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Report sought in Iffco Chowk razing
JNUSU condemns ABVP’s ‘communal violence’
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Constituency Profile:
North-East Delhi
Cong to hold pageant of Bhagat Singh,
Sukhdev, Rajguru
No rethink on West Delhi seat: BJP
‘Sikhs unhappy with ticket to Tytler’
Experts absent from EVM training session
Committee to take care of safety on NH-8
Jal Board ready with summer plan
Dharna against gutting of gurdwara in London
Cops see robbery motive in BPO staffer’s murder
Slain Army officer’s body reaches home
2 held, 467 cylinders seized
Man sues builder for leaking roof, wins
IGNOU to start online study guide
8 lakh pay power bills online
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Report sought in Iffco Chowk razing
‘HUDA officials don’t pick my phone’ On being asked why the HUDA or Town and Country Planning officials were not present at the time of the demolition exercise, the ADC said he had approached those departments to depute officials for accompanying him during the operations, but they did not bother to do so. “Top officials of HUDA and other concerned departments don’t even pick up my phone, apparently to avoid doing their duty of removing encroachments,” he said, adding that he would recommend action against these officials in his report. Kumar further pointed out that the provision of regular electricity and water connections to the unauthorised structures also put a question mark on the functioning of the corresponding departments.If such is the plight of an IAS officer, the condition of the common man can well be understood.
Gurgaon, March 23 The protesters claimed that their structures were demolished in an arbitrary manner by a team headed by additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Praveen Kumar. They submitted a memorandum to deputy commissioner (DC) Deepti Umashankar, urging her to intervene in the matter. Later, talking to The Tribune, the DC maintained that she had sought a report from the ADC regarding the demolition drive. It may be pertinent to mention here that the deputy commissioner had formed a joint action group under the supervision of the ADC to remove illegal hoardings and other structures encroaching on public land or violating court orders and other rules. Following this, a number of hoardings were brought down. However, the recent removal of encroachments sparked a row. The protest against the demolition drive gave a welcome opportunity to the Opposition parties to derive political mileage out of the residents’ resentment. Former deputy speaker and INLD leader Gopi Chand Gehlot hurriedly convened a press conference to cash in on the issue. Certain local leaders of the BJP were among the protesters who staged demonstration today. On being contacted, ADC Praveen Kumar maintained that the removal of encroachments had been carried out in pursuance of specific orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He asserted that an eating joint, a liquor vend and an ‘ahata’ situated at the Iffco Chowk were found to be the originating point of various criminal activities and action against them had become necessary to curb the nuisance. Regarding the report on the demolition operation sought from him, the ADC said he was preparing the report and would submit it within a day or so. |
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JNUSU condemns ABVP’s ‘communal violence’
New Delhi, March 23 In a press conference held today on the university campus, the JNUSU office-bearers alleged that in the violence that took place on March 17 in Lohit hostel, ABVP activists did not spare even the senior warden and the security staff. “A group of well-known ABVP activists namely: Santosh Pathak, Ashutosh Singh, Shashi Shekhar Singh, Rajdeep Jha, Ravi Nagar, Manish Kumar, Rajeev Ranjan and Nitish Kumar, beat up some residents of the Lohit hostel, including some women students,” said Sandeep, president, JNUSU. Following protests by hostel residents, the hostel administration issued out-of-bounds order for three students Santosh Pathak, Shashi Shekhar Singh and Ashutosh Singh. The accused, however, moved the high court and got an order directing the administration to take hem back till the inquiry was over. “It is true that one of the leading culprits— Santosh Pathak — suffers from epilepsy and had been advised bed rest by AIIMS. But this does not imply that he was not involved in the violence. There are innumerable witnesses to testify that he led the physical assault that night,” said Sandeep. One of the victims of the violence, Messyh-ullah-Khan, said he had only asked the accused to convene the general body meeting democratically. “They started beating me in front of the senior warden and security of the university,” he added. Many of the accused have been involved in incidents of violence in JNU earlier also. The JNUSU alleged that in October 2007, the accused “grievously assaulted” a senior Ph.D. scholar from minority community in Lohit hostel. On October 31, 2007, they indulged in massive violence during JNUSU elections presidential debate, and yet again on March 16, 2008, they beat up a student as well as some JNU security staff.” Linking the incident to Varun Gandhi’s hate speech, JNUSU office-bearers said, “ABVP’s activities on the campus are nothing but a propagation of the hate politics of the RSS-BJP-VHP combine that they are a part of. With Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the RSS-BJP campaigners are on a rampage again, with Varun Gandhi giving open calls to terrorise, kill, and forcibly sterilise members of a minority community.” Asking the JNU administration to take immediate action against the culprits, the JNUSU alleged that the administration also favours right wing politics. “The present JNU administration is known for its support to the ABVP goons. It looks like a section of the administration has a vested interest in keeping the campus in a periodic tension so that every other issue of students’ interest could be suitably deflected,” said Shephalika, vice-president,
JNUSU. |
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Constituency Profile:
North-East Delhi
