New Delhi, February 3
The 3.36-km-long Vishwavidyalaya to Jahangirpuri line of Delhi Metro would be open for commuters from tomorrow morning, nine months before its target time.

The corridor that was inaugurated today by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, is expected to benefit commuters of north-west Delhi coming from localities like Maurice Nagar, Kingsway Camp, Derawal Nagar, Gujrewalan, Malka Ganj, Ashok Vihar and Narela.

Speaking after flagging off the second Metro line, the Chief Minister claimed that Delhi Metro would be one of the largest network in the world before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games 2010 and other agencies in the country should learn from the work culture of Delhi Metro.

Dikshit and her cabinet colleagues transport minister Arvinder Singh, labour minister Mangat Ram Singhal, health minister Kiran Walia, MLAs Kunwar Karan Singh, Rajesh Jain, Surinder Pal Singh, Jai Kishen and Devender Singh Yadav, took ride of Metro from Vishwavidyalay to Jahangirpuri to take stock of the new route.

Dikshit asked MD, DMRC, to further extend the Metro service from Jahangirpuri to Badli so that a large number of industrial labourers and others from Narela and adjoining areas of neighbouring state could be benefited.

“The total operating Metro network with the opening of this section will become about 74.5 km with 67 stations,” said Anuj Dayal, spokesperson, Delhi Metro.

The Vishwavidyalaya to Jahangirpuri line extends the operational Line-2 by 6.36 km. The corridor comprises one underground station at GTB Nagar and four elevated stations at Model Town, Azadpur, Adarsh Nagar and Jehangirpuri.

“With the commissioning of the new line, Line 2 is now 17.36 km from Central Secretariat to Jahangirpuri and has 15 stations. Train services on Line 2 from Central Secretariat to Vishwavidyalaya will be available with a frequency of 3 minutes 40 seconds from 8 am to 9 pm, whereas train services on Line 2 from Vishwavidyalaya to Jahangirpuri will be available with a frequency of 7 minutes 20 seconds,” said Dayal.

“The opening of the new line would have no implications on the Metro fare structure as the minimum fare continues to be Rs 6 and the maximum Rs 22 depending on the distance,” added Dayal.

The second phase of Delhi Metro, which is to be completed before the Commonwealth Games, would add about 125 km to the Delhi metro network. This phase would also bring townships of the National Capital Region Gurgaon, Noida and Vaishali into the Metro map.

“By 2010, the Metro network will cover approximately 190 km, making it one of the largest in the world,” said Dayal.

MD, DMRC Shri E. Sreedharan informed that three new Metro services—Inderlok to Mundar, Indraprastha to Noida, Yamuna to Anand Vihar would also soon be commissioned in the current financial year.

Gurgaon, February 3
A global corridor comprising theme sub-cities with focus on different specialised sectors of economy will be developed along the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway, work on which is in full swing these days.

The 135-km-long and 100-metre-wide KMP expressway passes through six districts of Haryana, including Sonepat, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Gurgaon, Mewat and Palwal. It will have a green belt of 100 metre on both sides, besides a 100-metre-wide orbital rail corridor towards Delhi. The main focus of the spatial plan for the KMP global corridor is on determining the optimum use of land in the 2-km-wide stretch falling on both sides of the expressway.

For instance, five theme sub-cities, including a fashion city, an entertainment city, a world trade centre, a leisure city and a retail merchandiser warehouse centre have been proposed for Gurgaon in the plan.

Similarly, Sonepat district will have Rajiv Gandhi Education City and Sonepat-Kundli multifunctional urban complex, apart from an industrial modern township being planned by the HSIIDC for Kharkhoda. Rohtak, which the state government proposes to develop as an education city, will have state-level institutes of fine arts, fashion design, film and television and professional studies for women. Likewise, a cyber city, a bioscience city and a medi-city have been proposed for Jhajjar; a leisure city and a leather city for Mewat and a dry port city for Palwal.

According to official sources, the global corridor project is being prepared to establish sub-cities focusing on different specialised sectors of economy in a planned manner.

Clusters of these sub-cities, located in the vicinity of the national capital, will be provided with world-class facilities which are expected to serve as catalysts of development involving private participation.

