New Delhi, November 16
“Jee Karda Jee Karda” and “Mehendi Laga Ke Rakhna” — if these are your favourite songs from Bollywood flicks ‘Singh is Kinng’ and ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, wait to hear their parody adopted by political parties in the Delhi assembly elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have prepared special CDs with campaign songs recorded on the lines of famous Bollywood numbers.

The Congress has roped in local singers Lakshman Bharati and Akshay Kumar to record a couple of songs, which are not from films, to publicise the achievements of the Congress government in last 10 years.

Keeping in mind that the Capital has over four million young voters in the age group of 18 to 29 years, the political parties have recorded some songs for them.

Lyrics of song “Jee Karda Jee Karda” from ‘Singh is Kinng’ have been changed to “Jee Karda bhai Jee Karda, Congress nu Jitan da Jee Karda, Desh Bachon da Jee Karda.”

“We think film songs are the best way to communicate with people as they remember famous songs. By this, we will be able to put across the party’s message in a very simple and interesting way,” said Ajay Vinayak, a member of the Delhi Congress Publicity Cell.

Some other songs focussing on youths are “Hath se Hath Mila ke Chalo, Congress ke Hath ke Sath Chalo” and “Dilli walon suno Kahani Dilli ke vikas ki, Congress ke Prayas ki aur Janta ke Vishwas ki.”

The party has also coined some catchy slogans like “Vote for Congress — Congress is the Right Choice Baby”.

Meanwhile, the BJP has tinkered with the lyrics of songs from other Bollywood hits like ‘Chake De’ and ‘Jab we Met’ to attract voters.

The party has made a parody of the songs using sarcastic remarks and humour weaved into a lyrical rhyme to criticise the ruling Congress.

A famous dance number “Nagara Nagara, Nagara Baja” from ‘Jab we Met’ has been changed to “Kabara Kabara Kabara, Congress ne Dilli ka Kabara kiya”.

The cassette, which will be distributed to all contestants to be used during the campaigns, has tracks based on songs from Bollywood hits like ‘Partner’, ‘Bhool Bhulaiyya’ and ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’.

“The party has prepared songs with a message revealing failures of the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress government in the Capital and the work BJP chief ministerial candidate V.K Malhotra will do if voted to power,” said Mewa Ram Arya, Delhi BJP spokesperson. — IANS

New Delhi, November 16
The Election Commission on Sunday expressed its “displeasure” with the reply of V.K. Malhotra, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) chief ministerial candidate for Delhi, to its notice on violating its instructions.

On November 10, the poll panel served a notice to Malhotra for violating the model code of conduct on use of vehicles and had asked him to reply by November 11. It said more vehicles than permitted were used when Malhotra went for filing papers.

Malhotra replied to the notice the following day, but the commission on Sunday said it found the reply “not satisfactory” and conveyed its displeasure to him.

In his reply, Malhotra said he did not violate any norms while filing his nomination. He also said that he went to the returning officer’s office in his car with his wife and Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan and there was no other car with them.

The Election Commission issued Malhotra notice for “violation of standing instructions regarding the maximum number of vehicles permitted within periphery of 100 metres of returning officer and persons inside the chamber while filing his nomination papers”

Malhotra, contesting from the Greater Kailash constituency, filed his nomination papers at the returning office in the Jamnagar House on the Shahjahan Road on November 8.

The commission had also ordered the immediate transfer of Greater Kailash returning officer Bans Raj Ram, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Puspender Kumar and sub-inspector K.L. Yadav for failure to implement its orders. — IANS

New Delhi, November 16
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) chief ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who is contesting from Greater Kailash constituency, said that Congress has admitted that it couldn’t fulfill its promise to make Delhi a full-fledged state.

Malhotra said that Congress, for the last ten years, had been claiming that it will provide full statehood to Delhi and that by ending multi-administrative system it will pave the way for the development of Delhi, but it was now admitting its failure in fulfilling its promise.

He said that the ten years of Congress rule had been a period of betrayal and failures. The government could neither provide drinking water nor relief to the people from price rise. Failures of the Congress government will be the main issues in this election, Malhot announced.

He assured that if the BJP came to power, the resolution for full statehood to Delhi would be passed on a priority basis in Delhi Legislative Assembly. He said that for better development, land, building and police should be under the state government.

Malhotra toured five assembly constituencies today. He claimed that there was great enthusiasm among the youth, women and economically weaker sections to dislodge the Congress government.

New Delhi, November 16
The BJP today demanded a probe into the alleged suicide of Puran Chand Yogi, three-time MLA and candidate from Rajinder Nagar assembly constituency.

Senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said, “Yogi was our candidate and his victory was sure. There is suspense over his death and we demand a probe.”

