New Delhi, November 12
Delhi BJP today appealed to residents of the city, particularly traders, parents, students and workers of unorganised sectors to support the bandh called by the saffron party against the rising prices. 

To avoid harassment, essential services and transport have been exempted and there will be no violence during the bandh. If people are affected due to inflation, they will support the BJP, Delhi BJP Prof O.P. Kohli said.

The district units, women wing and traders’ unit took out rallies in the Capital convincing residents that the government was reluctant to control rising prices.

Kohli, leader of opposition in Delhi Assembly V.K. Malhotra and former Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana criticised the UPA government at Centre and Congress government in Delhi for their failure to curb the unprecedented price rise.

They said after the Lok Sabha elections, the government had become despotic and had disassociated itself from curbing price rise and added it had taken anti-public decisions like increasing school fee and Metro fares. 

They demanded that bus and Metro fares be withdrawn immediately, sugar bungling should be inquired and public distribution system should be strengthened.

New Delhi, November 12
As they flagged off the Noida-bound Metro train for its ceremonial run today, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief E.Sreedharan justified the Metro fare hike that would come into effect tomorrow.

Union urban development minister Jaipal Reddy was also present on the flagging-off along with Dikshit and DMRC chief.

Directly relating the fare hike to fast growing Metro network, Sreedharan said the revision in fares was overdue.

“Almost four years ago the fares of Metro were increased. Now you can travel up to 60 kilometers on Metro and that is the reason for the hike,” said Sreedharan.

He said the DMRC owed Japan huge sums of money that it had to return. All these factors made the revision mandatory.

On the same lines, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said more expenditure was required for the increasing facilities.

The minimum fare, for up to 2 kilometer, has gone up from Rs 6 to Rs 8 while the maximum fare has been increased from Rs 22 to Rs 30 for over 44 kilometer.

The remaining fare slabs will also rise correspondingly.

The Yamuna Bank to Noida section of Delhi Metro is being opened for the general public from 6 am tomorrow.

With the flagging-off of this extension of line 3, Delhi Metro has crossed the borders of the national Capital for the first time. Noida has become the first NCR city to be connected to the Metro network which now extends to almost 90 kilometers and covers 78 stations.

The Noida extension is expected to add 53,000 more people into Metro network.

New Delhi, November 12
Following the travel trend of world’s major cosmopolitan cities, Delhi is planning to have common travel tickets for Metro and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC)buses.

A proposal has already been passed by the Delhi government in this regard. Sources in the transport ministry said the proposal had been sent to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for its nod.

“The decision to start a common ticket for Metro and buses was taken almost 20 days ago in a meeting held at Chief Minister’s residence. However, the proposal is now lying with the DMRC,” said the sources.

Amid reports that common ticketing would be introduced in certain parts of the Capital on experimental basis from November 24, DMRC officials said no decision had been taken in this regard yet.

“This proposal has been sent to us, but no date regarding its implementation has been decided as of now. I don’t think the proposal has been given a nod yet,” said a source in the DMRC.

The idea of a common ticket has been picked up from the Oyster card that works for all means of public transport in London. One card is acceptable for tube and buses, making the overall cost of transportation much cheaper.

New Delhi, November 12
Four persons were charred to death when a major fire broke out in a house in Rampura in the Keshavpuram area of north-west district this morning.

According to fire service officials, the victims were trapped in a room when the fire broke out. The incident was reported around 4 am.

The police officer said the fire broke out in the house of one Abdul Gaffar, a curtain dealer. He runs a factory inside the house and had hired three persons, who were killed in the mishap. The three have been identified as Jafar (22), Mohammed Azaz (20), Nazim (19). The fourth victim is Gaffar’s son Saba Karim (19).

“There are two rooms on the first floor of the house. Both the rooms have single exit. All the four victims were sleeping inside the rear room when the fire broke out in its first room. Thick smoke started emanating and soon the rear room was also engulfed by the fire,” said a senior police officer.

Fire brigade officials said that they sent two fire engines at the incident spot around 4:30 am and the fire was brought under control at around 5:50 am.

“All the four were rushed to Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital where they were declared brought dead. We suspect they died of suffocation and their bodies were later brunt in the fire,” stated a fire brigade official.

The police said it had registered a case of negligence, but no one had been named in the FIR. Fire brigade officials said the cause of fire was likely short-circuit. Further investigations in the matter are on by the fire brigade department and the Delhi police.

New Delhi, November 12
An 11-year-old boy was crushed to death by an unknown vehicle in the Vasant Vihar area of south Delhi last night.

According to information, the victim, Rakesh, was a student of Sarvodaya Vidyala in Sector 6 of R.K. Puram and was returning from market when he was hit from behind. He was taken to Safdarjung Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. The police is investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, Rakesh’s family has alleged that he has been murdered.

According to information provided by the police department, Rakesh’s elder brother Chandan was murdered in February this year and his parents believe that Rakesh too has been killed by the same people.

“Chandan, the elder brother of Rakesh was killed by four men from Vasant village and were arrested in the case. One of them, a minor, was later released, and he had been threatening the family of dire consequences. Boy’s father Sita Ram believes that the boy is behind the killing of Rakesh and that it is not an accident,” said a police official.

The police is verifying the allegations. 

New Delhi, November 12
Looks like its time to pull out your pullovers and jerseys that would save you from the chill that Delhi winters are famous for.

S.C. Bhan, MET director, said after temperature dropped across northern India following snowfall in J&K and Himachal Pradesh, Delhi today experienced the coldest day in November in the last five years. Besides,as per the predictions of the Met department, clouds that have hijacked the skies since the last two days are here to stay for a couple of days. The clouds could be accompanied by mist and rain or thunderstorms.

Maximum temperature tomorrow is expected to hover around 23° C, while the minimum would be 16° C.

Today, the day began with clouds followed by drizzle. While the maximum temperature today remained 22.4 (-7)° C, the minimum was 15.6 (+4)° C.

The drizzle in the evening took most by surprise. Such unpredictable weather seemed enjoyable to some, it became a pain for others who were stuck in long traffic jams.

“It has got really cold now. When I left the home in the morning, I never thought it would get this cold. I was so unprepared for the rains,” said Rakesh, who was stuck at the busy ITO stretch while returning home in the evening.

New Delhi, November 12
The Delhi police is yet to receive formal complaint from Sameer Thapar, managing director, JCT Mills and JCT Limited, regarding his alleged harassment by the Chanakyapuri police on Saturday morning from a city night club, mistaking him to be one of the mischief-makers along with Sahil Dhingra, a city businessman.

Sameer, who was booked under 107/151 CrPC, was let off only after spending close to 10 hours at the station.

On Monday, Sameer, while addressing a press conference in the city, had threatened to take action against the Delhi police for his illegal detention and undue harassment.

Y S Dadwal, commissioner of police, Delhi, had on Monday instructed the crime branch to investigate any complaint from Sameer Thapar. However, even two days after the press conference and five days since his arrest, the Delhi police is yet to receive any written complaint from the businessman.

According to Rajan Bhagat, ACP, a team of police officials had on Monday approached Sameer Thapar regarding his complaints, but the businessman refrained from doing so at that time.

“Our officials are waiting to look into any complaint that Sameer Thapar has against the police and the matter would be investigated without bias. However, we are yet to receive any complaint from him. Only when we know what the allegations are, will the matter be taken up,” said Bhagat.

He, however, could not tell whether a compromise has been reached with Sameer or that he had given up the idea of lodging complaint.

“You should ask Sameer about it,” said Bhagat.

Sameer Thapar could not be contacted for his response despite our repeated attempts.