New Delhi, February 18
Two labourers were burnt to death while three others were injured when a fire broke out in a cardboard factory in the Shastri Nagar area of north Delhi today morning.

According to fire officials, the fire call was received at 5.05 am and 11 firefighting engines doused the fire around 8.40 am.

“The incident was reported from a cardboard making unit near Jalebi Chowk in Shastri Nagar. Eleven firefighting engines took about three hours to control the flames as the inflammable cardboards spread the very fast. We found two charred bodies in the godown of the building,” said a fire official. Although the cause of fire is still a matter of dispute, a fire official informed that gas cylinder blast could be the likely reason.

According to Subzi Mandi police station, the deceased have been identified as Kuldeep (24) and Ramvati (65), both worked at the unit and stayed in the godown of the factory.

“Besides the two deaths, three persons received burnt injuries and have been admitted to hospital. They are all labourers. We are investigating the cause of the fire,” said the police.

The injured have been identified as Mamta, Ram Saran and their 4-year-old daughter Nanhi.

Preliminary investigation in the cause of fire has revealed that there was an LPG cylinder explosion.

“It cannot be said with conviction whether cylinder blast was the cause of fire or the cylinder exploded because of the fire. Nothing can be said as of now,” said the police.

The owner of the cardboard unit has been summoned for questioning. 

New Delhi, February 18
To deal with swelling number of passengers at the Rajiv Chowk Metro station, which causes chaos in peak hours with passengers being jostled around and failure of lifts due to overloading, the authorities have demarcated separate entry and exit ways for the busiest station.

The entry and exit points between Blocks A and F, which get the major chunk of traffic, have been marked exclusively for outgoing passengers while another passage, which was closed so far, has been opened. “The entry and exit points between the blocks would now only be used for exit strictly,” said a Metro spokesperson.

He said an unused escalator has also been opened for the public in this passage. The new traffic management came into effect today.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) sources said they were working on managing the ever-expanding crowd for the past two months as increasing cases of passengers being pushed around in the melee were reported. Finally, the officials zeroed in on the exit and entry points to the Metro station at Connaught Place’s Block A and F, as a majority of passengers entering or exiting the stations takes this route.

“It is becoming very hard for the operations staff to control the chaos in the peak hours. We hope this will mitigate traffic blues,” said DMRC sources.

The Rajiv Chowk Metro station also saw on an average one escalator being blocked everyday due to overload. The lifts are also in bad shape at this station, which is mostly used by the passengers to shift lines.

General manager of electrical staff AK Gupta said the corporation would induce one more escalator in the coming weeks.

In another move to reduce crowd, officials have introduced one more train on the Dwarka-Noida line, taking the total number of trains running on it to 45.

The most crowded line of the Metro rail network, the Noida line would now have the most efficient train frequency of 3.30 minutes between two trains at peak hours.

New Delhi, February 18
A six-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a rickshaw puller in Lajpat Nagar last evening. The rickshaw puller was beaten up by locals after the incident came to light.

New Delhi, January 18
The Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (PGIMER) is in an expansion mode as it has sent a proposal to the union health ministry about increasing the number of seats in post-graduate and specialised courses to 79 from 35 seats.

PGMIER director Dr. Nishith K. Chaturvedi said a team from the health ministry had recently visited the institute for an inspection in respect to the proposal. “I expect a positive response within 10 to 15 days,” he said.

Besides, another proposal for raising the designation of teaching staff comprising specialists and consultants of the hospital and those appointed by the Centre, has been sent to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GSIPU) that gives affiliation to the institute of centrally-managed RML Hospital.

Chaturvedi said if the university accepted the proposal, the number of faculty members would increase from 105 to 167. It would not mean more intakes of teaching staff but repositioning the existing faculty and consultants.

The academic centre which has completed its first session last year is the Capital’s first institute that provides post-graduate degree in medicine and surgery apart from diploma in medical and paramedical courses. 

New Delhi, February 18
Battery-driven rickshaws could be a one-time solution to all rickshaw related problems in the city, feels the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The civic body would form a committee comprising officials from the MCD, traffic police and the transport department to discuss the feasibility of the proposal.