He said that Yogi was a senior leader of the party. People get depressed when they are denied ticket. But he has been given ticket. There is no reason for his committing suicide, he said.

“What really happened we do not know and hence there is need for a probe,” Shahnawaz said.

BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Delhi Pradesh BJP president Harsh Vardhan expressed shock over the death of Puran Chand Yogi.

With his death the party has suffered a great loss. He was an active politician as well as social worker. He used to raise good questions in the assembly.

He had been continuously elected as legislator since 1993. He was very popular in Rajinder Nagar area.

The leaders said that Yogi was a dedicated and faithful worker of the party. They paid tributes to Yogi on behalf of all the workers of BJP Delhi Pradesh.

Ghaziabad, November 16
A court of sub-divisional magistrate has ordered that a case be registered against 10 policemen, including the then station officer of Hapur police station, for killing two brothers in a fake encounter on May 2 this year.

The petition was filed by Sanjida, wife of one of the deceased, Khurshid, alias Lala, of Dharmapura, under Section 56(3) of the Indian Penal Code.

The petition accused the then Hapur SO Rajesh Diwedi, sub-inspector Kulvir Rathi, other policemen— Subash Tyagi, Tasawar, Noor Hasan and five other unnamed policemen, of killing Khurshid in a fake encounter.

The policemen have been accused of killing the brothers claiming them to be one Salim of Jadoda village and Shahzad alias Bhura of Badana town.

Sanjida has also accused the police of conducting a fake identity parade to conceal Khurshid’s identity.

She said that her husband, along with his brother, had gone to attend a relative’s marriage in Meerut, but never returned.

She claimed that it was through newspapers that she learnt that the deceased was her husband and not Salim. Khursheed’s death was confirmed by his shoes and clothes shown by the police to his family.

The family has accused that the police took the brothers in a jeep near the house of a police informer in Majidpura and shot them dead. They did not register a case.

However, the police claims that the brothers were criminals and had attacked and looted the house of one Tasawar in Majidpura on May 2. And they shot them with the help of the public.

New Delhi, November 16
A dilapidated building under repairs in old Delhi caved in on Saturday, killing a woman and injuring two others.

“At about 12.55 am we received the call from the owner, Ram Babu. His wife Rajrani (55) died on the spot, while two others were taken to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hopital and are undergoing treatment there,” a police official said.

According to the owner, the building was being repaired when it collapsed. The building in Mem Gali of Chandni Chowk is situated in the area of the Walled City that houses several other decrepit buildings from the Mughal era.

These serve as residential buildings as well as commercial storehouses in the area, which was also known as the trade hub of Delhi during the British rule. — IANS

Greater Noida, November 16
Unidentified assailants shot a 30-year-old businessman here on the outskirts of the national Capital on Saturday midnight.

Five attackers pumped three bullets in Ajay Singh’s body, police officer Rajesh Kumar Singh said.

Unsuspecting Ajay, a transporter, was returning to his home in Kheri from Sarita Vihar in Delhi, when attackers stopped his car near Tushiana turn, the police said. His driver Vijay was driving the car.

Two of the attackers dragged the driver away from the vehicle and the remaining three took Ajay a little far away and fired at him before fleeing.

The driver tried to carry the bullet-ridden body into the car to be taken to hospital, but Ajay collapsed in his arms, said the police officer.

“We are trying to locate the criminals through the call details of the deceased,” he said. — IANS

New Delhi, November 16
In an ongoing drive against bootlegging in view of the coming elections, the Outer district police has arrested six persons from different areas and has seized 96 cartons of illicit liquor.

New Delhi, November 16
Around 270,000 MBA aspirants appeared for the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) across the nation on Sunday, an official spokesperson said.

A majority of those who felt that
while the three-segment paper was
fairly ‘doable’, there were a few
hiccups in the ‘lengthy verbal’ and
‘tough quant’ sections.

“A total of 2,70,000 applicants were shortlisted for CAT 2008. Last year, about 2,20,000 candidates had appeared in the test,” said Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) spokesperson Ishita Solanki.

“The number of forms received was much more, but after screening forms for eligibility criteria, the final turnout was still quite large,” Solanki said.

So what did the applicants have to say after the two-and-a-half-hour test? “The exam was fine — of the three sections data interpretation (DI) was the easiest; the verbal section although easy was lengthy and the quant (quantitative analysis) section was really trying,” said Prabhat Taneja, a final year engineering student at Indraprastha University Delhi.

His view was in consonance with the 20 people spoken to. “Verbal and DI was a breeze — quantitative, mathematics section was a storm,” said Kritika Singh, a mass communication graduate, as she came out from her exam centre in Noida.

The CAT exam is an annual test conducted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and is the first step in the process of seeking admission to the 1,800-odd seats in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong IIMs. Besides this year, six new IIMs are due to start.

