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DDA Scam
Panel set up to hear cases against MPs
Village houses exempted from property tax
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Photo electoral rolls completed in Gurgaon
DUTA seeks teachers’ review on pay by Jan 30
Don’t hike fee, MCD warns its schools
Ban on plastic bags leaves
over 2 lakh jobless
Purana Qila, Sher Shah Gate illuminated
4 held for posing as journalists
2 held for trespassing on IAF base
Weather stays pleasant
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Gautam not cooperating, says police
Questionnaire sent to all 5,328 successful applicants to know their specifics Sandeep Yadav Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 22 “Gautam has been reticent in providing information and when he does, he tries to mislead the police. Umpteen times the information provided by him has turned out to be false. If he does not co-operate, perhaps narco-analysis test could be an option,” said Singh. As per information, the police is verifying the role of 17 persons, apart from the five already under arrest, based on the clue provided by Gautam. However, officials refrained from naming these 17 people unless something substantial comes out against them. “It is too early to name anybody just because an accused has named them. But we are verifying their involvement,” confirmed Singh. According to sources, these people include some DDA officials, financiers and businessmen. According to unconfirmed sources, a businessman from south India had given substantial amount to Gautam and his team to deposit money on behalf of the fake applicants. Based on the call details of Gautam’s mobile phone, investigators are questioning these people. Meanwhile, the EOW has sent a questionnaire to the 5,328 successful applicants to know their specifics, including PAN card details, how they filled their forms and their bank details. This is being done to widen the scope of the investigation as the probe is now scanning allotments under the general category as well. Besides, the police is also awaiting the response from Mumbai, where it has sent PAN numbers of the successful applicant for checking their authenticity. All said and done, it seems the investigation in the case would be long and cumbersome. To expect miracle would be disappointing. “Checking out the authenticity of papers is a long process. We are going step by step and right now are not in a position to say as to when the investigation would be complete,” said Singh when asked about the time his team would take to reach the bottom of irregularities.
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Panel set up to hear cases against MPs
New Delhi, January 22
The five judges of the commission include former Supreme Court judge Justice P.B. Sawant, former chief justice of Calcutta High Court Justice Tewatia, former chief justice of Sikkim High Court Justice S. N. Bhargava, former chief justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court Justice T. U. Mehta and former judge of Allahabad High Court Justice S.C. Verma. President of the GSB Shambhu Dutta said that efforts were being to establish the commission since last ten years, but neither the NDA nor the UPA government did anything in this regard. As we lost hope of any action from the government for the constitution of the commission, the GSB today declared its formation, said Dutta. At present 125 MPs, that is, 25 per cent of the total members of the parliament are involved in criminal cases. If situation remains the same, in the next government this number would reach 150, he added. The commission will be an honorary and advisory panel. The office of the GSB at Lajpat Bhawan in Lajpat Nagar will also serve as the office of the People’s Lok Pal Commission. Dutta said that any Indian citizen or NGO who has any complaint of corruption, criminality, abuse of authority, commission of electoral offence or disproportionate assets against any union minister, MP, chief minister or senior bureaucrat of any state may forward the complaint to the GSB. The complaint should be supported by an affidavit and evidences. When asked about the commission’s legality, Dutta said that government appointed Lok Pals only find out facts related to the case and submit them to the government, but this is People’s Lok Pal and it will be more effective.
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Village houses exempted from property tax
New Delhi, January 22 This exemption will be available to those residential properties in which original owners or legal heir are residing. Likewise all such residential properties situated at urbanized villages in which original owners or legal heir are residing will be exempted from property tax but this exemption will be available only on one property. “This exemption was earlier available on residential properties having an area up to 100 square metres. But this limit has been abolished as the majority of residential properties in villages are constructed on an area of more than 100 square metres. Now majority of villagers will be able to cash this benefit of exemption,” said Vijender Gupta, chairman of the standing committee The civic body also announced a 75 per cent rebate on property tax to the part of basement or stilt of residential properties which is being used for parking purposes. “It has been decided that under special provisions of the DMC Act, the residential properties in village areas where original owners and their legal heir are residing will be exempted from the property tax,” said Subhash Arya, leader of the House.
