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Budget for Commonwealth, not common man
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Budget invites criticism
40% of Delhi’s water goes waste
IM ultra is an adult: AIIMS
DTU students likely to sit for exams
Principal held for leaking question paper
Gang of robbers nabbed
No beef during Games, assures govt
Rs 10-lakh burglary
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Budget for Commonwealth, not common man
VAT rates up
New Delhi, March 22 The main items that will affect citizens are cooking gas, CNG and diesel. As a result, the transport fare is likely to rise. With 5 per cent rise in VAT on CNG, it may costlier by Rs 1.97 per kg. While VAT on diesel has been increased from 12.5 to 20 per cent. With this diesel price may rise by Rs 2.37 per litre. Walia said that it had been done to discourage citizens from purchasing diesel-run vehicles. It would also help in bringing down the number of private vehicles which would decongest roads. Besides, VAT has been hiked by five per cent on embroidery and zari items, kerosene stoves, lanterns, petromax, bio inputs, rope. Motion picture distribution when treated like right to use goods, plastic and glass scrap, dry fruits, kesar, ghee, household plastic items, wood, fitting for doors, wire and metal mesh, paint brushes, tractor tyres and tubes, cocoa, coffee, invertors, utensils (except those made of precious metals) fertilizers, pesticides, weedicides, insecticides, hebicides, rodenticides, plant growth regulators, glucon D, locks, weight and measures, fibre board and tea have seen a rise of 7.5 per cent in VAT. Earlier, the products carried VAT of 5 per cent. Now, 12.5 per cent VAT will be levied on these items. VAT rate on aerated drinks has been enhanced from 12.5 to 20 per cent. This will generate additional revenue to the tune of Rs 10 crore. However, new oral iron Chelator Defarasirox for the treatment of thallasemia patients has been exempted from VAT. The government has withdrawn Rs 40 subsidy on LPG given last year after its rate was increased by the Union government. An LPG cylinder is being sold at Rs 295. From April 1, it will be sold at Rs 335. The government has also increased the registration fee from Rs 100 to Rs 500. It is likely to generate an additional revenue of Rs 6 crore. Apart from this, VAT has been enhanced from 5 to 12.5 per cent on writing instruments worth Rs 1,000; from 12.5 to 20 per cent on watches above Rs 5,000; 5 to 12.5 per cent on mobile phones and accessories above Rs 10,000 and 5 to 12.5 per cent on readymade garments above Rs 5,000. Besides, the government has given deviation on grocery items like— grains, atta, maida, suji, amla, harad, bahera, shikakai, supari, ratanjot, khusak, pudina, hawan samagri, unbranded toffee, mid-day meal supplied by agencies approved by the Delhi government and local bodies, jute and its products, school bags with MRP up to Rs 300, tricycles for the disabiled, blood filters, compact fluorescent lamp and electronic choke, natural gas sold to power generation companies owned by the government and piped natural gas.
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Budget invites criticism
New Delhi, March 22 Opposition BJP strongly reacted to the budget laid by finance minister
AK Walia, saying that the budget is anti-poor and anti-masses. “The government has withdrawn the subsidy of Rs 40 on LPG, which will affect every family to the tune of Rs 300 to 400 per month. It has also increased VAT on daily consumable items from 0 to 5 per cent, 0 to 12.5 per cent and 5 to 12.5 per cent. By doing so, the government has burdened Delhiites to the tune of Rs 850
crore. During a time when the prices are skyrocketing, this additional burden will badly affect the common masses,” Vijay Kumar
Malhotra, leader of Opposition, Delhi Legislative Assembly. “The BJP said that stepmotherly treatment has been given in this budget to the people living in rural areas and unauthorised colonies. The BJP will strongly oppose this budget street to assembly as well as in Parliament,” said the leader. He said by withdrawing the subsidy on LPG cylinders, the government exchequer will add Rs 170 crore more. “The Delhi government has already increased the rate of water and sewer tariff as well as fares of DTC and Metro. This increase has already burdened people to the tune of Rs 5,000
crore. This budget is anti-poor and anti-common man,” he said. |
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40% of Delhi’s water goes waste
New Delhi, March 22 Even as we head towards hosting the Commonwealth Games in October, the current gap between supply and demand of water is estimated to be nearly 1,300 million litres of water. At present, against a demand of the 4,300 million litre per day, Delhi supplies only about 3,000 million litres of water. Though Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, at the latest board meeting of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), gave approval to several key projects aimed at introducing comprehensive water and sewerage management system in Delhi, residents will still have to wait for some time for the situation to get better. The per capita consumption of water in Delhi is around 296 litres, out of which, about 190 litres per capita is consumed by households, 50 litres per capita goes to the commercial sector, 52 litres per capita to hotels and migrated population and 4 litres per capita to fire services. A study conducted by the Delhi Committee of ASSOCHAM has recently revealed that distribution losses are primarily due to leakages in a network of nearly 9,000 km-long water supply lines and thefts in unauthorised connections. Conservative pricing along with non-metering of 23 per cent of the water connections have also discouraged wise use of water. Delhi on an average gets only four hours of water supply a day. With as much as 40 per cent of the total water supply being lost due to leaking pipes, many households go without water. |