The IIMs have implemented OBC quota from this year and have increased their seats. The test this year was held in 230 centres in 23 cities across the country, including 60 centres for 500,000 aspirants in the National Capital Region.

CAT is considered one of the most important national standards for entrance to management institutes.

Apart from the IIMs, over 50 other management institutes use the CAT score for short-listing candidates before filtering their admission with group discussions and personal interviews.

Taneja’s college mate Suhas Arora echoed a similar feedback, but added, “The data interpretation (DI) section may have actually been tricky, as there was some missing data, cross checking was necessary. This year unlike the past two years there were geometry questions in quant section — five in fact, that were really hard!” Others noticed such anomalies in the pattern of the paper as well.

Besides, many aspirants used this year’s CAT as a practice routine while others considered it a prelude to other institute exams like the SNAP (for Symbiosis), XAT (for XLRI), FMS and other private institutes, as the IIM dream was a little “far-fetched”.

“This is just a bend in the road, I am preparing for other exams like SNAP - I want to run my own business some day. It would not be that much an issue if it is an IIM or not,” Kritika Singh said.

There were, however, a few that had zeroed in on the ‘IIM dream’, wanting to get a ‘solid MBA in finance’ despite the recent global economic meltdown.

“I am hoping that by the time I do the degree, markets will be up again, else I can always shift gears later,” said Shagufta Rahman, a final year economics honours student from IP College for Women, Delhi University. — IANS

New Delhi, November 16
The Anant Art Gallery here is presenting ‘Sweet Dreams’ a solo show by artist Muhammad Atif Khan and ‘Betwixt’ by artist Shoaib Mahmood from Pakistan from November 14 to November 30.

Artist Muhammad Atif Khan who layers digital and block-printed images on transparent sheets to play with depth and surface, illusion and reality.

He conveys a critique of excessive consumption by letting block prints of insects infest and swarm images of cloying sweetness on cup cakes, rice balls etc.

New Delhi, November 16
Pakistan is partner country at this year’s India International Trade Fair that opened on Friday, but its exhibitors complain that cumbersome procedures have kept a third of their allotted 75-odd stalls vacant.

Their reason— the merchandise is yet to be cleared by the customs department, with as many as 40 containers stranded at the Wagah-Attari border post alone.

“Out of 14 days of the exhibition, if four are lost in getting our material cleared, how do you think we will do business?” lamented Parveen Uinkahim, one of the exhibitors from Pakistan who is into garments and apparel.

“Clearance certificate is a very important document to get on time. But despite making arrangements almost a month back, we are yet to receive the goods,” Uinkahim said.

Even Pakistan’s high commissioner to India Shahid Malik has complained that the exhibitors from Pakistan faced problems with Indian customs officials and hoped the matter would be sorted out soon.

“Our exhibitors have come all the way from Pakistan. But they have been facing immense problems in terms of getting the items released for putting up at the stalls,” he said.

A spokesperson for the organisers, the commerce ministry-promoted India Trade Promotion Organisation, said that they were aware that some participants were facing problems and assured that the matter would be sorted out soon.

But those who managed to bring their merchandise to the sprawling Pragati Maidan exposition grounds, including condiments, spices, cosmetics, curios, marble, ceramics and furnishing, hoped to do brisk business during the 14-day fair.

“We always get good business from India. It’s a very diverse market. If explored properly, it’s like a golden goose,” said Mohammad Hashmi, a trader of herbal eye-care products.

Hashmi said he also planned a franchise pact with a leading North Indian snacks chain to open similar food outlets in Pakistan, especially to serve chole bhature - a Punjabi delicacy of fried bread served with spiced chickpea.

Nearly two-thirds of the Pakistani stalls are exhibiting garments and apparel like before, though this time around, they are worried because of competition from Indian, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Chinese counterparts.

“The competition will be tough. There are many players. But we plan to give discounts and make lucrative offers,” said Imran Ahmed.

The favourite among the visitors remains the Pakistani chikan, similar to what is famous in Lucknow in India. Clothes made from this light, cotton fabric, laced with traditional embroidery, are selling for as low as Rs 500 a piece.

A representative of Ambers Collection in Karachi also said that people coming to their stalls were excited by the range of apparel, adding they had understood by now what designs, colours and fabric to offer. — IANS

New Delhi, November 16
The Haryana government is looking for an appropriate location in the state to provide an alternative to New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan for holding national level fairs and exhibitions, a state official said.

