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Delhi Poll Scene
Both Cong, BJP claim upper edge
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BJP leaders on Orkut, Facebook
Is Malhotra missing Parliament?
Black flags, clashes mark BJP MP’s Bulandshahr visit
Haryana Cong sure of victory
in LS poll
4 travel agents held for duping
People and Delhi police personnel gather outside the Samaypur Badli branch of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur that was robbed on Monday. Tribune photo
Retd cop’s pocket picked in bus
Now, catch lectures online
Order reserved on Uphaar
Court gives clean chit to mall’s builder
Gunshots at ceremony kill 10-yr-old
Engineer robbed of bike, Rs 18,000
Married woman, teenager end life
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Delhi Poll Scene
New Delhi, November 17 The city cannot be given as much power as other states. It is the national Capital, she added. The Chief Minister said that Delhi had been given a special status. But still law and order and land were subjects to the union government. Due to the multiplicity of authorities, development works were delayed in the Capital, she alleged. To give a fillip to development works, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) should function under the Delhi government. Releasing the party manifesto, she claimed to form the government for the third time. The main challenge for the government would be the Commonwealth Games in 2010, she said. She said that the Congress government in Delhi had fulfilled all promises it had made in the last manifesto like — improvement of transport system, regularisation of colonies, houses for the poor, proper power and water supply, proper health services, many schemes for the uplift of women. Dikshit further claimed that the Congress treated its poll manifesto as a ‘holy democratic document’. She said that her government had stressed on the improvement of agriculture, water supply, power, veterinary services, industries, education, construction of two corridors of Monorail, three routes of light rail transit, heritage status to the Red Fort, Dilli Haat in East Delhi, and housing societies for government employees. Dikshit stressed, “We have always taken into account the ground realities and have made concerted efforts to fulfill the aspirations of each section of the society.” When questioned about water shortage, the Chief Minister said that her government had constructed 107 reservoirs. Tankers have been arranged for some areas where tap water is not supplied, she said. Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Jai Prakash Agarwal, Chandni Chowk MP Kapil Sibbal, Chandigarh MP Pawan Bansal, Sadar Bazar MP Jagdish Tytler, Outer Delhi MP Sajjan Kumar and other senior leaders of Delhi Congress attended the function. Meanwhile, the DPCC has appointed youth leader Kunal Sharma as the observer of Mehrauli constituency for the upcoming elections. He is the spokesman of the Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress Committee. Congress candidate Yoganand Shastri is contesting from Mehrauli.
It’s a document of betrayal, says BJP
New Delhi, November 17 The Congress has mentioned all those promises that it has failed to fulfill during the last ten years of its governance, alleged BJP spokesperson Mewa Ram Arya. Even the promise of statehood has been dropped. It had promised to regularise all colonies, but during the last 10 years not a single colony has been regularised. Not a single building has been constructed in any J.J. colony. Failures on all counts have been mentioned in this year’s manifesto, he added. He expressed confidence that the people would reject the Congress in the coming assembly poll and repose their confidence in BJP. |
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Both Cong, BJP claim upper edge
New Delhi, November 17 “I am sure people will make us win because in the last 10 years we have worked for the development of Delhi,” Dikshit told reporters after releasing the Congress manifesto. Dikshit, who has been Chief Minister of Delhi since 1998, listed a string of achievements of her government over the past decade. Meanwhile, Arun Jaitley claimd that the BJP had a “very good chance of winning” the elections. He said the BJP was confident of unseating the 10-year-old Congress led-Sheila Dikshit government. “The objective is to convince those, who are unhappy with the Congress on every front, be it the prices, water, electricity, roads, transport or terrorism, to vote for BJP,” said Jaitley. Asked what the BJP had to offer to the people, Jaitley said, “The party will release its manifesto tomorrow.” The manifesto will also “announce something” for the poor, he said. —
IANS |
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BJP leaders on Orkut, Facebook
New Delhi, November 17 The party candidates are busy launching personal websites that contain their campaigning schedules, achievements and promises made to the janata (masses). Six BJP contenders have already launched their websites, which include chief ministerial candidate V.K. Malhotra from Greater Kailash, Delhi chief Harsh Vardhan from Krishna Nagar, Jagdish Mukhi from Janakpuri, Pawan Sharma from Uttam Nagar, Manjinder Singh Sirsa from Jungpura and Alok Kumar from Rohtash Nagar. Besides, four more candidates are in the fray to launch their websites, said party officials. “Website is the most convenient and easiest way to reach out to people, especially the youths. More and more youngsters can be caught hold of through cyber campaigning,” said Vivek Goyal, in charge of BJP’s IT cell. Moreover, the BJP leaders have also made their profiles on social networking sites like — Orkut and Facebook. While Nakul Bhardwaj from Patparganj is trying to woo voters on Orkut, senior leaders like Jagdish Mukhi, Vijay Jolly and V.K. Malhotra have made their profiles on Facebook. The party is also using bluetooth, voice and video messages, animation and instant message services to spread their slogans and promises. “Bluetooth is being used in public meetings and gatherings where there are large number of people. Through this service, messages can be send to thousands of people at once,” said Vivek Goyal. The party has installed a server at the Delhi BJP office for video and telephonic conferencing. The conferencing has linked the Delhi BJP’s Pant Road office with the central office at Ashoka road, L.K. Advani’s election campaign office at Tuglaq Road and party president Rajnath Singh’s office at Ashoka road. “With this facility, the leaders would not just be able to talk to each other but can also see each other through LCD screens,” he said. |
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Is Malhotra missing Parliament?