The need of developing this corridor was felt in view of the unabated growth in and around Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

The spatial plan of the corridor would be developed around a number of specialised economic activities which can trigger and sustain economic growth. Each lead economic activity is envisaged to be the focus of a self-sustaining, specialised and independent cluster city. A number of such cluster cities integrated under one umbrella will provide the overall spatial form of the urban corridor. Recreational, forest and green areas will also be developed in between these nodes.

At a meeting convened in this connection here recently, Gurgaon divisional commissioner D.P.S. Nagal asked the deputy commissioners and other officials concerned of all six districts to work out a cumulative plan envisaging all aspects of development along the expressway.

The natural contours for flow of water should also be kept in mind before finalising the plan, he emphasised, adding that the development of cluster sub-cities would be governed by the threshold population required for sustaining their physical and social infrastructure. 

New Delhi, February 3
With the arrest of six youngsters— Sunny, Shekhar, Sandeep, Murgesh, Kuldeep and Kamal, the South district police has claimed to have busted a gang of burglars active in government colonies.

According to police sources, with the arrest, 42 cases of burglaries and thefts have been solved and stolen jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh have been recovered at the instance of the accused.

“Posh areas like the government colonies are always the preferred targets of burglars. These gangs select multi-storied government colonies where movements of strangers are not so restricted,” said HGS Dhaliwal, deputy commissioner, South district.

“For the past few months, incident of thefts and burglaries have increased in Lodhi Colony, Sarojini Nagar and in adjoining posh government colonies. Houses of some senior government servants were also targeted,” said Dhaliwal.

“So, in order to curb the menace, police teams were formulated in the districts,” Dhaliwal added.

The team, after studying the movement of people around these areas, found that several outsider boys used to play in the parks of these areas and had easy access to the houses of the colonies.

The police teams also took help from the Residents Welfare Associations of these colonies. Eventually, one of the key members of the gang, Sunny, a resident of Khyala, was identified.

On Sunny’s instance, Sandeep was arrested yesterday and later on his disclosure Shekhar, Kuldeep, Kamal and Murgesh were arrested from the JJ Colony, Khyala and Mandir Marg areas.

The jwellery that was recovered from them was stolen from a jewellery shop in Parhar Ganj. Investigation revealed the gang was active in various parts of Delhi, including Lodhi Colony, Mandir Marg, Inder Puri, Sarojini Nagar, Khan Baoii, Kotla, Aram Bagh and Pahar Ganj. 

New Delhi, February 3
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is gearing up to give a major relief to hundreds of people by giving them ownership rights of flats at cost of Rs 50,000.

Delhi mayor Arti Mehra today said that the civic body had decided to give the ownership rights of 503 flats situated at Jahangirpuri in North Delhi to their occupants—migrant families from Punjab at a cost of Rs 50,000 per flat.

According to the civic body officials, the flats were built by its slum department in the late seventies.

“The move will bring great relief to refugee families who have been living in these flats for the last three decades in acute social and financial hardships. They have been demanding the ownership rights for a long time at nominal charges,” said Mehra.

“A large number of families had migrated to Delhi from Punjab in 1980 due to terrorist violence in the state. These families were kept in the seven relief camps at various places set up by the Delhi government. They were also given 503 flats which are located in ‘D’ and ‘E’ blocks of Jahangirpuri. The government at that time had decided to rehabilitate these Punjab migrant families,” she said.

“After a protected consideration of the issue at different levels, we have set a nominal cost of Rs 50,000 that would be charged from these families,” she said. 

New Delhi, February 3
The Delhi Bar Association has said lawyers across the country observed a complete strike today in protest against the “anti-public” amendments to Sections 41 and 309 of the CrPC. Work in courts came to standstill, with lawyers responding to the “abstention call” given by the federation of Bar Associations of Northern States.

Even the lawyers of 14 state high courts joined the strike. They held protests in their respective places and submitted memoranda to the authorities concerned.

The lawyers organised a car and bike rally at India Gate here to draw the attention of the government and the public about the need to review the amendments in favour of the accused at the cost of life and safety of the citizens, Delhi Bar Association president Rajiv Khosla said.

The legal fraternity condemned the government for providing adjudicatory authority to the police while confining the role of magistrate only to the trial. The lawyers feel that the job of police is only limited to the investigation and once the police officer is satisfied about commission of offence by the accused then no police officer can be given discretion for allowing the accused to roam free. 

