New Delhi, November 18
The Delhi government has identified 132 centres to sell flour at revised rates from Saturday. Besides, four types of pulses would be made available at 288 Mother Dairy outlets. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced this today while addressing a conference.

The food supplies department of the Delhi government will manage the sale of flour and pulses.

Flour will be priced at Rs 13.90 per kg which is less than its existing market price of Rs 14.50 per kg. A 10-kg packet of good quality flour costs Rs 189 in the market and at Kendriya Bhandar stores, whereas the government will offer a 10-kg flour bag at Rs 139.

Flour will be sold at 84 outlets of Kendriya Bhandar, eight outlets of National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF) and 40 selected outlets of food supplies department. No ration card is needed to purchase flour bags.

Dikshit said it was being done to control the rising prices of flour and pulses under the Union government’s open market sale scheme (OMSS).

This will be a big relief to residents of the national Capital. The government may launch 5-kg flour bags soon. 

The wheat is grinded in association with the Roller Flour Mills Association and the Union ministry of food and public distribution ministry to facilitate the sale of flour at a reasonable price in Delhi.

About 80,481-metric tonne of wheat has been allocated by the Union ministry of food and public distribution department under the OMSS to check inflationary trends at the rate of Rs 1,080 per quintal.

The Delhi government will get wheat from the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) Ludhiana godown.

Delhi minister of food supplies Haroon Yusuf said that the quality of flour would be as per specified under the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act 1954 and would be lab-tested. 

New Delhi, November 18
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said that it has become imperative to increase the water charges as the distribution system in Delhi needs to be modernized and made more equitable.

Speaking at a national seminar on “Water equipment and management 2009”, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), she said that India is the only country where water is being sold at the cheapest rate. “We need to raise the charges in order to adopt the modern distribution system equipped with the latest technologies which help in water conservation,” she said.

She said that there is going to be resistance in the beginning, but the government is prepared for it. “We need the latest equipment for plugging leakages. The private sector should help the government in this initiative. There will be initial resistance, but we will have to swallow the bitter pill and take courageous decisions,” she said.

Lamenting the growth of tanker mafia in the city, the Chief Minister said that modern technologies should be adopted to stop pipeline leakages that lead to wastage of some 42 per cent of water.

“Delhi is an ancient city, where many water lines are 75 to 100 years old. Corroded and old pipes lead to leakages, due to which 39 to 42 per cent of water is wasted,” she said.

Ever-burgeoning population, proliferation of unauthorised colonies and over-consumption are some of the causes of the city’s water woes, she said adding that Delhi does not have effective solution to tackle the problems.

“Unfortunately, a tanker mafia has grown in Delhi which wants this situation to continue due to their vested interests. It is a shame the capital city has to depend on water tankers,” Dikshit regretted.

She also said that private sector should also educate the people to stop misuse of water. “The government and the private sector together can help get rid of tanker mafia,” she added.

New Delhi, November 18
The long-awaited proposal about giving monthly pension to orphans below 24 years who have no means of livelihood in the national Capital will finally get the official nod tomorrow.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is likely to pass the proposal in its standing committee meeting on Thursday. According to the proposal, a pension of Rs 1,000 will be given to the caretaker of an orphan child per month. The proposal is likely to be implemented from the next month.

“An orphan youth below 24 years who has no means of livelihood will get a monthly pension of Rs 1,000,” confirmed a senior official of the MCD.

To avail the facility, the guardian of the child will have to produce the death certificate of his/ her parents. “The death certificate of a child’s parents would be verified,” said the official.

The civic body also gives a monthly pension of Rs 1,000 to blinds, widows, handicapped people and divorcee women. It also includes women who have been abandoned by their husbands and are living alone for the past five years.

The MCD gives pension to 1,90,400 people every month. On an average, Rs 23 crore is spent monthly in pensions.

“We issue cheque to pensioners on the first week of every month. The pension is colleted from the ward office,” said the official.

However, the proposal to give pension to orphans was moved in February and was supposed to be implemented from April 1.

New Delhi, November 18 
The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) has developed a touchscreen to get information about the national Capital. The screen is on display at Delhi Pavilion in the India International Trade Fair.

The screen has seven heads – tourist attraction, culture, hotels, phone numbers, Commonwealth Games (CWG) venues, shopping centres and food plaza. The information is displayed on the screen in five languages – Hindi, English, French, Deusch and Japanese.

