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Delhi Budget: Tobacco costlier
MCD lacks funds to pay staff arrears
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Widow killed over land dispute
Tattoos of portraits of loved ones in vogue
Treating diabetes through talks
English entrance test results today
Soumya Case Chargesheet filed against 5
Four more suspected of swine flu
Jet pilot found dead
Swine flu victim’s wife also shows symptoms
Delhi sizzles at 43.6° C
2 swimming pools sealed
3 held for cricket betting
8-year-old raped
Admissions on for certificate and diploma in Punjabi
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Delhi Budget: Tobacco costlier
New Delhi, June 22 Walia tabled the budget estimated at Rs 23,043 crore for the National Capital Territory of Delhi in the Assembly today. Value Added Tax (VAT) of 7.5 per cent has been enhanced on tobacco and gutka. Earlier, the VAT on these goods was 12.5 per cent. The budget will benefit the rich also as there is a reduction of 12.5 per cent in luxury tax at hotels. Earlier, the luxury tax was 10 per cent. Besides, the government has introduced excise policy to substitute the Punjab Excise Act, 1914. The proposal for the new excise policy has been submitted to the centre for approval. Once approved, laws will be tough for those involved in excise crimes, Walia said. The budget includes Rs 10,000 crore plan outlay, Rs 110.83 crore plan outlay for centrally-sponsored schemes and Rs 12,932.17 crore for non-outlay expenditure. The budget will have revenue expenditure of Rs 13,703.31 crore and capital expenditure of Rs 9339.69 crore. The proposed expenditure will be funded from revenue receipts of Rs 16,156 crore, share in central taxes of Rs 325 crore, central plan assistance of Rs 2,418.69 crore and other receipts of Rs 4,142.83 crore. However, the government subsidies have not been withdrawn. Walia said the government had allowed subsidy worth Rs 375 crore on LPG, power and pulses. Delivering the budget speech, Walia said this ‘people-friendly’ budget was a way to pay gratitude to the citizens of the Capital. He said all projects related to the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010 would be completed by October 2010. So far Rs 19,000 crore have been spent on the projects and Rs 4,657 crore are yet to be spent. Of them, the Delhi government has allocated Rs 2,105 crore from its plan outlay budget. Talking about the city’s transport system, the finance minister said the work on nine corridors of Delhi Metro phase-II was progressing as per schedule. It would be completed before the Commonwealth Games. He said the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) had purchased 625 low-floor buses and had ordered for another 2,500 buses. The union government has also agreed to bear 35 per cent of the total cost for the purchase of 1,500 buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission scheme. The government has given Rs 111.61 crore to the MCD for the construction of 17 road under-bridges, a road over bridges. They are to be completed before October 2010. Besides Rs 405 crore have been released for the construction of other projects. Rs 1 crore has been allocated to improve water supply and sewerage in each assembly constituency. Rs 461 crore has been allocated for energy sector. As far as health sector is concerned, the government has planned to construct blocks of 500 beds in Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, EDP cell-cum-referral block at GB Pant hospital and orthopaedic block at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital. These will be ready by the end of the year. Some new hospitals have also been planned. The government has allocated Rs 1,019 crore for medical and health sector. The minister has proposed Rs 10.32 per cent of the total plan outlay for the improvement of education. Rs 786 crore would be spent to develop civic services in unauthorised colonies that would be enhanced if required. Rs 2.20 crore has been allocated for tourism. |
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MCD lacks funds to pay staff arrears
New Delhi, June 22 The arrears amounting nearly Rs 900 crore have to be paid to over 1.02 lakh employees of the civic body since January 1, 2006. Last year, the BJP-ruled MCD had announced the implementation of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations to get a favourable mandate in the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections. The civic body had promised to pay 40 per cent of the amount before Divali the last year and the remaining 60 per cent by Holi this year. But the employees are still expecting their dues, as the corporation is allegedly presenting one or the other excuse to push back the case. “We are concerned about the matter and have also met the commissioner, additional commissioners and standing committee chairman in this regard. We will soon pay the remaining arrears,” said Mayor Kanwar Sain. The MCD delegates have asked the Chief Minister for funds to carry out the Commonwealth Games projects and to pay the arrears. “The government is busy in the Assembly session. Anything can be said once it gets over the next month,” said standing committee chairman Krishan Kumar Singhal. Meanwhile, the MCD officials have said they are mulling over ways to increase the corporation’s overall income by increasing the number of taxpayers. “We are trying to increase our sources of income, of which property tax is the most significant. We have asked junior engineers and teachers to conduct a survey to ascertain the number of people who evade tax. We will offer rebates on tax payment made before the prescribed dates,” added Sain. Recently, some teachers’ organisations had protested against the delay in payment of arrears. |