The proposal would add another dimension to the debate over the feasibility of rickshaws in the city.

The Leader of House, Subhash Arya, said battery rickshaws were successfully running in foreign countries.

“They are not only environment-friendly, but also run at a suitably higher speed without being as exhausting as the manual ones,” he said.

The BJP leader said the court did not want to remove rickshaws from the roads while the traffic police blamed them for congestion on the roads. Amidst such conflicting scenario, battery rickshaws could be an ideal way out, he added.

“Since rickshaws with battery run up to 40 metres in a paddle, they would not create traffic mess even on main roads,” said Arya.

Because of the fact that cycle rickshaws are mostly run by people below poverty line, most of whom are not physically fit enough to pull a rickshaw, many leaders feel that the rickshaw pullers are often exploited and they trade their health for money to earn a living. Many of them suffer from diseases like tuberculosis and asthma because of the hard labour they put in day and night, feel the leaders.

There are over 99,000 licensed cycle rickshaws in the Capital.

However, the Leader of Opposition in MCD advocated laying down of separate tracks for rickshaws.

He said that the policy of limiting the number of licences at 99,000 was brought in haste. “We should encourage the usage of rickshaws by laying separate tracks and promoting them,” he said.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that there could be no curb on the number of licences issued to cycle-rickshaw pullers as it would be against their right to earn a livelihood and would also hamper the invaluable linkage provided by the rickshaws.

New Delhi, February 18
The central district police has arrested four persons, including a debt-ridden businessman and an exporter, for allegedly sending people by procuring visas on fake passports.

Ajay Kumar (38), Virendra (46), Sumit Kumar (44) and Chinmay Chauhan (44) were arrested near fire station in Prasad Nagar yesterday when they came there to deliver a fake passport with a visa. 

“Thrity-eight passports, which included fake and altered ones, applications for getting visa and some other suspicious documents, 19 stamps and two laptops were seized from them,” said a senior district police official.

According to the police, the accused facilitated people in procuring visas on fake documents as well as altered passports.

“They usually targeted people desirous of visiting European countries and denied visas with a refusal stamp affixed on passports,” the officer added.

Virendra is a post-graduate from Bangalore University and runs an export business of swimming costumes, jewellery and cosmetic items. He suffered a heavy loss in business and thereafter, formed the racket to earn quick money.

Ajay is a graduate from Delhi University and runs a tour and travel business in Munirka.

Sumit, also a graduate, runs a private business.

Chinmay is into export of garments, cosmetics, and jewellery.

Chinmay and Sumit allegedly used to induce customers whereas Virender used to manage fake documents as well as alterations in passports for getting visas. Ajay was employed to ensure safe departure of their customers at airport. 

According to the police, the accused charged Rs 4 to 5 lakh per customer for procuring visas to European countries.

The racket has contacts in Punjab and other states as well. 

New Delhi, February 18
A survey of unauthorised colonies in the Capital has revealed that at least 10 of them do not exist on the site.

A total of 1,639 unauthorised colonies are registered with the land and building department of the Delhi government.

The Delhi government is unable to clear regularisation of nearly half of such colonies as the forest department, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have raised objections for providing civic amenity facilities necessary for regularisation.

The basic requirement for regularisation of colonies is there should be residential buildings on 50 per cent of the total area. If the condition is not met, the government would not provide basic civic amenities to the colonies and they would not be regularised.

Keeping this in view, the department concerned conducted a global positioning system survey and found that out of the total number of unauthorised colonies registered with the Delhi government, 10 did not exist on the site and 121 had less than 50 per cent population.

When the issue of regularisation was raised by the union government, a few farmers had got unauthorised colonies registered without plotting their lands, sources said.

Sources said that the forest department had raised objection against 238 colonies claiming that they were constructed on its land. The plots were for forest purpose but they had been sold to poor people for residential purpose.

The DDA has objection against 136 colonies and the ASI has for 62. The MCD has raised objection against 214 colonies.

Delhi urban development minister A.K. Walia said that the Delhi government had given a list of 692 colonies to the MCD to prepare their layout for regularisation.

