New Delhi, April 1
The Congress today brought all its seven candidates, DPCC president Jaiprakash Agarwal, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on one stage, showing that there was no rift in the party.

The stage was shared by Oskar Fernandes who has the responsibility of Delhi in place of Mukul Wasnik.

There were rumours of differences among the Chief Minister, DPCC president and a few candidates. But today they shared the stage.

Talking to the media, Dikshit said there were no differences among the leaders. The party will win all the seven seats on the basis of development works done in the Capital. A lot of development work has been done in Delhi during the Congress rule, she claimed.

Introducing the party candidates, DPCC president Jaiprakash Agaral said from today all contestants would start campaigning strategically, convincing the

voters that Congress was for development of the country and it had done a lot of work during its rule.

Kapil Sibbal who is contesting from Chandni Chowk, said people understand whom they should vote for. BSP and LJP candidates cannot harm him as he has done a lot of work in the locality. The main part of MP land development fund has been spent in constructing hospitals and finishing other projects.

When asked about terrorism, he said that terrorism was not confined to India only. It is being controlled by the Congress-led UPA government.

When asked that BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L. K. Advani had demanded that money deposited in foreign banks should be brought to the country, Kapil Sibbal said that he should first stop his candidates from using black money for contesting elections.

Jagdish Tytler, Congress contestant from North-East Delhi, said, “No area in the national Capital is new for me as I have always been active in Delhi politics. Besides, I have been four-time MP from Sadar Bazar, erstwhile parliamentary constituency. If anybody wants to know about my worth, he can see the Sadar Bazar area where I have done a lot of development works,” he added.

Attacking the BJP-ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi, East Delhi contestant Sandeep Dikshit said there are no civic amenities in the constituency. BJP is in power in MCD, but it is not doing anything to construct drains, streets and community halls. Even DDA parks are not maintained properly.

He said that he would meet the voters and try to find out their grievances.

Mahabal Mishra, who came late, said he had a meeting with the workers and chalked out a plan for the constituency. He would meet Poorvanchalis. Jats, who are around 10 per cent in the constituency, will vote for the Congress as they are not happy with Jagdish Mukhi, he claimed.

Other candidates like Sajjan Kumar, Krishna Tirath and Ajai Maken left the venue after the formal interaction.

A large number of workers sang “Jai Ho” and danced with the party flags in their hands.

New Delhi, April 1
Hoardings and banners are things of past for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the party is looking forward to technology-based methods to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls.

To name a few, the party has converted its promotional songs into MP3 format and they will soon be uploaded on the candidates’ websites.

The IT cell of Delhi BJP has come up with a blue print to use technology to its advantage. Mobile phone SMS and e-mail campaigns, blogs, conversion of promotional songs into MP3 format and using social networking sites — Facebook and Orkut — are some of the methods to be used for campaigning, said Vivek Goel, convenor of IT cell.

“Almost all constituencies in the capital have substantial number of young voters and the party plans to use technology to get the best,” he added.

“E-mails, websites, SMS, MMS, blogs and social networking sites will help us connect with young voters and we are encouraging our candidates to use these mediums,” he informed.

He said the IT cell is also encouraging candidates to create their blogs through which they can communicate with the media and net-savvy citizens.

Besides, the party plans to use interactive voice response (IVR), a computerised phone system, which enables a caller to get answers to inquiries through automated process.

As per the plan, the party will also use bluetooth through which voters can receive contents such as video clips, music and other information on their mobile phones.

New Delhi, April 1
In an attempt to create awareness among the youth about parliamentary elections, the photography department of the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) is planning to organise a week-long event from this Friday.

The event, named ‘Votography’, will use imagery, street plays, short films and multimedia installations as tools to awaken youth about elections.

Students will click pictures capturing the election fever across Capital. Street plays will also be performed using icons and symbols to send the message that the youth have the power to change the scenario around them.

A short film posing questions to the common people, particularly the youth, on whether they will vote, and if not, why; their expectations from the elections and politicians, is also on the cards.

New Delhi, April 1
A local court today ordered three days’ judicial custody to the accused in Soumya Vishwanathan murder case and two days’ police custody in Jigisha Ghosh murder case.

On the last date of hearing today, the accused —Baljeet, Amit and Rajeev alias Ravi Kapoor — refused to give their consent for Test Identification Parade (TIP), claiming they had already been photographed and videographed during custody and the police could use those images for helping witnesses identify them.

In the Jigisha Ghosh murder case, the police wanted identification of the accused by as many as seven people, including an ATM security guard and a salesperson. While, in the Soumya Vishwanathan case, the investigator had named a few people who had allegedly seen the accused taking a U-turn to the spot where Soumya’s car had crashed and others at the Trauma Centre.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Krishna Bansal has ordered judicial custody for all three accused till April 4.

Ghaziabad, April 1
Three persons, including two women were arrested here today for allegedly kidnapping a child. The child has been rescued.

The police rescued Priya, 4, abducted on March 6 from Muskan.

Muskan, in her in 20s, has been arrested with her accomplices Roshni and a male who is yet to be identified.

“We have busted the gang. The woman had planned to amputate the child’s limb and make her a beggar. But we have been able to rescue her in time,” SP (city) Anand Dev said.