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Photo electoral rolls completed in Gurgaon
Gurgaon, January 22 The DC said the representatives of recognised political parties could take a copy of voters’ lists along with a CD free of cost from the district election office after showing an authority letter from their party president. She said copies of voters lists would also be available at the district election office, tehsil office, block development and panchayat office, patwar ghar, municipal corporation office, panchayat ghar, district information and public relations office and at all polling station for the people to see. Umashankar asked the representatives of political parties to appoint their party agents for each polling booth to check the voter lists and added that the agent should get the list compared with the list available with the booth-level officer (BLO). She said the final publication of voters’ lists had been done keeping January 1, 2009 as the qualifying date. This means that the names of the persons attaining 18 years of age on this date had been included in the lists, provided they have applied for it. Still, if the name of any genuine voter has been left out, it can be added and for this a form in duplicate under Sections 22 and 23 can be submitted to the electoral returning officer concerned. The deputy commissioner told the meeting that the photo identity cards of the voters whose names were included in June and July last would be delivered shortly, while the I-cards of those whose names were added in the list during the special campaign in November 2008 were expected to arrive by February 15. She said as per the directions from the Central Election Commission, a special drive was undertaken from November 10 to 25 for receiving claims and objections on the electoral rolls. “As a result of this summary revision, 23,021 names of new voters have been included in the lists of the district,” she added.
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DUTA seeks teachers’ review on pay by Jan 30
New Delhi, January 21 Though the UGC’s pay revision commission’s notifications are by and large welcomed by Delhi University teachers, there are stirrings among teachers and rounds of discussions have been under way on the anomalies in the report. Teachers have demanded their rectification. The Delhi University Teachers Association held a meeting on the issue on January 4 when the matter was raised at an executive council meeting and this was followed by a meeting with the UGC on January 5 where the issue was discussed threadbare. “We have discussed the issue at several meetings after discovering these anomalies in the report and come with some demands regarding these inherent flaws in the UGC’s notifications,” says DUTA president Aditya Narayan Misra. Aditya Narayan Misra, the president of DUTA, says, “There are some 13 to 14 anomalies in the notifications that we are opposed to. These include student evaluation of teachers and student feedback on the promotion of teachers. We are also opposed to the counting of total services for promotions.” “Further,” Misra stresses, “those who have not taken the benefit of advanced increments permissible for Ph.D. service in the earlier schemes should be granted advanced increments under new schemes.” Misra adds that on January 16, the DUTA executive council had adopted MHRD notifications on pay revision and the executive council had also resolved to write to all colleges to calculate salary of teachers as per the new notification and re-designate readers and those in selection grade to the position of associate professor. Early this month, teachers at Delhi University and across the nation were satisfied with the notifications. It came after months of strikes and dharnas by the teachers.
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Don’t hike fee, MCD warns its schools
New Delhi, January 22 Vijender Gupta, chairman Standing Committee of MCD, said that the corporation will take the excuse of Sixth Pay Commission behind hiking of fee by its primary non-aided schools. “We would not allow any unnecessary increase in fee in order to implement the report of Sixth Pay Commission. Strict action would be taken against such schools which increase the fee without approval,” he said. “If any school has done so already, it has to take back its decision,” added Gupta. The corporation has also announced to begin a random inspection in the schools to check their audit report. “The management of every school is supposed to file the audited financial and other returns with the education department every year. Any school found breaching the rules will be derecognized,” he said. The civic body said that it would issue performa to all its primary non-aided schools asking for the details of their fee structure since the implementation of Fifth Pay Commission.
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Ban on plastic bags leaves
over 2 lakh jobless
New Delhi, January 22 All-India Plastic Association president Ravi Agarwal said the notification has rendered over two lakh workers unemployed. He added that the city manufacturers catered to the daily demand of 500 tonnes. Demanding withdrawal of the order, Agarwal stressed that plastic was environment-friendly but the government had failed to put this point before the court in a proper way. Had the technical points and scientific evidences were presented properly before the court, it would not have directed to ban plastic bags, he claimed. Addressing a conference, Agarwal said as far as choking of drains was concerned, jute, paper and other things also choked drains. He added plastic bags were cheap in comparison to jute and paper bags. He claimed if banned, the rate of commodities would rise, as traders would also include the prices of bags. Agarwal informed earlier plastic bags were banned in London, Germany and some cities of the USA but was allowed later. Therefore, the city government should think of withdrawing the order, he suggested. Agarwal said the court had ordered that plastic bags should not be less than 40 microne, which is thick plastic. But this is not mentioned in the government’s notification. General secretary of the All-India Traders’ Association Parveen Khandelwal said, “I agree in principle with the government order. But it should have consulted stakeholders. We have met the Delhi environment secretary and have appealed to him to withdraw the ban. If he does not accept our demand we will go to the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister.” He threatened, “If all doors are closed for plastic manufacturers, we will approach the court.”He said under the rehabilitation scheme, the government should have issued notice to manufacturers giving some time to change their line of business. But the government has suddenly ordered to close the industries, he lamented. O.P. Ratra, member of Plastics Chintak, an association of plastic goods manufacturers, said liquor is hazardous to health but it is not banned as the government earns revenue from it. Likewise, plastic bags are also a source of revenue. Its production should not be banned, he explained. In December 2008, a survey was conducted by the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology in Chandigarh. According to the survey, majority of consumers and vendors preferred plastic bags as they are economical, he said. |
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Purana Qila, Sher Shah Gate illuminated
New Delhi, January 22 The project executed by India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) was sanctioned by the ministry of tourism in December 2006. The ministry had sanctioned Rs 23.75 crore for the illumination of 13 ASI monuments in the national capital territory (NCT) region of Delhi. Purana Qila is one of these monuments for which Rs 445.87 lakh had been sanctioned. The subdued and soft lighting enhances the architectural features and beauty of the monuments. “Keeping in view the high cost of energy consumption, energy-saving lights have been installed at the monuments. The designs are eco-friendly and maintenance-free,” said an official of the ITDC. Some of the other ASI-protected monuments in Delhi which have been selected for illumination by the ITDC are: Safdarjung Tomb, Kotla Feroze Shah and Khan-e-Khana, Khamba at Nizamuddin.
