New Delhi, May 3
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his maiden election rally at Hari Nagar Ghantaghar in West Delhi, today said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allied parties did not have economic understanding that was why they were not able to provide any suggestion to face the economic challenges.

Economic crisis is an international issue that has affected the world economy. Indian economy is also affected.

Even during the crisis, there is six per cent growth in country’s economy that shows ability of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and its progressive policies, he said.

Attacking the saffron party on the issue of black money, he said that the government has already taken up this issue with the foreign countries.

If the BJP is serious, it should have provided the details of the black money so that action could be taken against the person concerned.

Urging the citizens of Delhi to vote for the Congress candidates, the Prime Minister said that during the BJP-led NDA government, terrorists attacked Akshardham Temple, Raghunath Temple, Parliament and Red Fort.

Besides, Kargil war took place, but the then union government could not make any specific law to tackle the menace.

However, the UPA government has proposed a resolution in Parliament to make a special law to deal with the terrorists.

“We have tackled the Mumbai attack, forcing the Pakistan government to admit that the assailants were Pak nationals,” he said.

Manmohan Singh said that the Congress is asking for votes in lieu of its development works and its progressive policies.

If UPA comes to power, it would do more development with the cooperation of the Delhi government.

Congratulating Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, he said that she had involved general people in the development work through the Bhagidari policy of the government.

As far as the union government is concerned, it has increased plan size money from Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore.

He has also highlighted the metro rail work, opening of Guru Nanakdev Indraprastha Technical University, National Law University, 700-bedded super specialty hospital and the biggest convention centre to be opened in West Delhi.

Besides, he said that to improve transport system of the Capital, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) had purchased 625 low floor buses and order for another 2,500 buses had been given.

Two water treatment plants, one each in Dwarka and Okhla, have been started making the water supply better in South and Outer Delhi.

New Delhi, May 3
Covering their mouths with a black cloth, hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits today protested against the alleged discrimination faced by them at the hands of the government and the Election Commission. The Pandits were holding a dharna at Jantar Mantar.

The protesters demanded that the voting procedure for them should be simplified to ensure their full participation in the democratic process. They also asked for the issuance of voter ID cards for them.

An agitated protestor, Kulwinder Sharma said, “Despite the assurance of Chief Election Commissioner in this regard, nothing has been done so far. We have to fill in migrant forms—M-forms—in our own country. It is extremely painful. We are not migrants but refugees in our own country. We are Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) under the United Nations guidelines,” Sharma added.

Another protestor said, “We fail to understand why this M-form system is there when photo identity cards could be made for the exiled Pandit voters. The M-form system should be removed.”

Raising his voice against the system, Aditya Kaul said, “It seems the state ensures that over a lakh Pandits living in towns other than Delhi and Jammu don’t get to vote. While others get a day off to vote, we are expected to take leave and fly to Delhi or Jammu to exercise our franchise.”

“At a time when registering as a voter is a mere mouse-click away, the Election Commission has made a very difficult procedure for us. We too are Indians so why we should face such discrimination?” said an angry Ranish Hangloo, a youth activist in the group.

Sanjay Peshin, chief coordinator of Roots in Kashmir said, “To escape persecution, more than 4,00,000 Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their homes in the valley. Even after 19 years of exodus, more than 50,000 of these refugees are living in ‘animal-like state’ in camps. We are denied of our basic rights.”

New Delhi, May 3
Shifting the fulcrum of its poll agenda from terrorism and inflation, the BJP state camp today stressed the developmental aspects pertaining to Delhi in particular, with two more days to go with the campaigns for the fourth leg polls coming to a close on May 5.

Criticising the UPA government for making tall claims of putting the Capital on the development path, BJP Delhi election campaign committee chairman V. K. Malhotra said, “The Congress government has been harping on ushering in development in the Capital, but the credit goes to BJP which initiated many projects, including the Metro in 1997 and Ring Railway (1977-80).”

Malhotra added, “The BJP has given Delhiites a golden era when in 1970, the first flyover—Moti Nagar-Shadipur was constructed and 500 unauthorised colonies were regularised.

However, the UPA government is only engaged in the rigmarole of courts without any progress on the regularisation of unauthorised colonies. Even the issuance of provisional certificates to the poor is a poll gimmick.”

Malhotra promised that the BJP would develop a composite traffic management policy to relieve Delhiites from the traffic woes, besides granting statehood to Delhi paving way for clarity in administrational roles and accountability of authorities.

New Delhi, May 3
Health authorities in the Capital on Sunday said none of the six suspected cases of swine flu here had tested positive for the infection. The sixth and last patient was a London-based NRI.

“His samples were found negative on Saturday evening like of the other five. We have discharged him early this morning,” said N.K. Chaturvedi, medical superintendent of the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital here. “We have no patient as of now in our swine flu ward,” he added.

According to Chaturvedi, the RML hospital is fully equipped to handle the flu and has a dedicated team of doctors to treat infected people.

“We have a full-fledged isolation ward with 30 beds. There are 20 doctors and 12 nurses on duty. We also have 1,000 Tamiflu tablets. If there is a shortage of Tamiflu tablets then the NICD will provide them. RML also has 100 medical kits which consist of protective gowns, gloves, eye-gear, syringes and scissors,” he said. Of the six suspected cases, two were non-resident Indians (NRIs) and all of them came to India in the past fortnight.

The 35-year-old man from London was subjected to screening at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). He was found to have a running nose, cough and throat irritation. He was admitted to the isolation ward of the RML hospital and discharged on Sunday morning.

The other NRI was a 25-year-old man from Texas. He was admitted to the RML hospital on Friday with flu symptoms, but tested negative. —IANS 

New Delhi, May 3
Approached by another elderly citizen within a span of three weeks seeking protection and care from uncaring and greedy kin, the Delhi High Court has ticked off the city government over its failure to set up a tribunal for aged people despite a law for their welfare.