New Delhi, February 3
In this era of information, communication and entertainment, it is sad that people with disabilities (PWDs) in our country are deprived of the benefits of web, which is foraying into our lives at a fast pace.

Defeating the very purpose of Information and Communication Tools (ICT) for development, as many as 5,000 government websites, including that of the ministry of social justice are inaccessible to the PWDs. Nearly 99% of Indian websites are not accessible to the visually impaired.

It is despite of the fact that India has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCPRD) in October 2007. Article IX of UNCPRD outlines complete accessibility of ICT to PWDs.

Most web pages in India have images and graphics that cannot be decoded by screen readers.

Javed Abidi, director of National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People, said, “Web page developers need to take note of the limitations of reading tools and do away with the tradition of going for colours to convey meanings. Besides, there should be special links to skip confusing content, which cannot be discerned by screen readers. It must be ensured that every function can be executed with mouse. Links without references like ‘click here’ should be avoided.”

Organisations like BarrierBreak Technologies, Centre for Internet and Society, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) and Delhi University NTPC ICT Training Centre (DU NTPC ICT TC) feel that web architects should design pages that are universally accessible, irrespective of handicaps.

The need of the hour is a concerted effort towards enabling a more inclusive online environment.

As per the 2001 census, over 21.9 million disabled people live in India, but it has not taken any step towards framing web accessibility legislation. While countries like the UK and Australia having 10 million and 3.9 million PWDs respectively have formulated specific guidelines to ensure adherence to web page accessibility.

“It is pertinent to have a comprehensible and accessible web, as it would ensure effective participation of PWDs. Web creators must work towards removing hurdles in reaching out to print, audio as well as visual media,” said Prashant Ranjan Verma from Delhi University NTPC ICT Training Centre.

However, the IT ministry had organised a discussion with various disability groups on Inter-operability Framework (GIF) last Friday as a follow up to the recently published draft national policy on open standards. Though the government looked positive, nothing concrete has come up yet. Most disability groups have demanded mandatory adherence to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), while demanding coverage extension from government sites to the listed companies to ensure their compliance to web accessibility standards.

Meanwhile, the PWDs are looking forward to a policy upgradation that would set the stage for better web navigation and comprehension resources. 

New Delhi, February 3
Colourful flags dotted Delhi University campus today morning and the air was lively, as university students participated in the ‘Peace and Harmony Run’ to launch the National Campaign for Combating Terrorism (NCCT).

Some 800 boys and 400 girls participated in the ‘Peace and Harmony Run’ that started at 9 a.m. Boys covered a stretch of 5.5 km around the campus in North Delhi, while girls ran 3.5 km.

The run flagged off by Olympians Sushil Kumar and Akhil Kumar is the first event organised in the course of the NCCT. It symbolised the youth’s concern to stop terrorism and promote peace.

Sonia, a student of Miranda House, said, “More students have turned up then I had expected. We are disturbed with the increasing terror activities and the recent Mumbai attacks.”

Ajay Singh, a commerce student, said, “All my friends are running today morning. We are worried with the increasing terrorism and believe to do something about it. Through this campaign we are doing our bit. It is always better to do something, rather than just sitting and complaining.”

Actors Raima Sen and Randeep Hooda were also present.

Other programmes on the agenda for the next few days include a bilingual theatre festival, debate competition, a music festival and a seminar. The campaign is being advertised by networking sites, pamphlet distribution and the word of mouth.

New Delhi, January 3
Four masons died and two were injured this evening when a two-storeyed building collapsed in an unauthorised area of Meethapur in South East district of the Capital.

The incident occurred when six labourers, most of them young, were lifting the roof of the first floor of house and the lintel got imbalanced and came down, burying the workers under the debris.

The house, situated near Shiv Mandir belongs to Vedpal, a resident of the same area, who was not present at the construction site during the incident. A total number of 16 workers were working at the time of incident, and out of them ten escaped unhurt.

Bobby, one of the workers, said that among the deceased were Rajbir, Hemraj, Kapil and Sonu. Monu and Sumeet were rushed to AIIMS Trauma Centre. Doctors attending to the victims said that the condition of the patients is serious.