New Delhi, March 23 The change in the electorate profile of NED is obvious with the inclusion of nine assembly segments—Burari, Ghonda, Gokulpur, Seemapuri, Karawal Nagar, Seelampur, Babarpur and Rohtas Nagar—from the pre-delimitation East Delhi (ED) Lok Sabha seat that have an underlined presence of Muslims, OBCs and SCs. Besides, the tenth assembly seat Timarpur, which is populated by Punjabis, comes from the former Sadar Bazar parliamentary seat. The NED constituency has a considerable presence of Pandits, i.e. 11.5 per cent of the total populace and majority of assembly seats (3) and municipal wards (11) are held by Pandits. Hence, ballots of the Brahmin community can be critical. Even though, Brahmins are believed to be pro-BJP, the saffron camp is going to have a tough time as out of the three Vidhan Sabha segments—Ghonda, Babarpur and Rohtas Nagar, which have a Pandit predominance, only the first two are under BJP’s power and the third is with Congress. Incidentally, post-delimitation dynamics of NED seem to be conducive to Congress with the constituency presently having 16,15,987 voters, out of which 14,63,308 voters are from erstwhile ED seat, from where Sandeep Dikshit had won by a heavy margin of 2,65,000 votes in the last Lok Sabha polls. And the remaining 1,52,699 voters, who are from old Sadar Bazar constituency, have already registered their confidence in Congress during the last year’s assembly polls. However, the Congress and the BJP are neck to neck with the former having five legislatures and the latter pocketing four assembly berths under its kitty. Dissecting the newly engineered NED segment further, the BJP holds command in 28 municipal wards and the Congress, which though has seven municipal councillors in the region, is hopeful of a triumph due to the very fact that the constituency, after delimitation, is populated with a significant percentage of Muslims, OBCs and SCs—the traditional vote banks of the Congress—that stand at 21, 20 and 17 per cent of the total electorate respectively. Traditionally, the poor, mostly found among the Dalit and Muslim section, are known to be Congress’s vote banks. The poor voters constitute the largest single class in many areas of NED, which come from earlier East Delhi parliamentary seat, where Congress has notched up many wins. But, with BSP’s making inroads into NED political grounds by securing two municipal wards and one assembly seat under its fold, Congress has suffered a setback among its traditional support base in the last assembly polls. The BSP won the Gokulpur reserved assembly seat by a reasonable margin of over 3,000 mandates. Thus, sensing the warning bell, the Congress, claiming Muslim-dominated Mustafabad, Welcome Colony, Seelampur, Sonia Vihar, etc. to be its trusted terrains, would leave no stone unturned to nourish voters from the Muslim section and JJ clusters, like Seemapuri, Nandnagar, Gokulpuri, Seelampuri, and colonies, like Ghonda, Maujpur, Shiv Vihar, Seelampur, Sonia Vihar, Karawalnagar and Rohtasnagar, which constitute poor and lower-middle class voters. Meanwhile, the Congress has staged stalwart Jagdish Tytler (three-times MP from Sadar Bazar) against BSP’s Haji Dilshad for the NED seat. |
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Cong to hold pageant of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru
Faridabad, March 23 The decision was announced today by the district president of the Congress, B.R.Ojha, at a well-attended function in Bhagat Singh Memorial College here in connection with the Martyrs’ Day which was celebrated throughout the country. The “Sahidi Diwas” is related to the nation’s remembrance of the three heroes who were hanged to death by the Britishers. According to Ojha, the pageant will be taken out to remind the people of the crucial period of modern history of the country with the three heroes being the main actors of that moment. This will go a long way in instilling noble values among the people, especially the youths. Ojha said that not only the people of Haryana, which was part of Punjab from where the three hailed, are proud of their sacrifice, but the entire nation gets galvanised by the mere memories of their supreme sacrifice. Ojha and other speakers underlined the need for the present generation of youths to take inspiration from the heroes on aspects of sacrifice and sense of commitment for a good cause. |
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No rethink on West Delhi seat: BJP
New Delhi, March 23 It might be recalled that supporters of Parvesh Verma had held a dharna outside L.K. Advani’s residence as the former was not given a ticket. The Jat Mahasabha had also organised a panchayat in Mundka in Parvesh’s favour. They demanded BJP to reconsider its decision and field Parvesh from West Delhi y, as he is only Jat leader in the party. However, Delhi BJP chief O.P. Kohli has said that the party would not change its decision irrespective of the consequences. Kohli informed the party had asked Parvesh to contest from South Delhi against Congress candidate Sajjan Kumar, but Parvesh refused. He was adamant for West Delhi which was strategically wrong, added Kohli. The party had lost in Jat-dominated areas like —Najafgarh, Matiala, part of Dwarka, part of Vikaspuri and part of Uttam Nagar in the assembly elections. It was victorious in Punjabi-dominated areas like — Hari Nagar, Tagore Garden and
Janakpuri. |
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‘Sikhs unhappy with ticket to Tytler’
New Delhi, March 23 Singh said when AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi had visited Punjab he had assured the Sikhs that his party would ensure that culprits of 1984 anti-Sikh riots were punished. But he forgot his promise as soon as he came back, and it is proved by the fact that the party has given tickets to Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler from South Delhi and North East Delhi, respectively. Singh said by making Sajjan and Tytler its candidates, the party had hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community. |
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Experts absent from EVM training session
Ghaziabad, March 23 Taking serious note of the absence, district magistrate (DM) and district election officer, Martyunjan Kumar