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Widow killed over land dispute
Greater Noida, June 22 The body of the woman, who had been missing for the last three days, was recovered from the canal near Luharli village. The police has sent the body for post-mortem. Victim’s son, Mehraj, has lodged a murder report with the police against unknown killers. Ramwatti, a resident of Phulpur village, had lost her husband Kalu Ram many years ago. They had six children. On Friday, Ramwatti suddenly went missing and could not be traced in the area around the village. On Saturday, the family lodged a missing person’s report at the Jarcha police station. According to the police, Ramwatti was killed becasuse of a land dispute. Ramawatti belonged to Nayadpur village in the NTPC area and was the only child of her parents. After her parents’ death, she had inherited 10 acres of land. But her cousin brothers had been claiming that land. They had even sold a part of the land after getting it transferred fraudulently to their names. The divisional commissioner of the area is looking into the matter. According to the police, this dispute could be the reason behind the murder. |
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Tattoos of portraits of loved ones in vogue
New Delhi, June 22 “Portraits of your loved ones or gods are very much in this season. This is their way of showing how much they care for them,” said tattoo artist Lokesh Verma from Devil’z Tattoz. “People prefer portraits of their spouses, girlfriends and kids. In fact, I recently did a portrait of a guy’s girlfriend on his arm. One of my other famous portraits have been Heath Ledger’s character — The Joker from ‘The Dark Knight’. People also like to have gods like Shiva, Rama, Krishna and Sai Baba,” said Verma. But portrait tattoos are the hardest to get right and very few can do them properly. “It takes close to six hours for a portrait to be done. Portraits are mostly done on a small-size varying from 5X5 to 5X6 inches because a lot of detailing goes into it like hair colour, eyes, lips, etc.,” Varma said. Ajit Singh, director of Cheenos Tattoo Parlour, feels the same. He said, “There is a particular thing involved in tattoos and it is called shading which is done with gray wash ink — a mixture of black ink and distilled water. Portraits are the most time-consuming and the hardest because there are wrinkles on the skin and not a single wrinkle can be missed from shading.” He added, “Images have a lot of intricacies and they have to be of a favourable size — a minimum of about five inches. You cannot have very small portraits or the image will lose its intricacy.” Apart from gray, golden and blue are also used in portraits. “Basically, portraits are done in black and white, but if there is a particular requirement of colours like yellow in Krishna’s jewellery or blue for Shiva, we do it,” said Verma. Singh says, initially, tattoos were just a fad, but now it has emotional connotation. “Portraits are done by people who very strongly relate to something like parents and even a dog. Recently a 32-year-old woman had her dog inked on her arm. There is no specific age group that follows the trend though,” said Singh. Shane Dawson of Cheenos said, “Today, it is more about emotional attachment. Normally, when people go for their second tattoo, they want something that will relate to their first tattoo. People also come up with various ideas as things have changed a lot and it is no more than a fashion statement.” Media professional Shravan Gupta, 21, has got the portrait of Leprechaun, a male fairy from Irish folklore, as he believed it was his lucky mascot. “Ever since I was a child, I found that he was very lucky for me and, hence, when I decided to get a tattoo, I knew what I wanted,” said Gupta. Singh says the trend of portrait tattoos started a decade ago abroad. But in India, the trend caught up just a year and a half ago. The minimum price for these ranges from Rs 12,000 to Rs 18,000. “Our rates are fixed irrespective of the image and size of a portrait – it is specific Rs 1,500 initial square inch followed by Rs 500 for every proceeding square inch,” said Singh. The best known portrait artist in the world is 27-year-old Los Angeles-based Kat Von D, who also runs a show called ‘LA Ink’.