However, he expressed ignorance when asked the names of 10 colonies that do not exist.

Walia said that colonies in which less than 50 per cent construction work had been carried out were located in different districts of the city.

The Supreme Court had directed the government to regularise colonies after developing basic civic amenities. In the light of this direction, the government had sanctioned Rs 2,800 crore for development before the Assembly elections and contracts were also signed.

Prior to the election, roads and drains were constructed in some colonies. But after the election, construction work was halted. Contracts were also cancelled due to the reasons better known to the agencies concerned, sources said. 

Noida, February 18
A groom was shot dead in Noida when his drunk relative opened celebratory fire at the wedding, the police said on Thursday.

Superintendent of police Ashok Kumar Tripathi said Pankaj was killed when his paternal uncle Raj Kumar fired from his double barrel gun. The bullet hit Pankaj in the head.

“On Thursday morning around 5 am during the bride’s farewell, Raj Kumar opened fire. The groom was just about to sit in the car when the bulled hit him,” the official said.

The incident took place in Sector 10 of this township. The accused has been arrested, the officer said. — IANS

New Delhi, February 18
A Delhi court today convicted a man to five years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a girl on the false promise of marriage and then marrying another without girl telling the victim. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on him.

Additional sessions judge Dharmesh Sharma, however, took a lenient view of the crime, taking note of the fact that the wife of the accused, Amit, was deprived of his company for about a year soon after their marriage for no fault of her’s.

“It bears in my mind that if the convict is sentenced for a longer period, his wife would also be a victim in her own way, impacting her mental and psychological well-being,” the court said while pronouncing the judgment.

The court also gave relief to Amit’s brother Satish Kumar, also an accused, by just imposing a fine of Rs 5,000 on him, saying, “He appears to be quite apologetic and remorseful. To my mind he has learnt a lesson.”

Satish Kumar was accused of playing a key role in intimidating the victim.

The victim lodged the complaint against Amit (25) and Satish (38) on February 18, 2008, two days after Amit got married.

In the complaint, she alleged that on August 12, 2007, Amit took her to his friend Manu’s place for celebrating his birthday. There she was made to consume cold drink containing intoxicants, which made her unconscious, after which Amit raped her.

When she protested, he apologised and expressed his love for her, promising to marry her. He also threatened her that if she did not accept his love and complained about it to anyone, she would have to face serious consequences.

During the proceedings of the case, the victim alleged that even after the incident, Amit took her to several of his friends’ houses and raped her by giving intoxicants.

According to the victim, on October 18, 2007, Amit took her to his house and introduced her to his elder brothers— Satish and Mukul— who assured her that they would get them married soon.

During the arguments, Amit’s counsel said that the accused wanted to marry the victim but could not for the wishes of his dying father. “He is now happily married and deserves leniency from the court,” the counsel said.

New Delhi, February 18
BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL), a private power distribution company (discom) of Delhi, has come with an innovative way to deal with the nuisance of power theft. The discom has offered cash prize ranging between Rs 250 and 500 to anyone reporting power pilferage.

The scheme will come into force for consumers in east and central Delhi from the coming financial year.

“In the past six months, consumers have helped unearth power theft totaling 650 KW. To felicitate these silent crusaders, BYPL has planned to launch a reward scheme from the coming financial year of 2010-11,” said the official spokesperson of the discom.

Explaining the dynamics of the reward scheme, he said that under the scheme, power theft informers in east and central Delhi whose tip-offs actually result in booking power thefts will be given rewards varying between Rs 250 and 500.

“The cash prize will be credited into the consumer’s electricity bill. The consumer can also choose to pledge the reward amount to the power bills of any religious, social or charitable organisation in the BYPL area,” the spokesperson said.

He said that the number of power theft tip-offs that get reported on the BYPL call centre number were high, but only about 40 per cent of them translate into success for the company and lead to legal action against the thieves. The remaining 60 per cent, due to incomplete address or other details, do not translate into meaningful results.

During the past six months, BYPL has given new connections totaling 29,000 KW of the sanctioned load. Of these, 17,000 KW-connections are in the domestic category and the remaining 12,000 KW in the commercial category.