Narayan, has instructed the additional DM (E) to file an FIR against the absent officers under the provisions of the People’s Representation Act. The DM said that a special medical board, headed by the
CMO, will examine all the officers who were found absent from the duty on pretext of being sick. The training is being imparted to election officials in three batches in the
collectorate. |
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Committee to take care of safety on NH-8
Gurgaon, March 23 The first review will be held on Tuesday, during which the committee members will take a round of the expressway from Delhi border to the Kherki Daula toll barrier. The decision was taken in a meeting held today under the chairmanship of deputy commissioner Deepti Umashankar in her office. The committee consists of DCP, traffic, Satender Gupta; SDM, Gurgaon (North), Shakti Singh; DGM of the Haryana State Road Development Corporation RK Rathi and representatives of DS Construction and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). The DC was concerned over the increasing rate of accidents on the NH-8, and said that it was the duty of the concessionaire to maintain smooth flow of traffic on it. She mentioned that if the concessionaire failed to remove the flaws even after the recommendation of the committee, a case of negligence could be registered against them. The concessionaire D S Construction Company was asked to install and maintain round the clock traffic lights at junctions on the expressway, for which 24- hour power back-up should be arranged. She directed the concessionaire to install CCTV cameras and speed sensors on the expressway to check accidents and activities of criminals. Umashankar stated that there should be proper lane markings for heavy and light vehicles so that the slow and fast moving vehicles are regulated properly. The concessionaire was asked to adopt more signs for the maintenance and upkeep of road and was said that advance caution boards should be put up in advance so that commuters did not face problems. A suggestion was also given to improve the geometrics of road at underpass and flyovers, especially at Rajeev Chowk, IFFCO Chowk and on service road between Rajeev Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk to ease traffic congestion at the interjections. The deputy commissioner directed the committee members to study this aspect also. The committee was also asked to designate places on the expressway for ambulance and rescue vehicles. The deputy commissioner directed the concessionaire to install sign boards with information facility at regular intervals. She asked the NHAI to coordinate with various agencies for removal of stagnant water from service road near Hero Honda Chowk. The DC said that the non-tagged vehicles coming in the tag lane should be fined and traffic marshals should guide the commuters accordingly to take the right lane. The problem of crossing the expressway was also raised, to which the NHAI authorities said that construction of three footover bridges was in progress and till the completion of these overbridges free bus service from one flyover to another was provided from today itself for pedestrians who want to go to the other side of the expressway. The concessionaire was asked to maintain cleanliness at toll plaza of Kherki Daula. |
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Jal Board ready with summer plan
New Delhi, March 23 DJB CEO said today that the board would supply potable water to 1,429 additional colonies which depend on ground water. Water line of 341.44 km was laid in 2008 to ensure optimal supply. He further said the Jal Board has seven water treatment plants, including Sonia Vihar Water Plant. The average water produced in 2008-09 was 810 MGD as compared to 750 to 770 MGD in 2007-08. This includes 100 MGD from ground water sources. There are approximately 17 lakh registered water connections and 138 water filling points. Haiderpur Recycling Water Treatment Plant has been commissioned and it has augmented water availability by 16 MGD. Three additional water recycling plants – Bhagirathi, Wazirabad and Chandrawal — are likely to be commissioned in 2009. These plants will augment water availability by 29 MGD. A special task force being set up under a maintenance executive engineer will attend to urgent maintenance needs. The enforcement department will supervise deployment of tankers in water-deficient areas. For convenience or further information, residents can contact the control room at 23527679, 23538495 and 23531916. |
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Dharna against gutting of gurdwara in London
New Delhi, March 23 After the dharna, a delegation of Sikhs led by Delhi unit chief of the Akali Dal, Manjit Singh (GK) met Creon Putler, Deputy High Commissioner, British High Commission and apprised him of the matter. The delegation members handed over a letter to him requesting British Prime Minister to look into the matter and punish the culprits. The delegation said that Sikh community is part and parcel of the UK. Putler told the delegation that London Police is investigating the case and assured to punish the culprits, Manjit Singh said. |
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Cops see robbery motive in BPO staffer’s murder
New Delhi, March 23 Jigisha Ghosh, a resident of Vasant Vihar in South Delhi, had left her home for office in Noida on Tuesday but did not return home. Her body was discovered by the Faridabad police 3 km from Surajkund on Friday night. “The preliminary post-mortem report suggests that Ghosh was smothered to death. There was no sexual assault and no weapon injuries,” said DCP (South) H.G.S Dhaliwal. “The motive behind the crime appeared to be robbery as her mobile phones, ATM and credit cards were missing. We are awaiting the final post-mortem report to ascertain the exact cause of her death,” said Dhaliwal. The assailants used Ghosh’s ATM card to withdraw Rs 77,000 from State Bank of India ATM in Mahipalpur, besides using the credit card to buy certain items from Sarojini Nagar market, he added. The police is checking the CCTV footage of the market and the ATM to identify the attackers. It is also trying to trace the call records of her mobile. The only daughter of her parents, Jigisha used to work with a call centre in Noida’s Sector-126.
