New Delhi, June 18
Power and water tariffs are likely to rise as the government needs money to carry out development works in the city.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said this today while summing up the motion of thanks on Lieutenant Governor Tejinder Khanna’s address.

She said the government had announced a subsidy of Rs 40 per cylinder when the price of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) had risen by Rs 50 per cylinder.

The subsidy money was given from the government’s exchequer. Now, the government needs money to carry out development works. So we have planned to increase power and water tariffs, as they are the cheapest in the country.

She said that leader of opposition V.K. Malhotra’s allegation like — costly low-floor buses, loadshedding for hours and shortage of water supply were not factual. Delhi had adequate power supply. Eighty-five per cent consumers of BSES are satisfied with the power supply, regular billing and correct metering and 60 to 64 per cent consumers are satisfied in the NDPL area.

Dikshit assured that power production would increase to 6,500 MW in a few years.

Regarding water crisis, Dikshit said over five lakh people come to city every year in search of livelihood and they need water. When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power in Delhi, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) hardly produced 600 MGD of water per day. Now, it is producing 825 MGD of water daily, she claimed. However, she assured that the problem would be solved within two years.

She said Delhi was the first in the country to have plied low-floor buses on its roads. She added CNG low-floor buses plied on the city roads first in the world.

She rubbished the allegation that Chennai Transport Corporation had purchased the low-floor buses at Rs 16 lakh each while Delhi had paid Rs 50 lakh for each bus.

She added buses purchased by Chennai Transport Corporation were neither low-floor nor had strong power. They operate on diesel. Delhi buses are low-floor, have strong power and use CNG.

The Chief Minister termed Metro rail as an achievement of the Congress government in Delhi.

Speaking about the health sector, Dikshit said when the BJP was in power there were only 17 government hospitals and 725 beds. Now, there are 47 government hospitals and 2,000 beds. Private and central government hospitals are not included in this list.

Besides, the government has opened Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Ambedkar University and National Law College. Sixty-four colleges are affiliated to Indraprastha University.

The standard of government schools have also improved. Class X and XII results have improved this year.

New Delhi, June 18
Lakhs of residents in several elite colonies of south Delhi today went without drinking water in the morning. One of the biggest pipelines in the city had burst yesterday evening which led to stoppage of water supply in the areas like Ashram, New Friends Colony, Maharani Bagh, Bharat Nagar, Jamia Nagar, Kalkaji, Panchsheel, Kailash Colony, Greater Kailash, Gulmohar Park, Defence Colony and Lajpat Nagar.

The officials of the Delhi Jal Board repaired the pipeline by the evening today and restored the water supply.

Sanjam Chima, DJB spokesperson said the supply was normal in the evening. The pipeline of nearly 1 metre diameter carries about 140 million gallons a day (MGD) of water to south Delhi colonies.

People in these colonies had called in private water tankers that charged three times the usual rate. Particularly in distress were those people who have to use pumping motors to fill up overhead tanks.

The DJB has to change water pipelines covering lengths of around 10,000 km till 2010, said Ramesh Negi, chief executive officer of the board. DJB has also been issued a budget of Rs 45,000 crore for the purpose.

“DJB changes 3,000 km of water pipelines every year. The replacement work regarding this particular pipeline is still under progress,” he said.

“The lifeline of a water supply pipe is usually 50 years. This pipe went off much before its life,” Negi added.

New Delhi, June 18
With four more people diagnosed positive for influenza A (H1N1) infection today, the total number of swine flu cases climbs to 14, and out of them six have been discharged from their treatment centres.

The National Institute of Communicable diseases (NICD) informed that a majority of cases that have surfaced in India are the result of heavy influx of people from the infected countries, particularly the US.

The four fresh cases whose confirmation came today from the NICD have been quarantined at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RMLH) and would be there under treatment till they are cured, which might be six to seven days, informed a health department official.

“In total, Delhi now has eight confirmed cases of the disease, out of which six are currently undergoing treatment at RMLH and Yellow Fever Hospital,” stated the official from the department.