New Delhi, November 17 When party veteran leader L.K. Advani launched Malhotra’s website on Friday many reporters were quick to point out the picture of the Parliament House in the background on the top page. He is the deputy leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. No one except him knows whether the picture is meant to remind voters of the experience of the five-time parliamentarian or it shows that he still nurses the ambition of returning to Parliament some time. Whatever the case may be, it gave rise to lot of speculation. Who knows he may return to Parliament after hopefully leading the BJP to power in Delhi and hand over the Chief Minister’s post to someone else? Empty party offices Just a fortnight ago the offices of the Delhi units of the BJP and the Congress were buzzing with activity with ticket-seekers along with their supporters trying to convince senior leaders to select them to fight the assembly elections that are the “semi-finals” before next year’s general elections. They were not the only ones thronging the party offices from morning to night. There were khadi sellers, tea stall owners, and food stall owners, who incidentally did roaring business. But now, as the candidate lists have been announced and campaigning is in full swing, the party offices have once again become deserted. Even the food and tea stall owners could be found sitting idle. Said Kishore, who sells food items, “I will have to move to another place. But I am happy that I made enough money... though it did not last long.” The crowd is now expected to return only when victory celebrations start. But it would be either in the BJP office or the Congress one. Makwana’s chargesheet against Congress Congress rebel Yogendra Makwana, a former union minister, announced the name of his new party — National Bahujan Congress (NBC) Party, that sounds to be a mix of the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress. Makwana, who had been with the Congress since 1969, was removed on Thursday for anti-party activity. But a Lucknow-based newspaper called Rahat Times had already reported the news about him launching a party. After announcing the name of the party, Makwana distributed copies of the newspaper to reporters. Curious scribes turned the pages and found why he was giving them the paper. It had two full pages of charges Makwana made against the Congress. But one glance at the charges made, many of them closed the paper swiftly without giving it another glance. The charges were in such fine print that reading them made people’s eye water. — IANS
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Malhotra warns UPA against ‘Hindu bashing’
New Delhi, November 17 Instead of punishing those who are involved in terror activities, the UPA government is arresting innocent people without evidence. When asked about Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit and Mahant Amritanand, he said that the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police had no evidence to prove their involvement in the blasts. Terrorists supported by Pakistan are not subjected to narco test, but Hindu suspects are being subjected to this test again and again, he questioned. Blaming an entire community for terrorism was not fair, he said. Malhotra said that Muslims in India were not terrorists, but members of Pakistan’s terror module in India are Muslims and they must be punished. “We have had five wars with Pakistan in 1947, 1965, 1971-72 and the Kargil War. Pakistan was defeated in all of them, so it is now trying to damage our country through terrorism,” Malhotra added. Addressing a conference, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate said that several incidents of terrorism have taken place in recent months, but the UPA government was still clueless about their perpetrators. Fourteen people were killed in blasts in Varanasi, 44 in Hyderabad, six in Gorakhpur, three in Bangalore and 14 in UP court blast. Malhotra also criticised the UPA government for repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). Malhotra said that actually, the UPA government failed to solve the scourge of terrorism and so some brains in the Congress thought of the strategy of replacing fundamentalists from across the border with Hindu nationals.
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Black flags, clashes mark BJP MP’s Bulandshahr visit
Bulandshahr, November 17 Clashes between his opponents and supporters were witnessed at Ansari Road and Kala Aam. However, the situation was brought under control due to adequate police arrangement. Pradhan’s convoy had entered Bulandshahr at 1:30 pm on Sunday. His road show started from Chaudhary Charan Singh’s statue and concluded on Delhi road via bypass road. His opponents greeted him with black flags and clashed with his supporters at Ansari Road and Kala Aam crossing. But the police had intervened with a mild lathi-charge. BJP state president Raj Rani, former MLA Ram Prasad, district secretary Pratap Choudhary and zila panchayat chief Vimla Solnki had accompanied Ashok Pradhan in his maiden visit to Bulandshahr.