— IANS |
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Treating diabetes through talks
New Delhi, June 22 To address this concern, here is a first-of-its-kind health initiative ‘diabetes conversations’— a unique patient-centric medication tool aimed at enhancing the quality of diabetic clinical outcome by educating and inculcating self-management of diabetes. The novel mechanism, jointly anchored by Eli Lilly and International Diabetics Federation (IDF), an alliance of 200 diabetes associations, was flagged off today in the Capital. On the occasion, president of Diabetes India and country representative of IDF, Dr Shaukat M Sadikot said, “With majority of people in our country unaware about the facts of diabetes, this pioneering initiative would apprise patients and health providers about physiology, diagnosis and management of diabetes through group interactions.” He added that the whole concept was based on the correlation of learning and retention, which decides on the patient’s understanding and clinical improvement, bringing about a behavioural change in patients. One essential component of the whole dialogue process is conversation map, which is designed by Healthy Interactions, a global health solution provider. The health educator with the help of this map would conduct the diabetes discussion. A consultant dietician with Mumbai Diet and Health Centre Shilpi Joshi outlined, “The educational platform would hold discussions in small groups comprising of three to 10 patients, and engage them in finding answers to many of their inhibitions related to diabetes along with educating them about the potential of leading an unplanned life.” With currently 45 million Indians suffering with diabetes, this project targets to facilitate 600 educators in three years and reach to over one lakh patients in the country. According to Dr Subhash Wangnoo, a senior endocrinologist of Apollo Hospital, due to unhealthy lifestyles and practices nowadays more and more young people are coming under the fold of diabetes, especially type II diabetes. Of the total diabetics in Indian, about 14-16 per cent belongs to the youth category. Going by the current trend, diabetes has assumed the proportion of an epidemic, and according to IDF by 2025, as many as 380 million people across the world would be diagnosed with diabetes and out of this, India alone will account for 80.3 million. Thus, India at present is very rightly termed as the ‘diabetes capital’ of the world. The chairman of Eli Lilly (India) Sandeep Gupta said “The innovative tool, first launched in Europe, has already been implemented in around 40 nations in 25 languages and in India it’s presently initiated in English and would be started in Hindi in the coming few months.” |
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English entrance test results today
New Delhi, June 22 “The results would be declared tomorrow evening. After the compilation of results, the English department would conduct a meeting and then the results would be sent to the colleges,” said Sumanyu Satpathy, HoD, English. The English department has conducted a common entrance test for students applying for English (hons.) for the first time this year. This test was held on June 17 at 12 colleges. Faculty of English department said the colleges were, initially, apprehensive about signing for a common entrance test. However, by the end 12 colleges agreed for the test. Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Hindu, Indraprastha, Kamla Nehru, Maharaja Agrasen, Ram Lal Anand (evening), Satyawati (evening), Shivaji, Shyam Lal, Swami Shradhanand, Zakir Hussain and Zakir Hussain (evening) colleges had signed up for the CATE. A total of 6,700 students had appeared for 350 seats in DU colleges. The test was conducted to evaluate students’ aptitude for the course. Multiple choice questions on vocabulary, grammar, language skills and literary knowledge were asked in CATE. The department also pointed out that the test would drive candidates towards the course and not the college. Most of the colleges that signed up for the test are those which are not usually preferred by students. However, the response has been enormous. Students who scored more than 90 per cent also appeared for CATE. |
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Soumya Case Chargesheet filed against 5
New Delhi, June 22 The chargesheet mentions names of 60 witnesses. A supplementary chargesheet with regard to slapping of MCOCA would be filed at a later stage, the police told the court. “The motive behind the murder was robbery. They have been charged with murder, destruction of evidence, forgery and criminal conspiracy,” said DCP (South) HGS Dhaliwal. “We have recovered the vehicle used in the crime and phone records that show that the accused were near the murder spot,” he said. Soumya (26) was shot dead on September 30 last year when she was driving from her Jhandewalan office to her Vasant Kunj residence. |
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Four more suspected of swine flu
New Delhi, June 22 One of those suspected of the virus has been admitted to the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital while the others have been quarantined in Yellow Fever Airport Hospital, informed an official of the Delhi health department. He added of the earlier 15 confirmed cases of H1N1, three were discharged today. Presently, nine are recuperating at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, one in the Yellow Fever Hospital and two in the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital. Meanwhile, Delhi health minister Kiran Walia asserted the Capital was all set to face the challenge and assured that there was no need to panic. She said all 11 hospitals have been properly equipped to treat flu-infected patients. |
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Jet pilot found dead
New Delhi, June 22 Kunal Batra was found dead in the swimming pool of a farmhouse owned by African country’s honorary consul, Chandra Verma yesterday morning. “He had gone to attend the birthday party of Verma’s son Akhilesh at around 10 pm with his friend Sanjay Madan. He was found dead in swimming early morning,” said a police official.