“We have plans to acquire over 300 acres in a suitable region of Haryana which has easy connectivity with New Delhi. We have identified four-five sites for this and very soon we will finalise one of them after getting the final approval from the union government. However, the land acquisition is a long procedure and will certainly take time,” said Dharam Vir, chief secretary, Haryana

“The area will be developed into an ultra-modern exhibition complex and will be an ideal alternative for big exhibitions and events,” said Vir who is also the chairman of the Trade Fair Authority of Haryana

“We also have plans to expand the existing Haryana pavilion in the ongoing India International Trade Fair here. In fact, we have spoken to the concerned officials and expressed our requirement of more space and hope that something will work out soon,” Vir added

There are 84 stalls, representing 36 corporations and agencies, at the Haryana pavilion.Some of the prominent agencies showcasing their products and services in Haryana pavilion at IITF are Dairy Development Corporation, Industries and Commerce, Horticulture, Renewable energy, Tourism and Urban Development Board.

There are models of Special Economic Zones on display, exhibiting the future set-up of the state. Besides, petroleum products, milk products, handloom products, solar water heaters, bicycles, wrist watches, stainless steel items, cable wires and batteries are on display in the Haryana pavilion. — IANS

Noida, November 16
The Noida Authority has not only closed down the garbage dumping ground in Sector-54, but is also planning to set up a modern sanitary landfill site.

A modern waste treatment plant for the waste produced in the city on the lines of the one existing in Paris is also proposed to be set up.

Spread over 10 acres, it will be a hi-tech site with proper provisions taken against the latchet.

The pits at the site will be properly lined so that toxic waste does not seep into the ground water and deteriorate its quality.

An area of 500 m on each side of the SLF site will be developed as a green belt so that the nearby residential areas don’t have to bear with the dirty smell.

Noida Authority is understood to be working in close association with the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation, Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited and the DHV India Pvt. Ltd.

In 2006, the NA had selected DHV India Pvt. Ltd as consultants for the development of a SLF in the city. But that plan had to be put on hold as the land acquisition process had not been completed.

“Now that the process of acquisition of land for the SLF is nearing completion, we are moving a step ahead and working on the modalities of setting up an SLF site along with a composting plant. It will take about two months for the actual work to begin,” says project engineer (Health), M.P. Sharma.

But officials are not disclosing the actual site, stating that the SLF will be developed somewhere in the Yamuna Pushta area along the Expressway. “The moment local people come to know of it they start protesting and we are forced to backtrack.”

New Delhi, November 16
629 Transport Company of the Army Service Corps celebrated its 68th Raising Day here today.

The unit was raised on November 15, 1941, at Rawalpindi, now in Pakistan. It has distinction of participating in various operations, including World War I in Singapore.

Today’s event was attended by a large number of officers who had the honour of serving this unit, a press release said.

New Delhi, November 16
One of the city’s leading schools, Birla Vidya Niketan celebrated its 25th annual fiesta as part of the founder’s day here at the Siri Fort Auditorium with glittering cultural shows on Saturday and Sunday.

The cultural fiesta was inaugurated yesterday by Girija Vyas, chairperson of the National Commission for Women while Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi graced the occasion today.

Besides, the two luminaries, members of the management committee of the school and Sarala Devi Birla, the chairperson of the school, were present on the occasion.

The mega shows put up by the children drew great appreciation, especially for the nobility of themes, creativity, theatrics and music. Being the 25th

Occasion, the cultural fiesta held a greater importance for the school and naturally, the children of all age groups put up a sterling performance.

The evening started with the chants of the vedic shlokas followed by a performance by the school orchestra. The school song “Pran Geet” was the most important part of the evening.

However, the play “Good Begets Good” brought to fore the theatric capabilities of the school students. Over 100 students were part of the play, which was followed by rendition of Gujarati, Bangla and Rajasthani songs, which formed part of the same presentation.

There was also a dance-drama presentation based on the writings of Mahakavi Kalidas in Kumar Sambhav.

Noida, November 16
Five boys have done the city proud by being selected to represent the Uttar Pradesh (UP) state team for the under-15 years age group under the banner of the District Football Association.

Having been picked up from almost 160 boys from different districts of UP, five boys from the Ashoka Football Academy in Noida have been chosen in the 16 line-up for the UP team.

The team recently represented the state in the Manchester United Premier Cup 2008-2009 organized by all India Football Federation from November 11 to 13.

The five were shortlisted from a seven-round play and final selections were done at Varanasi. Gaurav Chaddha (Khaitan Public School), Vedent Bhardawaj (Amity International School), Nitin Garia (Cambridge School), Rishabh Dua (Vishwa Bharati) and Anshul Sharma (Birla Public School) are all residents of Noida and playing the game for the last five years at the Noida stadium.

According to Anadi Barua, a former football player and now a coach, “The Manchester United Premier Cup (MUPC) gives talented under 15-year-olds the chance to show off their skills and come up against other young footballers from around the globe. They get to play at an international stage and meet and compete with the best of their class.”