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Haryana Cong sure of victory
in LS poll
Faridabad, November 17 Singh further claimed that the morale of the party was high. He said that the reason for this confidence was the good track record of the present Congress government in the state. Singh asserted that the alliance between the BJP and the Indian National Lok Dal had perked up the cadre of the party. Their coming together had brought back memories of the political situation that prevailed during the last parliamentary elections. Singh claimed that a major portion of INLD’s vote bank had shifted in favour of the Congress because of the good performance of CM Bhupinder Singh
Hooda. He said that presently, there was no issue against the Congress in the state. The opposition is bereft of issues to corner it. The opponents were raising frivolous issues and were akin to “baby cries for sweet meat.” Singh claimed that except for the Hero Honda strike in
Gurgaon, which was a conflict between the firm’s management and its workers, the opposition had not been able to rake up any issue against the government. Even the Hero Honda strike was actually instigated by some negative forces to tarnish the image of the government. Though the issue was not directly related to the government, but still the government brokered peace between the management and the workers,he claimed. Singh said that Hooda was working as per the Congress philosophy of taking everybody on the board. There was not a section of the society which had not benefited from the policies of the government, he added. |
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4 travel agents held for duping
New Delhi, November 17 The arrests were made after several raids at the offices and residents of the alleged accused. Vipin’s wife Honey was also arrested. Vipin Sharma and Bhupender Singh were nabbed from their office of tours and travels in the Shahpur Jat area. According to the police, during interrogation, it was learnt that the accused used to advertise about their tour and travel business in leading dailies. They initially charged visa fees varying from Rs 5000 to Rs 20,000 from the customers, who contacted them for arranging their trips abroad. The victims were then shown fake work permits and visas following which they were asked to deposit Rs 3 lakh. However, the accused would flee their office before the customers came back to collect their tickets. A total of 102 passports, 113 fake visa tickets, seven seals of different immigration officers, three computers, one laptop, two scanners, two printers, one paper embossing dye, one UV light document examiner, paper hologram sheets and one car were seized from their office.
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Delhi bank robbed of Rs 2.4 m
New Delhi, November 17 The incident took place at State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur branch in Badli Industrial area on Monday morning. “The robbers fled with the cash to the tune of Rs 2.4 million after locking 15 of the bank employees and the customers in the bank’s strong room,” a senior police officer said. “The bank’s branch in Badli Industrial area opened at around 9.15 am and the first to reach were a lady cashier, the branch manager and an another employee. At around 9:30 am, the four robbers entered the premises pretending to be customers. While three of them entered inside the bank, the fourth stood guard at the entry,” the police officer added. “The three who had entered took out guns and herded the bank employees and a sweeper into a corner and then forcibly took the keys of the lockers and strong room from bank manager R.N. Meena. The employees’ mobile phones were taken away and they were locked in the strong room,” he said. Meanwhile, the fourth robber who was waiting at the bank’s entrance brought every customer entering inside the bank to the strong room at gunpoint, while the other three looted the premises at leisure. “All those customers who were locked inside told us how they were brought to the strong room by the robbers one by one at gunpoint. After they finished collecting the money, the assailants locked the door of the strong room from outside, dropped the key close by and fled,” the police said. The incident was reported to the police when the remaining bank staff came for their duty and saw the bank was open but there was no sign of any employees or customers. “When some of the employees heard voices coming out of the strong room, they called us. When we reached the spot, we opened the strong room and then came to know of the crime,” the police said. The police said that it seems that the robbers were fully prepared and had complete knowledge about the bank. The role of an insider is suspected behind the robbery, as the assailants knew that the security guard of the bank was on leave and there were no CCTV cameras installed in the bank. “They even knew that there would be very few persons in the bank and they would be easily able to overpower them,” the police said. No arrests have been made yet — IANS |
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Retd cop’s pocket picked in bus
New Delhi, November 17 The incident occurred in the Subzi Mandi area at about 10.30 am when the victim, Balwant Singh, 60, was travelling in the bus plying on route no. 127 (Old Delhi Railway Station to Kingsway Camp), the police said. Singh realised his money had been stolen when he checked his pocket at the Roshnara Road roundabout. He raised an alarm and asked the driver to stop the bus but by then the culprits had managed to flee, police said. Deputy commissioner of police (North) Sagar Preet Hooda said, “We have registered a case of pickpocketing and are trying to trace the culprits.” —
IANS |
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Now, catch lectures online
New Delhi, November 17 ILLL, which is the university’s venture for promoting e-learning, plan to record the best lectures of different courses and put them online for all students to access them freely. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has given its approval to the ILLL to establish a studio on campus to record the lectures. A.K. Bakshi, director, ILLL, recently informed, “We will identify the best teachers in all the colleges and ask them to prepare a lecture on a particular segment in the course.” Bakshi said that these online lectures will be helpful not only for students but also for new teachers. The director informed that the construction work for the studio is likely to start in few weeks and the teachers are yet to be selected. “The studio will be an important facility in the university, which will also be used for video-conferencing and other projects,” Bakshi added. Meanwhile, teachers appeared quiet satisfied and excited about the initiative.
