New Delhi, March 4
A 52-year-old woman was beaten to death allegedly by her tenants in the Geeta Colony area of East Delhi after an argument over electricity bill. The tenants allegedly had an altercation with her son over the payment of electricity bill.

According to the police, Devi Rani, who was staying with her son Vijay Kumar, had rented the first floor of her house to Inderjit since the last one year. As the house had just one meter, Inderjit shared the bill with the landlords. But Devi Rani and her son had asked him to pay more as the bill had increased in the last month.

“Inderjit refused to pay more and alleged that the landlords used more power. Therefore, Devi Rani asked him to vacate the house by February 28,” said a police official from Geeta Colony police station.

But when the latter did notvacate the house, they agsin had an altercation few days ago.Today too the two had an altercation and abused each other. Later Inderjit and one of his relatives, including his teenaged son Rinku started beating Vijay.

“Hearing her son’s cries, Devi Rani rushed to save him and was severely beaten,” said a police official. She fell unconscious and was taken to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.

A member of Inderjit’s family, including his wife, brother-in-law and minor son have managed to escape.

Meanwhile, Inderjit and his elder son Rinku have been arrested for causing the death of the elderly woman.

New Delhi, March 4
In the backdrop of several political leaders lobbying to get a seat for Lok Sabha elections, a decision for the selection of next Delhi mayor has been taken by the senior leaders of ruling BJP in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

According to BJP senior leaders, Yogender Chandolia, municipal councillor in the scheduled caste category from Dev Nagar ward, is going to be the next mayor of the Capital. “The decision has been taken unanimously in the meeting,” said a senior BJP leader.

Though the leaders said that the name will be finally announced after the party leadership is through with the selection of candidates for the general elections in the Capital.

The official proceedings will take place in the first week of April as the tenure of the outgoing mayor, Arti Mehra, is yet to expire.

As per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the post of the mayor this year has been reserved for a councillor from the scheduled caste category. It rotates every year within three categories of women, general and scheduled caste. The present mayor Arti Mehra has been holding the post for the past two years.

One of the senior BJP councillors in the present House, Yogender Chandolia, is being promoted by some senior Delhi BJP leaders arguing that his becoming the mayor would help the party in the coming elections. Chandolia had contested for the same post in 2004 as well. He was also in the fray for Assembly elections 10 years ago.

With the ruling BJP party having a majority of members against the opposition Congress, the election of the mayor becomes a mere formality even if some resistance comes up from within the BJP councillors. The Congress leaders, on the other hand, have ruled out the possibility of announcing any councillor’s name for the post of Delhi mayor.

New Delhi, March 4
The scorching heat has already made its presence felt and water demand of the city has shot to 970 mgd. But senior officials of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) maintain that the board has only 825 mgd of water.

Besides, the fact that the city’s population has risen by over 5 lakh this year has added to the woes of the Jal Board.

Therefore, the DJB has come up with a summer action plan. It aims to supply water in the areas of Sangam Vihar, Mehrauli, Kirari, Najafgarh and outskirts of Delhi.

As per the plan, three recycling plants will be constructed, which will give the city an additional supply of 35 mgd of water, confirmed DJB officials.Tubewells are being constructed in Sangam Vihar. Besides, over 1,200 tanks are being placed in areas where water is scarce.

To ensure adequate supply in Uttam Nagar and Nangloi, an underground reservoir will be constructed in Mohan Garden and Nangloi each, confirmed Sanjan Chima, a DJB spokesperson.

Besides, the DJB has spread over 200-km pipeline to ensure proper water supply.Meanwhile, the officials claim that the 16-mgd recycling plant at Haiderpur water treatment plant would serve over 3 lakh people.

This plant was supposed to supply water to the areas of Rohini, but as an underground reservoir has not been constructed yet, water will reach the areas of Najafgarh, Uttam Nagar and Mahawari Enclave.

