persons with disabilities. |
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DDA starts daily review of work for Games
New Delhi, August 31 According to the DDA principal commissioner of Commonwealth Games, Veena Ish has started holding daily meetings with her support staff and officers involved in the infrastructure development of the games sites to keep a track on the pace of work and meet the December 2009 deadline of various related projects. She has also suggested better coordination among various groups engaged in construction work at the village site. The DDA chairman, Lt-Governor Tejender Khanna, and vice-chairman Ashok Nigam are also engaged in a similar process of reviewing the preparations on fortnightly and weekly basis respectively. Officials in the DDA believe the new practice will certainly help in achieving its goals for an event which is barely two years away and when most of the civic agencies in the capital are toiling hard to meet their deadlines. The DDA is engaged in the construction of two indoor stadiums at Siri Fort Sports complex and Yamuna Sports complex. The Siri Fort will be used for badminton and squash while the Yamuna complex will host table tennis and archery (preliminary). Both the complexes will also be used as training venues. The agency is also involved in developing top-end accommodation for players and officials at the site of games village near Akshardham temple. According to the DDA, as many as 1,168 flats for the 8,000-odd players and officials, out of which one-third comes under the share of housing agency, are 25 per cent complete. Work on the swimming pool, athletics track and indoor hall for wrestling and weightlifting is also going on as per the set deadline and it will be completed before May 2010. |
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Artscape
The preview also had some of the highlights from another scheduled sale and exhibition of modern and contemporary Indian art to be held in New York in September. The 14 exhibits which have been brought to India are some of the first works of Hirst whose creations range from butterflies, cancer cells, monumental formaldehyde sculptures and even pills. Damien Hirst was born in Bristol, UK, in 1965 and graduated with a BA in fine arts from the Goldsmiths College in London. He set the art world aflutter with his formaldehyde creations of butterflies. Art of explosive
display
An exhibition of the recent works of artist, Athiveerapandian will be on view at The Mint Gallery here from August 26 to September 19. Athiveerapandian’s works wear an appealing format of explosive display through a judicious use of colours. Often referred to as an artist who has discovered the physics behind colours, his works coordinate colouration as both an explosive sprawl and controlled medium, on the same canvas space. The result is mindboggling and it makes viewers peer closer and focus deeper into the “innards and discover” the limitless possibilities that this artist can construe with his paint brush and imagination, said a critic. Lighting the way
Studio Vasant here is presenting “Lighting the way”, an exhibition of paintings by four contemporary women artists— Alka Raghuvanshi, Manisha Gawade, Anita Kulkarni and Babita Gupta from September 1 to 10. The Stainless Gallery here is presenting an exhibition of paintings by Vishal K Dar from August 28 to September 20. The exhibition is being curated by Alka Pande. Khadi day mooted
Sunaina Suneja, a well-known artist who began to design and improvise with khadi in the 80s, has now suggested in a letter to the Khadi and Village Industries Commission that one day in the year should be declared as National Khadi Day to encourage people to wear swadeshi on that day. By declaring a National Khadi Day, the nation would be paying tribute to the vision of Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, (“It is not enough to say that hand-spinning is one of the industries to be revived. It is necessary to insist that it is the central industry that must engage our attention if we are to re-establish the village home,” said the artist, quoting Mahatma Gandhi. Poetry reading
The Sahitya Akademi here is holding a special English poetry reading session on September 2. Some of the known contemporary poets like Temsula Ao, Carolyn Marak, Rupanjali Baruah and Mamang Dai will participate in the reading session. Concert by Chaurasia
A musical concert by flautist of International fame Padma Vibhushan Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia is being held at the Ansal Institute of Technology (AIT), Sector 55, Gurgaon on September 2. The programme is being organised in association with the Society for Promotion of India Classical Music and Culture Among Youth (SPIC MACAY). Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, a renowned exponent of the Bansuri or the bamboo flute, has won international acclaim and several prestigious awards, including the National Award of the Sangeet Natak Academy, the Konark Sammaan, Yash Bharati Sammaan and the Padma Vibhushan. He heads the world Music Department at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory. Blending the musical traditions of India with imagination and innovation, Chaurasia has reached beyond classical music to create a sound of his own. His compositions have been heard in several Indian films including Silsila, which he co-wrote with Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. Lines Beyond
“Lines Beyond”, an exhibition of paintings of some of the contemporary Indian artists is being held at the Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, here from August 30 to September 2. The exhibition will move to the Easel Art Gallery in Mehrauli from September 3 to 14. The exhibits include works of some of the known masters like Raja Ravi Varma and Laxma Goud, to name a few. Paintings by Afghan women