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Order reserved on Uphaar tragedy
New Delhi, November 17 Justice Ravinder Bhatt reserved the order after hearing the final submissions from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the main accused Ansal brothers, owners of the cinema hall in South Delhi. The trial court had on November 20 last year held the Ansal brothers guilty along with three others under Section 304-A of the IPC(causing death due to rash and negligent act) and sentenced them to two years’ imprisonment. Seven others, including theatre managers Ajit Chowdhary and Nirmal Chopra, were convicted under Section-304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and sentenced to seven years’ jail. Others convicted under the same section were R.K. Sharma, Manmohan Unniyal (cinema’s gatekeeper), Brij Mohan Satija, A.K. Gera and Bir Singh (all Delhi Vidyut Board officials). Both the convicts and the Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) had filed a review petition in the High Court. The HC had on January 4 had granted bail to the Ansal brothers and two other accused.However, in September, the Supreme Court had cancelled their bail and asked them to complete the sentence awarded to them by the trial court. The CBI had earlier told the High Court that the main cause of the tragedy was that a gangway of the cinema hall was closed and the Ansal brothers could not disown the responsibility it, as they were aware of it. Concluding his arguments, CBI counsel Harish Salve had said, “By closing the gangway, the Ansal brothers violated all rules and regulations and should be prosecuted with harsher penal provisions.” — IANS
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Court gives clean chit to mall’s builder
Gurgaon, November 17 The Central Plaza Mall Occupants’ Welfare Association had filed a complaint against the builder in consumer court that he was taking huge amount from the owners/occupants as maintenance charge but was not providing the necessary facilities to them. Members of the Central Plaza Mall Occupants’ Welfare Association and Prabhudutt Trivedi apprised the commissioner with their views. However, the members term the finding as false. They allege that senior builders have tried to give better shape to the facilities, as they were aware of the commissioner’s visit on Monday.
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Gunshots at ceremony kill 10-yr-old
Gt Noida, November 17 The boy, who slumped in a pool of blood, was rushed to the hospital. In the meantime, the revellers had fled from the scene. R.P. Singh, SHO, Javer Kotwali, said, “Necessary action would be taken against those who fired the shots. However, he did not say if any action would be taken against the family which hosted the party and allowed the gun wielding revelers to participate in the function. Though firing gunshots during ceremonies are prohibited, no one seems to be bothered. Just last week, a Delhi cop was wounded by a gunshot fired in the air during a celebration in Khoda village under Dadri Kotwali.
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Engineer robbed of bike, Rs 18,000
Noida, November 17 According to the police, Rajiv Kumar, an engineer with telecom company Airtel, was returning from his office in Sector 57 on his motorcycle (HR-51-AB-2984). Near Labour Chowk, he was stopped by four men. The moment he stopped, the men started beating him and snatched his purse containing Rs 18,000 at gunpoint. They then dumped him into a nearby drain and fled towards NH -24 on his bike. After gaining consciousness, Rajiv informed Sector-58 police station about the incident and lodged a report. SHO Chauhan said that it was a case of assault. Rajiv clashed with drunken car-borne criminals and fell unconscious after being beaten up. When he regained senses, he found that his bike was also missing. |
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Married woman, teenager end life
New Delhi, November 17 A 16-year-old boy hung himself in the North East district area of Nand Nagri. According to sources, the boy waited for his family to go out of the house and sent his brother to a shop to get a biscuit packet. His brother returned home and found the boy dead. In another incident, a 25-year-old woman committed suicide due to the alleged harassment by her in-laws. She hanged herself at her Mandir Marg residence when she was alone in the house. Her family alleged that she took the extreme step as she was being harassed by her in-laws. The husband of the deceased works with the NDMC. Meanwhile, a complaint has been registered. |
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