He added Batra’s postmortem report suggested he drowned. Meanwhile, his family has alleged foul play and has demanded further investigations in the matter. “He, usually, is back from parties by 3 or 4 a.m. When he did not return on Sunday, her mother called him up at 7 a.m. but he did not answer the calls. At about 9.15 a.m., we got a call from the police that our son is dead. We were called at the AIIMS,” said his mother Neelam
Batra. She alleged Sanjay was aware about her son’s death. “Sanjay is leaving for France soon. There are factors raising suspicion that our son had not drowned as blood was coming out of his head and nose when he died,” she said. |
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Swine flu victim’s wife also shows symptoms
Ghaziabad, June 22 According to doctors, Mansi was present all along with her husband at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Mansi, who is eight months pregnant, has been diagnosed with fever. A team of doctors is also keeping a close eye on the health of Ashish’s father Rajender Singh, mother Asha Singh and brother Saurav Singh. According to Dr Promode Kumar, a pathologist, a sample of Mansi’s nosal and throat swab has been taken and sent for testing. The health department will plan further action on the receipt of the reports. CMO of the hospital Dr A.K. Dhawan said Mansi had been admitted to hospital only for precaution. A special isolation ward has been set up in the emergency department of the hospital. |
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Delhi sizzles at 43.6° C
New Delhi, June 22 The minimum temperature settled at 29.2 degrees Celsius. According to Met officials, the sweltering summer is likely to stay for some more days following the delay in monsoon. The monsoon has been delayed by 10 days and will now hit the Capital on July 1. The Met officials have forecast that the maximum temperature will hover around 45 degrees Celsius on Tuesday while the minimum will be around 30 degrees Celsius. “A heat wave condition prevails over Delhi following the westerly winds blowing from Rajasthan. The day temperatures have increased several degrees in the city,” said an official at the Safdarjung meteorological department. The heat wave along with power and water shortage in the Capital has made life miserable for the residents of Delhi. “It is so hot that even coolers are useless. I was restless throughout the day and finally sat in a restaurant for three hours during the afternoon to get some respite,” said Swati Maheshwari, a homemaker.
— IANS |
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2 swimming pools sealed
Gurgaon, June 22 The pools were being run without the mandatory license of registration from the District Sports Council. The swimming pools sealed today include those of Retreat Apartment Owners Association at Sector-30 and Oakwood Estate Condominium Association, Akshmeen Marg, DLF City Phase-II Gurgaon. According to official sources, those running the pools had been issued notices in April to get the pools registered from the Sports Council, but they did not respond. The committee led by Gurgaon (North) SDM Jai Singh Sangwan visited the pools today and found that they were running without a license. Following this, the pools were sealed. The other members of the committee included officer-cum-secretary of District Sports Council Kulwinder Singh, swimming coach Jagbir Singh and naib tehsildar Sant Ram. |
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3 held for cricket betting
Gurgaon, June 22 The deputy commissioner of police (crime) Anil Kumar Dhawan said the arrested persons included Balkishan, alias Balu, of Arjun Nagar; Amit, alias Raju, of Model Town and Sanjay of Nai Abadi, Arjun Nagar. “Two TV sets, six mobile phones, two recording machines and some cassettes were seized from their possession,” he added. |
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8-year-old raped
Greater Noida, June 22 The victim has been admitted to a hospital and is critical. Her family has lodged an FIR and has accused to boys of their village. The girl had, reportedly, gone to a field in the evening where the boys aged 16 and 14 allegedly raped her. The boys, reportedly, overpowered her, gagged and raped her. They left the child bleeding and fled. Some farmers found the unconscious girl and informed her parents who rushed her to a private hospital. An FIR has been registered against the boys on the basis of victim’s statement. |
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Admissions on for certificate and diploma in Punjabi
New Delhi, June 22 The application forms would be issued by the department of Punjabi. They can be either bought from the department or downloaded from university website www.du.ac.in from today till July 6, which is also the last date for the submission of filled-in forms. The certificate course in Punjabi has 150 seats and any class XII pass-out can apply for the course. The diploma course, which has 50 seats, could be taken up only if the candidate has completed certificate course in Punjabi. Interested candidates are supposed to attach attested copies of certificates, degrees and statement of marks along with the application form. One passport size photograph duly attested must also be affixed with the application. |
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