The DJB officials said, “To deal with the problem of water shortage in East Delhi, the Jal Board will start a 10 mgd recycling plant at Bhagirathi water treatment plant by the end of March.” They affirmed that the trial run of this plant was successful.

With this plant, East Delhi will get 155 mgd of water. Presently, it gets 145 mgd. East Delhi that has a population of over 30 lakh gets water from Bhagirathi and Sonia Vihar water treatment plants.

New Delhi, March 4
The Delhi police has claimed to have brought back all six teenaged children, including two girls who had gone missing on February 10 from New Sanjay Amar Colony in East Delhi.

They were brought to the capital from a village 20 kms from Gorakhpur in UP.

True to the police’s suspicion the six children had fled from their houses. They are in the age group of 14 to 17 years and studied in the same school.

Their parents had alleged kidnapping. While even at that time the police had maintained that it could be a case of elopement.

According to the police, the six children were found together and the girls claimed to have married two boys in the group.

“The couple told that they had eloped from their houses to get married and denied anyone forcing them,” said a police official.

Meanwhile, the police has sent them to a rehabilitation centre for counseling.

The police was able to trace these children when one of them called up at home from a public booth.

It might be recalled that the Delhi police had received much flak in the case after the children’s parents alleged the police’s nonchalant attitude towards finding their children.

Ghaziabad, March 4
An angry mob went on the rampage here today, damaging a police post, over a dozen vehicles and critically injuring two policemen after two men were gunned down by the police allegedly for robbing a man.

Residents of Ghaziabad set on fire the police post outside the New Bus Stand, burnt two police vehicles and 12 buses in the evening to protest the killing of the two men, said superintendent of police (traffic) Anil Kumar.

He said two police constables, identified as Satish Chandra and Vipin Kumar, were critically injured in the violence.

Two youths who robbed and beat up a victim in Ghaziabad town, adjacent to the capital, early Wednesday were killed by a police squad within hours, but two others escaped with the loot, an official said.

Superintendent of police Anant Dev told IANS that the robbers were shot dead in Indirapuram locality around 4.30 am.

He said four criminals travelling in a Qualis car seriously injured a man and robbed him about 1.30 am. They then dumped the unconscious man near Haj House in Sahibabad.

When the victim, identified as Naushad, regained consciousness, he dragged himself to the main road and was spotted by a police patrol vehicle.

On the basis of Naushad’s complaint, the police chased the criminals and managed to gun down two of them.

The others managed to escape with the money they had stolen from Naushad. Dev said two pistols and a knife were recovered from the Qualis.

The police said the two robbers have been identified as Salim and Feroz of Islamabad locality in Ghaziabad. — IANS

Gurgaon, March 4
No political party or candidate will be able to advertise on city cable TV network or put up hoarding, banners, notices, slogans and panel boards in public places this year, directly. For all this, the party or the candidate will have to take a prior approval from a committee constituted at the district level for this purpose.

The district electoral-cum-deputy commissioner Deepti Umashankar said this to representatives of political parties in a meeting held here today.

The DC mentioned that as per the orders of the Supreme Court of India, the registered national and state political parties as well as contesting candidate proposing to issue such an advertisement on TV channels of cable network will have to apply for it to the election commission or designated officer not later than three days prior to the date of proposed commencement of the telecast. In case of any other person or unregistered political parties, time for applying is seven days prior to the date of telecast. She said that such application should be accompanied by two copies of the proposed advertisement in electronic forms along with a duly attested transcript.

Umashankar affirmed that the apex court has also mentioned in the order passed on April 13, 2004 that the application for certification of such advertisement should contain the cost of production of the advertisement, approximate cost of proposed telecast along with a statement whether the advertisement will benefit any candidate or party. If the advertisement is issued by any person other than a political party or a candidate, that person shall state on oath that it is not for the benefit of the political party or a candidate and that the said advertisement has not been sponsored or commissioned by any political party.

The order further reads that the applicant will have to make a statement that all the payments would be made by way of cheque or demand draft.