The police said, “The building was an old one in which some construction was going on, and the house was in a dilapidated condition. No case has been registered so far.”

New Delhi, February 3
Police allegedly lathi-charged workers of the Indian Justice Party and Delhi Jhuggi Jhopri Welfare and Development Sangh who were demonstrating at the DDA headquarters, demanding rehabilitation of jhuggi dwellers, dismissal of corrupt DDA officials and cancellation of housing scheme of the year 2008.

Prominent among those who sustained injuries are Udaiveer Singh Rathi, Babu Lal, Suresh Dikshit, Brijmohan, Jaan Mohammad, Shama Parveen, Shakeela, Rukhsana, Noorjahan, Farida, Manora and Saraswati Devi, said Udit Raj, chairman of the IJP.

However, police denied the allegation, saying that personnel were deployed on routine duty to control the law and order. No force was used to remove the demonstrators.

Udit Raj said police had been informed of the DDA scam before the draw of lots. Had it taken action, nothing would have happened. When the local police did not take action, the IJP lodged a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). The EOW investigated the case on the basis of evidence provided by the complainant and a number of suspects were arrested. The police is still investigating the case, he said.

New Delhi, February 3
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced that Rs 5 lakh would be given to Junior Australian Open Champion, Yuki Bhambari who called at her residence today.

The Chief Minister congratulated Yuki on achieving the illustrious feat in Australian Open Tennis Championship. She described him as a most promising tennis player who would definitely bring a large number of grand slams for the country. Every Delhiite is proud of Yuki who is 16 years old right-handed double-handed backhand, born and brought up in Delhi. 

Noida, February 3
An extortionist who was demanding Rs 5 lakh from executives of

multinational companies was shot dead in an encounter in Noida Phase II in the wee hours of Tuesday. However his three accomplices managed to escape.

The incident took place around 1.30 am. A police team intercepted two motorcycles in the Kakrala area and asked them to halt. But, the riders started firing at the police party. The police team retaliated and in the process, one of the criminals was killed, while three others, taking the cover of darkness managed to flee.

The dead criminal has been identified as Nawal Bihari. His mobile phone, which was used to make extortion calls, was recovered from the site, besides a Hero Honda motorcycle and six live cartridges.

A.K.Tripathi, SP (city), said that a manhunt has been launched to arrest the three absconding accused.

Nawal Bihari had several cases registered against him at different police stations.

Case number 471/03 under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), case number 479/03 under 25 Arms Act, case number 411/03 under Section 394 and 411 of the IPC, case number 943/04 under Section 392 and 411 of the IPC, case number 781/05 and 301/05 under the NDPS Act, case number 302/05 under the Arms Act, 347/05 under the Gangster Act, 96/05 under Section 147,148,149,307 of the IPC and case number 98/05 under the Arms Act are registered against Nawal at the Sahibabad police station.

Further, case number 16/05 under Section 459 of IPC is registered at the Muradnagar police station. Case number 543/2000 under the Arms Act and case number 591/2000 under Section 147,148,149,307 of the IPC are registered at the Vijay Nagar police Station.

Ghaziabad, February 3
A teacher slit the throat of his 12-year-old student for objecting to his chasing the boy’s 13-year-old sister. The murdered child’s body was found by the police from the cupboard of the teacher’s house in Ghaziabad on Monday night, the police said.

According to the police, Virendra Pratap Singh, a teacher at Little Kingdom Public School in Sahibabad, kidnapped the boy when he was going to his school on Monday morning. He took the boy to his house, slit his throat and dumped the body in his almirah.

Circle officer S.P. Singh said that after his arrest, Singh confessed to the police that the boy, Pushpendra, was a hindrance in his love for the boy’s sister, Puja, who is also a student of the same school.

Pushpendra’s father Ravi Shankar told the police that the teacher was chasing his daughter for a long time. Pushpendra had told his father about it. He had objected and once told the teacher to behave like a teacher. However, the teacher continued to tease the girl and decided to get rid of the boy.

On Monday, when Pushpendra did not reach school, the father got worried. He received a phone call from the teacher in the evening saying that his son was with him and he wanted to talk with Puja. Instead of allowing him to speak with his daughter, the father informed the police, who reached the house in Arthala at about 9.30 pm and recovered the body from the teacher’s house, the father said. — IANS