The Indian Council For Cultural Relations here in association with the Indira Gandhi National Centre For the Arts (IGNCA) is hosting a first ever exhibition of paintings by young women artists from Afghanistan from September 9 to 14 at the Exhibition Hall of the IGNCA. Mrs Gursharan Kaur, wife of the Prime Minister, has agreed to inaugurate the exhibition. |
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Noida yet to tackle scourge of dengue
Noida, August 31 Even fogging operations have not been started in the town yet. Significantly, the budget for the fogging operations, which were to commence on May 15 by the district malaria department, has not been sanctioned as yet. Thus, fogging in Noida residential sectors is almost nil. The health department in the district, it appears, is waiting for dengue to strike the town first. The health department, however, has scarce resources for launching dengue prevention campaign. Annually, the department gets a monthly budget of Rs 5,000 for spraying malathion. Fogging operations, touted to be launched by the Federation of Noida Resident Welfare Association (FONRWA), have also not been started yet. FONRWA president confirmed that fogging could not be started in the city so far. According to Noida Authority’s deputy CEO, fogging operation will be started in sectors by next week. An action plan was started for NCR for protection from dengue in which all cities and towns in NCR were to be prepared for protection from dengue. Municipal health officer of Delhi, N.K. Yadav said Noida’s position in the action plan was not very satisfactory, Enough publicity or awareness was also not being created for dengue prevention. Significantly, 66 dengue patients in Delhi and 200 in Gurgaon had been identified so far, according to Yadav. All city hospitals are trying to conceal information about incidence of dengue. According to sources, five dengue patients were identified in Kailash Hospital alone while one patient was found in Prayag Hospital, Noida. But hospitals too do not make public their data regarding dengue patients. After two recent dengue incidents came to notice, the CMO had advised hospitals to exercise caution about incidence of dengue in the district. |
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Centre opened for differently abled
New Delhi, August 31 Deepalaya will set up and run the centre, which will train 50 children from slums in its first year of operations. Max Yang, CEO Huawei India presented a cheque for Rs 10 lakh to Deepalaya. Chief minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit and Zhang Yan, Chinese ambassador to India, were also present. “The collaboration would not only facilitate the children to realise their full potential and become able, self-reliant citizens of the society, but also help strengthen Indo-China relations on a humanitarian note,” said Yan. He spoke about the cultural similarities the two nations share. The event was highlighted by a special Chinese song performance by Deepalaya students. The folk dance performance by a group of differently abled Deepalaya children also received wide accolades. “The vocational training centre would impart functional education and skills to the differently abled children from Deepalaya’s functional areas in South Delhi. Depending upon their performances, they will be equipped for the mainstream through job placements, self-entrepreneurship programmes and other efforts that can make them self reliant,” said TK Mathew. |
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Rattled by bad Gurgaon roads,
Jr Hooda orders recarpeting
Gurgaon, August 31 Junior Hooda had the first hand rattling experience on way to Chandu Budhera village, about 15 km from Gurgaon, where he inaugurated Guru Gobind Singh Charitable Hospital. It was a measure of his desperation that he started off his address to the gathering by first touching the road issue. Though the officials of PWD, block development officer, tehsildar and SDM 1, Gurgaon, were present but without naming anyone, he said that the official apathy towards upkeep of the roads would not be tolerated anymore. Taking the officials to task, he served impromptu order for strengthening and carpeting of the entire stretch of the road from Gurgaon up to the hospital within 15 days, failing which the officials responsible for the job would face “serious consequences”. Hooda was particularly harsh while pointing out the hardships faced by the rural folks commuting daily on this potholed road. Taking a dig at the officials, he said that it was now their turn to sweat out while repairing the road the same way people had been suffering while commuting on it. Notably, the material is lying along the road but without any trace of work being done on it. It may be mentioned that the CM had, at the Congress party function in Gurgaon on August, publicly rebuked the officials for their neglect of health of roads. He had served an ultimatum on the officials to get all the Gurgaon roads repaired and strengthened with six months. |
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Expectant mothers walk the ramp
New Delhi, August 31 The expectant mother models were handpicked by the organisers from Delhi and the NCR areas. The amateur models carried the day amidst applause from the audience and the judges as well. Among the judges were senior politician Dr Najma Heptulla, cricketer Virender Sehwag and his wife Aarti and former Miss India, Naina Balsaver Ahmed. Tina Sharma Tiwari, an organiser, said many expectant mothers find themselves at a loss as to what to wear and this causes considerable anxiety among them. |
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3 more rail stations planned
New Delhi, August 31 The new stations will come up at Holambi Kalan in north Delhi, Bijwasan in south-west, both bordering Haryana, and at Anand Vihar in the east, bordering UP. |
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New Delhi, August 31