The deputy commissioner also retreated that no cable operator shall telecast any advertisement unless it is approved by the committee constituted for this purpose.

Moreover, no advertisement can be telecast which does not conform to the law of the country and which offends the morality, decency and susceptibility of viewers.

She said that the private premises also cannot be used for this purpose without prior written permission of the building owner and clarified that any violation in this would invite stringent action against the candidate under Section 425, 426, 427, 433 of the IPC and Section 133 of CrPC, besides the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of Property Act and Municipal Laws. The expenditure on the removal of defacement of the property would be recovered from the party or candidate.

Umashankar has asked that interested parties to submit a written permission obtained from the owner of the property to be used for the advertisement, giving detailed information to the concerned assistant returning officer (ARO).

She also clarified that public property like sign-boards, direction indicating boards of highways and important intersections, milestone should not be used for displaying ads.

Noida, March 4
Allottees of Noida Authority’s Residential Scheme- 2004 are a disappointed lot. Their dozen writ petitions pertaining to the hiked rates of the controversial residential scheme have been turned down by the Allahabad High Court.

Now allottees are planning to file an appeal in the apex court in this connection.

On the other hand, the Noida Authority is planning to dispatch notices to those allottees who have failed to deposit the amounts as per the new increased rates.

According to legal cell of Noida Authority, the two-judge Bench of the High Court has pronounced its reserved verdict. Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Arun Tandon dismissed all the writs.

The disappointed allottees have reportedly made up their mind to knock at the door of the Supreme Court in the matter.

It may be mentioned that Noida Authority had issued allotment letters to 800 out of 1,163 successful allottees. The allotment letters of about 250 allottees are reportedly held up in the Authority office due to one reason or the other.

The land rate in 2004 was Rs 11,200 per sq mt at the time of the announcement of the residential scheme which had been hiked to Rs 39,600 per sq mt in November 2008 when the redraw of the scheme was taken out. 

Greater Noida, March 4
The angry relatives of a young girl, who went missing 12 days ago, and is presumed to have been kidnapped, gheraoed the Dadri police station for the failure of the police to trace her. The relatives were joined by hundreds of slogan–shouting villagers.

People alleged that the police was not doing enough to trace the girl and was unnecessarily making it out to be a case of love affair.

The villagers agreed to stop the protest only after the police circle officer assured them that the missing girl will be recovered within two days.

On February 21, daughter of Liaquat, a resident of Nai Abadi Mohalla in Dadri was abducted from outside her house. A written complaint was lodged against four persons, including a woman living in the locality. The police had kept the matter under wraps for over a week and the report was registered only after the girl’s family threatened to contact higher officials alleging that the police was not taking any action because of pressure from an influential anti-social person. 

New Delhi, March 4
The Delhi Hight Court today sought a detailed response from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on whether its guidelines for conducting a magisterial inquiry into last year’s September 19 Batla House shootout could be followed despite the government’s reluctance.

“What is your stand on conducting inquiry in the case? Would you allow your guidelines not to be followed if the executive (government) decides against it?” a bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Sanjeev Khanna asked.

The court asked the NHRC to give the status report on the complaint filed before it questioning the genuiness of the shootout and slated the matter for March 18. — IANS

Noida, March 4
Even after the announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha polls, the work of voters’ list and voters’ identity cards is far from complete in Noida. The district administration appears to have been awakened from its slumber by the Election Commission’s announcement of election dates.

The district administration opened counters for collection of forms in Sector-19. The two counters set up for receiving forms are not enough. There is a chaotic situation at the centre opened on February 26. People stand in the open with their forms for hours. Fed up with the arrangement, many voters rushed to the office to deposit their forms directly. But they had sharp exchanges with the staff.

Quite a few prospective voters were anxiously enquiring about their photo ID cards. The officials told them to wait for the arrival of BLO.

The people felt the administration should have made adequate arrangements and set up more counters for the bulging population of a city like Noida. There should have been at least half a dozen counters for the purpose. Some persons were critical of the unhelpful attitude of the staff also.