— IANS |
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Guard dies in godown fire
Gurgaon, March 23 The victim was working for Amritsar Transport Company Pvt. Ltd., a godown of readymade clothes, and used to stay there. People of the nearby areas broke opened the shed to get the guard out, but he had died by then. Satish Kumar, a worker of the company, said that the reason of fire was not yet clear and the police investigation was still on. He said that the company had suffered a loss of around Rs 25 lakh due to the fire. |
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Slain Army officer’s body reaches home
Ghaziabad, March 23 Thousands of people reached the braveheart’s House No 3/27 in Sector 2 to pay their last tributes to the hero. Major Sharma’s mother, Sushila, was inconsolable when the body of her darling son reached the residence. His father, Rajender Prasad, a manager with the Punjab National Bank, in choked voice, said his son was the first from the family to join the Army. Sharma is married to a lady army officer, Major Reshma Sharma, presently posted in Patiala. After two hours, around 9 am, the body of the martyr was taken by army personnel to Dhaula Kuan near the Delhi Cantonment for last rites with full military honours. Sharma died while fighting militants at Hafrada forest in Kupwara the district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday night. The Army, with the help of local police, had launched a combing operation on learning that some militants were hiding in the forest. Sharma of the Para Regiment, who was leading from the front, was killed along with Havaldar Rakesh Kumar. |
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2 held, 467 cylinders seized
Noida, March 23 The truck, loaded at Loni gas plant, had to go to Sikandrabad via Lal Quan in Ghaziabad. But it came to Nithari to sell cylinders to small-time agents in black. The driver and the conductor of the truck have been arrested. A case has been registered against them. District supply officer Santosh Niranjan said an information was received early on Sunday that a Bharat Petroleum truck laden with cooking gas cylinders was parked suspiciously in Nithari. It was found that the truck carrying 467 gas cylinders had to go to Jyoti Flame Gas Agency in Sikandrabad via Dadri. Driver Surinder and conductor Anil told him that they had come to Noida on the instructions of the gas agency owner. However, the driver said he had come to Nithari as his wife had informed him on phone that his five-year-old son was not well. His family lives in Noida. |
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Man sues builder for leaking roof, wins
New Delhi, March 23 The Delhi State Consumer Commission presided over by Justice J.D. Kapoor has directed M/s. M.M. Developers & Promoters Pvt. Ltd. To compensate the purchaser who had suffered losses not only in business but also damage to the walls, floors, roof and furniture because of the leakage. Kapoor observed that for deficiency in service, the builder has to compensate the consumer adequately in respect of actual or expected loss, mental agony, harassment, physical discomfort, emotional sufferings and also for having forced the consumer to seek legal remedy. Anand Prakash Adlakha had purchased an office unit in Mini Market, Janakpuri from M/s. M.M. Developers & Promoters but after taking possession he found leaks in various parts of the building. He was particularly affected by the leak from the public toilets above his office. Despite several requests, the builders did not rectify the problem, Adlakha told the court.
— IANS |
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IGNOU to start online study guide
New Delhi, March 23 A Course Management Group (CMG) will be constituted to establish and manage the IOSG for each course on an IGNOU Education Grid Wiki. Anyone may access Wiki. An Online Query Management System (QMS) and a call centre system will be established in due course where personal questions of learners will be received and forwarded to the relevant CMG. CMG will also post the applicable assignments or other material for students to access through the IOSG. Another key function of the IOSG is to link the applicable Self Learning Materials (SLM) of the course posted in the
eGyankosh. |
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