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CM reviews Games work
New Delhi, January 22 She asked where hoarding relating to the preparation of Commonwealth Games and other signage, kiosks and booths would be installed. The concerned department presented designs about temporary and permanent information kiosk, Games information kiosk, public utilities, traffic police booth, dustbins near venues, dressing up of flyovers closer to games, building wrap during the last month, merchandise kiosk, structures with pictograms, drinking water counters, bus shelters closer to stadiums, look inside airport and city signage. Sheila laid stress on uniformity in disseminating the message of Delhi-2010. It is understood that the image of the city before and during the event would give the feel of an international sporting event. Delhi chief secretary, principal secretary to the Chief Minister, PWD secretary, director information and publicity, MCD commissioner, NDMC chairperson and senior officers of Delhi Tourism and Travel Development Corporation, Sports Authority of India and DIAL were also present.
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Delhi gives Rs 5000 to brave kids
New Delhi, January 22 The announcement was made by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today when these children came to meet her and shared their experiences of outstanding bravery and selfless sacrifice. Congratulating the brave kids, she said that they were nation’s pride and role models for other children. One of the awardees, Master Rahul, an eyewitness in the serial blasts that rocked the city on September 13, narrated his experience. He had seen the terrorists who planted the bomb in Connaught Place. Rahul helped the police in making their sketches. Unmindful of the risk to his life, Rahul boldly said in front of the media and the police that he could recognise the men who planted the bomb. The Chief Minister appreciated their deeds and expressed confidence that the children would play a major role in building the future of not only their respective states, but the entire country. |
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4 held for posing as journalists
Noida, January 22 SSP Ashok Kumar Tripathi said that Narinder, a deliveryman of Narinder Gas Agency in Sector-37, and two others had gone to deliver cylinders yesterday. Three persons in an Indica car, posing as journalists from a news channel, accused them of gas refilling. According to the police, they threatened the deliverymen to shell out Rs 50,000 or else they would get their gas cylinders-laden three-wheeler impounded. When gas agency manager learnt about it, he rang up the news channel and realised that no journalists of those names were its correspondents. When the gas agency staff learnt about it, they overpowered the three conmen and the driver. All of them were taken to Sector-39 Kotwali. The arrested persons have been identified as Ashawni Kaushik, Rajesh Nagar, Sajid and driver Suresh. In yet another incident, a youngster posing as a freelance journalist, was nabbed for blackmailing and threatening a priest. Sanjiv Chaudhary from Naya Bans here who had come to Sector-20 Kotwali to lodge a complaint against a priest got implicated in his own trap. Sanjiv Chaudhary had enticed the daughter of a priest living in the neighbourhood for marriage. The girl’s marriage had already been fixed. Chaudhary tried to implicate the priest in a false case. |
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2 held for trespassing on IAF base
Ghaziabad, January 22 The IAF authorities had handed them over to the Sahibabad police, which is interrogating the duo. Farz Khan and Saraj Khan had suddenly intruded into the technical area of the Hindon base of IAF. Air force security men were informed by some air force personnel who spotted the two. Farz Khan told the security officials that they hailed from Raj village in West Bengal and had strayed into the air force premises by mistake. |
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Weather stays pleasant
New Delhi, January 22 According to the meteorological department, the maximum temperature did not deviate from the normal at 21.2 degree Celsius. The minimum temperature was recorded at 11.3 degree Celsius, which is three degree higher than normal. “Both minimum and maximum temperatures are fortunately pleasant today. In the coming days also, the weather would be pleasant,” said an official of the meteorological office. The minimum temperature is expected to go up at approximately 12 degree Celsius tomorrow, said the official. The maximum temperature is also expected to go up at 23 degree Celsius. |
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Ambika Soni, minister of tourism and culture, today inaugurated the illumination of Purana
Qila, Sher Shah Gate and Subz Burj. The project executed by India Tourism Development Corporation
(ITDC) was sanctioned by the ministry of tourism in December 2006.