A person can get information just by touching the screen. If one touches the head of tourist attraction, all tourist places, its distance from the airport, taxi fare, phone of concerned officials will be displayed. 

Likewise, one can get other information, said Priyanka Chaddha who was explaining the things to visitors.

She added the screen was developed for the Commonwealth Games 2010 to guide visitors. The screens would be displayed at 500 places, including airport, railway stations, ISBTs, Games venues, Delhi Secretariat and important markets a few months before the Games. 

She said with the installment of the screens, there would be less fleecing incidents done by taxi and auto rickshaw drivers.

A senior official of the Delhi government said that the concept of the touch screen was developed by the DTTDC to help tourists. 

The screen displayed in the trade fair is a module to seek the response of visitors. If there is a good response, the DTTDC will go ahead with the concept. When asked about the investment in the concept, he said that so far it had not been estimated. 
DTTDC managing director Reena Ray said that the MCD would also help the Delhi government in installing the touch screens across the city. 

New Delhi, November 18
The Directorate of Education (DOE) is following a hardline on nursery admissions. It has come down strongly on those schools which are violating its orders. Notices have been sent to erring schools to make them toe the line.

The DOE, in a circular dated October 28, had warned of ‘strong action’ against schools that deviated from the given schedule of holding nursery admissions between December 15 and March 31.

A senior official with the DOE said that, “erring schools have been issued notices and warnings. Any violation of the DOE orders will not be tolerated, and if needed, we will initiate action. The officials concerned have been asked to maintain a check on schools and keep an eye on any violations.”

Many schools that had begun the admission process in October and November have now postponed it to the DOE-approved date of December 15.

A teacher of Kids Way School at Pusa Road, said, “We are now holding admissions only after December 15. The school had initiated the process earlier, but after getting the DOE circular, we have postponed admissions.”

Not all schools have had to re-arrange the admission process. Some have been in line from the beginning, like Springdales School, Pusa Road.

A Springdales spokesperson said, “We waited for the circular to come out before initiating any move on nursery admissions. Admissions will take place after December 15 and we have explained this to all the parents who have made enquiries at the school.”

However, every school is not toeing the line. Despite the DOE circular, some schools have held admissions in October and continue to do so.

For instance, the three branches of the Bal Bharati School at Rohini, Dwarka and Gangaram Hospital Marg. They started the admission process on October 26 and completed admissions. Notices have been issued to these errant schools and they are meeting this week to decide on their future course of action. Many errant schools will have to cancel admissions and hold them again in December.

By and large, parents are feeling relieved after the DOE move on nursery admissions.

Rajini, who is trying to put her daughter in Springdales School, said, “The DOE circular simplifies the process for us. Now we know that admissions will happen at all the schools in Delhi during this period. We will not waste our time running from one school to the other.”

New Delhi, November 18 
A day after the national Capital witnessed heavy showers, the temperature here dipped today. The Met department has ruled out any further possibility of rain in coming days.

“The Capital recorded a minimum temperature of 10.7 degrees Celsius around 8:30 am. This is normal for this time of the year,” said India Meteorological Department’s director V.P. Yadav. 

This was less than 36 hours after Delhi received 7.6-mm of rainfall within 40 minutes on Monday night, the highest it has got in a day in any November month since 1998. Delhi has so far received 10.4-mm of rainfall this November. 

“We are not expecting any further rain showers in the national capital region ,” V.P. Yadav said. 

He also said that there would be no major fall in the temperature over the next few days. 

The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 24 degrees Celsius, three degrees below the average, the Met office said. — IANS

New Delhi, November 18
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) today gave relief to a widow by granting her family pension after noting that she was pursuing the matter relentlessly with the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) after her husband died in 2005.

A tribunal bench, comprising vice-chairman M Ramachandran and member Shailendra Pandey, passed the order giving relief to the widow of Kalanath Sharma, who resigned from the corporation in 1990 but applied for pensionary benefit after the scheme came into force in 1992.

The tribunal said that it was proved that the deceased had been pursuing the matter related to his pension continually with the DTC and had even offered to return the contributory provident fund (CPF) to the corporation.

“There are circumstances sufficient to reveal that there was a conscious effort on the part of the employee concerned to claim his benefits. He had offered to pay back CPF benefits received. This supports our view that what was being pursued was not an empty claim,” the CAT said.