Further, he added that the government is going to arrange for massive public awareness campaigns via TV and radio to apprise the people of the fact that only precautionary measures like proper hygiene can help in combating the disease. However, there is nothing to panic as the disease is curable and our government is all geared to tackle any upcoming exigencies, said the official.

The Delhi health minister Kiran Walia said that there are multi-specialty core committees in all designated hospitals who would be at service of the patients round the clock. Besides, the existing nodal health facilities dedicated for the treatment of the disease, we have upgraded and fully-equipped six other hospitals with all adequate logistics, including isolation ward, tamiflu tablets and protection kits etc, she said.

New Delhi, June 18
Does ‘Dilli’ more effectively describe the cosmopolitan character of the city than ‘New Delhi’?

So feels union youth affairs and sports minister M.S. Gill, who wants the name of the Indian capital changed to Dilli, saying the word is more close to people’s heart.

Speaking at a conference ‘Delhi - A World Class City in the Making’ here today, Gill appealed to Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to change the name to Dilli before the Commonwealth Games 2010.

“I always feel that Dilli, better describes the vibrant and cosmopolitan culture of the Capital. After all it is ‘sadi Dilli’ or ‘hamari Dilli’,” said Gill.

He said that if Dikshit was ready to take up the issue he would raise the matter before the central government. ‘

“We have already changed Madras to Chennai, Trivandrum to Thiruvananthapuram, Bombay to Mumbai and Bangalore to Bengaluru — for the names give a local touch and feeling,” he said.

However, Dikshit who was present at the conference, merely responded with a smile to Gill’s request. — IANS

Greater Noida, June 18
The police has busted a gang in Dankore that allegedly manufactured synthetic milk and supplied the same to a well-known dairy.

During the raid conducted in Dankore and Kherli Hafizpur on Tuesday, a large quantity of raw materials used in manufacturing synthetic milk was seized by the SDM, Sadar, Vishal Singh. The owner of the shop is absconding.

According to Vishal Singh, the police had received reports that a big synthetic milk manufacturing unit in the area was supplying milk to a famous dairy.

Singh, along with the tehsildar, naib tehsildar, and patwari of the area, first raided the house of one Babu in Kherli village and seized a large quantity of raw materials used in manufacturing synthetic milk.

One Yogesh was arrested here. The materials seized include 50 litres of refined oil, glucose, white paint and detergents.

The team then raided Dankore Dairy and seized large quantity of ingredients used to thicken synthetic milk. The ingredients included 600 litres of liquid chemicals and white powder.

The SDM said that the dairy was owned by one Vinode Kumar Sharma of Bulandshahr, who used to supply raw materials for manufacturing synthetic milk in the area.

Yogesh told the police that the milk was being supplied to Pragya Dairy.

Later, a register and some milk samples were seized at the Chilling Centre of Pragya Dairy.

According to senior physician of Sharda Hospital Dr Pankaj Bansal, synthetic milk is very harmful for human beings.

Regular consumption of this milk can severely damage heart, liver and kidney.

New Delhi, June 18
A man convicted for a robbery committed 17 years ago was set free by the Delhi High Court, which observed he had “assimilated himself into the mainstream society” and it would not be fair to keep him along with hardened criminals.

“The appellant (convict Kadir) has assimilated himself in the mainstream society as a useful citizen and sending him to jail to serve the remaining sentence would serve no purpose,” said Justice G.S. Sistani.

The court, however, upheld a lower court’s verdict convicting Kadir for looting a Haryana-based man here on May 14, 1992.

“I do not consider it appropriate asking the appellant to undergo the remaining period of sentence in jail after facing the ordeal of trial for over 17 years,” the order said.

The court dismissed the appeal of Kadir filed against his conviction and a sentence of three years but granted him relief by not asking him to undergo the remaining jail term.

An FIR was lodged by victim Sunil Gauba alleging that he was robbed of his bag, cash over Rs 3,000 and other objects at Seelampur in northeast Delhi at knifepoint.

Kadir and three others were arrested on May 15, 1992.The lower court convicted Kadir in 2000 but acquitted three others for want of evidence. — IANS