Priya’s father Jai Prakash alleged the police had initially ignored his requests to register a case and trace her.

Circle officer Rahul Srivastava, who led the team that rescued the child, said the police’s focus was on the border areas from where cases of missing children were frequently reported.

In the last week of March, the police rescued three children who were abducted from the Bhovapur locality bordering the capital.

“On Tuesday night we learnt a woman in Khoda colony here was mercilessly beating a child. She had one child and another was found with her in the last few days,” he said.

“The police then raided her residence and rescued the child. Injuries on her right eye and inflammatory abrasions on her arm and leg suggest the woman was planning to amputate the child’s limb and force her into beggary,” said the officer.

During sustained interrogation, the woman revealed her name was Muskan, daughter of Mohammad Rafiq, who is a guard in Ramprastha colony.

However, her accomplice Roshni remained silent on abduction charges but admitted her involvement in prostitution and other anti-social activities. — IANS

New Delhi, April 1
When disasters both manmade and natural have become almost an order of modern times, any nation has to have updated and exigency-equipped healthcare centres.

This would address unprecedented emergencies not only around the hospital or healthcare centre but also the internal disasters, like the one that took place in Ahmedabad that resulted with casualties from the hospital staff as well.

The WHO theme of this year —“Save lives. Make hospitals safe in emergencies,” which was released in the Capital today by the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) and Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) on the occasion of World Health Day, underlines the significance of disaster-safe hospitals and health centres.

“The theme underscores the importance of investing in health infrastructure that can withstand hazards and serve people in immediate need,” read a joint press statement issued by Dr KK Aggarwal, president of HCFI and director of IMAAKN Sinha Institute, Dr Naresh Chawla, president of DMA and Dr Ashwani Dalmia, secretary of DMA.

Emphasising safety and emergency preparedness, they urged all the health institutions of the country to look towards installing and effectively implementing holistic systems to respond to internal exigencies, like fire.

The panel present informed that for ensuring effective management of internal and external disasters, both the institutions would be working towards coming up with contextualised modules and unique courses, which would focus on designing cost-effective and energy-efficient health protective system.

On the occasion, a drive, “Safe Hospitals,” was flagged off by Arjun Awardee, Sushil Kumar, Olympic Bronze medal winner and wrestling coach Ram Phalji.

They said that it’s important for the general public to feel safe and assured that in a crisis, the hospitals are safe to provide the health care.

The price we pay for the failure of hospitals when disasters happen is too high. In comparison, the cost of making hospitals safe is tiny.

“The most expensive hospital is the one that fails,” said the guests.

As the health workers can rightly be termed as the lifeline of healthcare industry, the campaign would involve training health staff on how to respond to emergency situations.

Noida, April 1
Excessive and too frequent power cuts, poor infrastructure, faulty policies of the government and massive corruption in the industrial belt of Noida have lately forced a number of industries to move out of Noida.

According to M.Z. Khan, president of Noida chamber of commerce and industries and proprietor of and electronic and food processing unit, there is no cleanliness in any of the industrial sectors – 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. Besides, there are massive power cuts and no water supply. The power supply is intermittent, which affects the production, and use of generator increases the cost of production by 1.5 times, adds Khan.

The infrastructure, including water, roads and sewerage exist only in name. For water, most industrialists have been forced to go in for their own submersible pumps. Huge potholes and pools of sewer water can be seen everywhere. The drains remain choked and stink. All the cleaning and plantation of trees is done only on papers, says Khan.

Another issue that particularly incenses the industrialists is the presence of huge slum clusters that seem to be growing with each passing year, so much so that soon it might become difficult to differentiate between industrial areas and the slums, says Khan.

The faulty policies of the state government and the generous attitude of the Noida Authority towards IT and ITES units is also an impediment in the growth of other industries.

While the IT units are allowed to have 200 per cent covered area, other industries are allowed to cover just 75 per cent. “Why should the rules on covered area be different for different factories?” asked R.C. Sharma, president of the Federation of Noida Industries (FNI)

Hike in power tariff is another area of concern for the industrialists. This has hit the small-scale units most. Also to blame is the new policy of the Noida Authority, under which it is selling lands directly to builders without developing them.

Earlier, the Noida Authority used to acquire land, develop it and then cut it into small plots and sell. This way buying land in the city was within the reach of small entrepreneurs. But, now the Noida Authority is selling lands directly to builders without developing them. Builders then develop the land and sell it at their own rates, which are just beyond the reach of the common man, says Sharma.

Then corruption in every department is making things even worse for industrialists.

Faridabad, April 1
The body of a person was found hanging from a tree in the jungle of village Dhauj near here this morning.

The deceased was identified as Zuber Khan, a resident of village Bhadas in Mewat district.

The body has been sent to Badshah Khan Hospital for autopsy.

The police has registered a case on a complaint of the brother of the deceased. As per the complaint, the wife and the mother-in-law of the deceased could be behind the crime.

Relatives of Khan alleged that he was first murdered and then his body was hanged from a tree to make out a case of suicide.

Dhauj is Zuber’s in-laws village.

The police, till the writing of the report, was still investigating the case and declined to make any comment.