The court’s decision came after it was approached by 91-year-old Sukhdev Singh, who sought protection from his grandson who wanted to grab his property.

Singh, who lives alone in his east Delhi house, sought protection from his grandson and a local police officer who, he alleged, were trying to grab his property.

Filing his plea through his counsel Rajinder Dutta, Singh also asked for constituting a tribunal for the maintenance of aged parents and protection of their rights.

Expressing concern over the plight of the elderly, the court pulled up the Delhi government over its failure to set up a tribunal even after enactment of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act in 2007. The court gave the Delhi government four weeks’ time to execute the order and sought a compliance report by July 7.

“The legislative policy cannot be defeated by executive inaction in respect of the constitution of such a tribunal,” observed Justice S. Ravindra Bhat in a recent order.

The act enables the tribunal to determine cases in which children or relatives have neglected or refused to look after elderly kin who are unable to do so themselves.

Under the act, the tribunal can also direct the children to make a monthly allowance and fix the rate of maintenance for their elderly parents. — IANS

New Delhi, May 3
Cash-strapped Emaar MGF may be asked to cut by at least a third the price of its flats proposed as collateral for a $100-million loan it has sought from the government to complete the Commonwealth Games Village project, officials said.

A recommendation to this effect, including the proposed interest rate for the loan at 12.25 percent per annum, has been given to Delhi’s Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna by a four-member committee appointed by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

Estimated at an initial cost of $250 million, the village is coming up on the outskirts of the national Capital over an area of 158.4 acres.

Emaar MGF will have to give a third of these flats to the DDA. Emaar has already sold some of the flats for Rs 13,218 per square foot even as the possession will be given after the end of Commonwealth Games.

When the company faced a cash crunch and wanted a loan, it proposed to place with the DDA another one-third of the flats as collateral security. The realty major proposed the cost of these flats at Rs 9,720 per square foot.

A four-member committee has proposed that these flats should be evaluated at Rs 9,382 per square foot, officials explained.

“The committee has given the recommendations. But the final approval will come from the Lt. Governor,” said Neemo Dhar, director for public relations, when asked to comment on the development.

The committee comprises Pawan Kumar, DDA’s financial advisor, R.K. Safaya, executive director of Housing Urban Development Corp, Shailendra Sharma, superintendent engineer with the Central Public Works Department, and H.K. Dhawan, general manager with the state-run National Building Construction Corp.

The recommendations, according to sources, also call for Emaar MGF to give back the loan within a stipulated time, failing which the flats will be taken into possession by the DDA.

The work on the project started in August 2007 and, after some setback, a deadline was set for March 2010. The 12-day Commonwealth Games begin on October 3 next year. — IANS

Gurgaon, May 3
After the decrease in toll tax by the Delhi Noida Toll Plaza (DND), the local transporters here are pressurising the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to withdraw the increase in highway toll tax.

The transporters have been agitating against the rise in highway toll tax for sometime, but after the DND returned back to old rates recently, the agitation has gained momentum. The transporters are now forcing the NHAI to charge them the old rates.

The transporters are worried as the state government had assured them that it would not raise the toll tax, but still it was raised by 50-70 percent.

Chairman of the Gurgaon Transporters Association Viney Mangla told The Tribune that they had to pay toll tax to the Haryana government at four places, including Yamuna Nagar Road, Pautadi Road, Sohna Road and Farukh Nagar Road.

“Now the transporters pay four times while on their way to Agra from Delhi,” he said and added, “One has to pay tax at Kherki Daulla, Delhi Road, Kotputli Road, two taxes while going from Delhi towards Agra, two from Delhi to Chandigarh and three up to Amritsar.”

General Secretary of the Gurgaon Transport Association Hukam Singh mentioned that the transport association had agitated two-and-a-half month back when the rates were increased.

He retreated that the complaint against the unnecessary burden had been made to the central government after which they had set up a committee that had been asked to give the report, but in the mean time the authorities increased the rates without any information.

An official of the transport association said that after DND plaza, the NHAI should also reduce the tax. He said representative of the association had been meeting the top officials to solve the issue and if transporters did not get reply, they would come on the road to protest it.

Noida, May 3
The central government has approved a separate pay commission for defence services and setting up of commission for ex-servicemen. These two decisions will go a long way in meeting the demands of the members of the armed forces and a large number of ex-servicemen.

This was stated by K.P.Singh Deo, ex-minister of state for defence and head of defence cell in Congress party, while addressing the Noida Veterans’ Forum in Sector-37 here today.

“There has been a strong lobby of bureaucrats and even some ministers like Pranab Mukherjee who as finance minister in 1986 and later as defence minister in 2006 had put his foot down whenever efforts were made for improving the lot of defence personnel and ex-servicemen, citing lack of funds as the reason,” K.P. Singh Deo said.

Deo said two Congress Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had supported the cause of defence forces and welfare of ex-servicemen in a big way.

He said no other political party or central government except Congress had been a consistent supporter of the defence forces. Unfortunately no study has been undertaken on the defence forces and society in our country.

Deo said, “As we do not have the system of compulsory army training for the youth as in the USA and the UK, there is lack of knowledge about the armed forces and ex-servicemen in the country’s political class and even in Parliament.

There have been wide disparities in civilian pay and pension structure and the one for the defence forces personnel.”

The Sixth Pay Commission has given a well-deserved quantum jump in pay and allowances of all ranks from jawans to lt-generals. But the one-rank, one-pension has all along defied a solution, Deo said.

He said a lot has been done in the realm of re-employment of ex-servicemen whose number has jumped from 25,000 in 2007 to 65,000 in 2008-09. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been very supportive of all these proposals, Deo stressed.