The DTC had started the pension scheme for its employees in 1992 and there was a provision that those who retired after 1981 were eligible to opt for either pensionary benefit or PF. Kalanath had opted for the pension scheme.

The tribunal ordered DTC to treat Kalanath as a person who had opted for pension after his resignation, when the scheme had been brought into force.

New Delhi, November 18
A Delhi court today reserved its order on the bail application moved by the accused Junaid Ahmed Khan in the Anoushka Shankar extortion case for November 19.

On Tuesday, Junaid, the man who allegedly blackmailed the daughter of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar Prasad, filed a bail application in the court of the chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) Kaveri Baweja. The court was to give its order today but after hearing the arguments, it posted the matter for Thursday.

The accused moved for bail in the court, four days after the Delhi police filed a chargesheet against him.

The 29-year-old Junaid is charged with extortion charges under Section 120(b), 379, 376 and Section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act for allegedly blackmailing the young sitarist, Anoushka over some of her personal photographs which he had accessed after hacking into her email account.

His bail plea stated that Junaid has been in custody for more than a month and the police has not completed its investigation since the chargesheet lacked vital reports from forensic department.

Also, the police did not get a reply to the letter rogatory (request letter) sent to the US authorities seeking help from Google Inc in collecting evidence.

The counsel for the accused, Suleiman Khan submitted, “Junaid is being charged with four sections altogether. In this case, Section 376 of the IPC and Section 66 of the IP Act both cannot go together. Moreover, the law says that special act prevails over general act and so Section 66 prevails here, which entitles Junaid to bail.”

Earlier, according to the chargesheet, during inquiry, it was revealed that Junaid had sent an email to Anoushka, initially from Dubai, using an Airtel prepaid mobile connection subscribed by Khan.

Later from Mumbai, he used a Tata broadband Internet connection to send threatening emails to Anoushka between May 11 and September 14 to demand US$1,22,000 in lieu of her private photographs.

According to the police, while the forensic reports on Khan’s seized mobile and laptop are awaited, they have obtained a sanction from the central government for trying Khan as the offence was committed outside the country.

New Delhi, November 18
A Delhi court today allowed the plea of Andhra Pradesh police to take custody of naxal leader Kobad Ghandy in connection with a case registered against him in Karimnagar district in 2008, rejecting his plea that he could not be forced to join probe.

Chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) Kaveri Baweja granted the plea of Andhra Pradesh police and directed it to produce the CPI-Maoist member, Ghandy, in a court in Karimnagar district on or before November 20.

Ghandy’s counsel Mayur Parikh opposed the contention of the police arguing that the accused could only be called as a witness or to answer a charge in a case.

Public prosecutor Naveen Kumar, however, argued that the court did not have the authority to sit in appeal on a production warrant issued by the additional judicial magistrate in Karimnagar on November 11.

“Having regards to the facts and circumstances, the accused is given on transit remand in the custody of Andhra Pradesh police with direction to produce him in the court in Karimnagar on or before November 20,” Baweja said.

The court on November 17 had asked superintendent of Tihar jail, where Ghandy is presently lodged, to file a report on the plea on November 18.
The AP police had moved the application armed with production warrant issued by additional judicial magistrate of Karimnagar district stating that Ghandy was wanted in a case registered with the Andhra police in 2008.

The 63-year-old Ghandy would be produced before the court there on or before November 27 to face various charges under the Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the state police said in their application.

New Delhi, November 18
Businessmen at the trade fair continue to use plastic bags though inspection teams were deployed today in the fair after a meeting of ITPO and government environment officials yesterday decided to take strict action against anyone found violating the ban on polythene bags.

Anil Kumar, senior scientific officer, Department of Environment, Delhi government said, “The inspection teams will report their findings tonight and taken up tomorrow. Anyone not complying with the warning will be dealt with strictly.”

Interestingly, one could find plastic bags in many hands today. Many multinational brands are also giving away the purchases in plastic bags.

An ITPO official said, “The stall owners stand the risk of losing their security deposit and even face fines if they do not comply with the guidelines.”

“We have to pay for jute and paper bags. These bags should ideally be provided at the stalls. What do we do?” said Kartika, her hands full with shopped items in plastic bags in the fair today.