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High-tension wire falls on auto; driver dead
New Delhi, March 22 According to the police, the incident took place near Mayur Vihar Phase-1 Metro station around 11.30 pm. “The deceased auto driver has been identified as Ashok. The incident occurred when four electric poles, standing in a row along the UP (Delhi –Noida) Link Road, suddenly came fell down. While three of the poles did no damage, the auto came under the impact of the fourth one,” said a police officer, adding that the cause of the sudden fall of the towers was being investigated. The victim, Ashok, was a resident of Gur Mandi, Shaktinagar, while the injured passenger has been identified as one Ajay. “Both of them were rushed to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in Kalyanpuri, where Ashok was declared brought dead while Ajay is recuperating. Ajay’s condition is said to be stable and according to the doctors, he would be released within the next 12 hours,” said the officer. Ajay is a native of Lucknow and was on his way to meet a friend in Noida when the accident happened. The police further stated that the cause of the accident was yet to be ascertained. “A case has been registered against BSES, the Reliance-backed power distribution company responsible for the maintenance of the poles involved in the mishap. A probe is on to find out whether the accident happened due to negligence of BSES employees or any there was any other reason,” added the officer. Meanwhile, BSES, while commenting on the death, said that the incident took place because of the construction work being carried out by the Public Works Department (PWD) in that area. The company has held the road widening company hired by the PWD responsible for the incident. “The incident occurred during the widening of the Akshardham-Noida main road. The area around these towers was disturbed and damaged that weakened their base. As a result, one high-tension tower toppled over and due to the cascading effect, four other poles connected with the wire too fell down,” said a BSES spokesperson. He said that during the investigation conducted by BSES Yamuna Private Limited (BYPL), it was found that road widening agency had not given prior notice or taken permissions or clearances from BYPL for the work. Ramesh Narayanan, CEO of BYPL, in a letter to the chief secretary, has sought his intervention in matter. “The company plans to file a compensation claim against the agency concerned,” said the official. |
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IM ultra is an adult: AIIMS
New Delhi, March 22 However, Ahmed’s counsels K.L. Ansari and Iftikar Ansari refused to accept the report. They stuck to their stand that Ahmed was a juvenile when the blasts rocked the Capital on September 13, 2008, claiming 26 lives. Earlier, they had produced before the court his Class X marksheet of Uttar Pradesh Board, which states his date of birth as October 3, 1992. Public prosecutor Rajeev Mohan reiterated in the court of chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja today that the documents seized from Ahmed’s possession— a health card from the ministry of health of UAE and a Nepali passport— showed his date of birth as May 27, 1985. “Now, the medical report also says that he is not a juvenile,” added Mohan. The court rejected the plea of special cell demanding six days’ remand for the accused. Ahmed has been sent to Tihar Jail for a day. The court has fixed the matter for tomorrow. Salman, alias Chhotu, was arrested on March 6 by the anti-terrorism squad of UP police from Siddarth Nagar, 300 km from Lucknow. |
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DTU students likely to sit for exams
New Delhi, March 22 President of the DTU Students’ Association, Ravi Shekhar, said he would not want students to miss their exams beginning from March 29. However, he made it clear that the union would take a call after consulting all students. Though a majority of students are protesting, many feel that boycotting examinations should be avoided as students alone would bear the brunt of delayed sessions. However, Shekhar made it clear that sitting for the exams did not mean that the students had taken back their agitation. “The students feel strongly about their demands and would fight for them till the end,” said Shekhar. The students, meanwhile, have not held any demonstrations in the past few days. “Most students are protesting and want the college to become a central university college once again, but situation is normalising gradually,” said a student on the condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, the administration started holding regular classes from today. “Classes were held, but a majority of the students did not attend them,” said Rashmi Sablania, spokesperson, DTU. The administration made it clear that no student would be given a chance to re-appear for the mid-semester exams if they decide to give it a miss this time. |
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Principal held for leaking question paper
New Delhi, March 22 The team seized Rs 2 lakh from the principal, Mahipal Singh Yadav, and some documents from other
accused. Other accused have been identified as Pawan Kumar (28), an MBA; Ramesh Dahiya (52), a TGT teacher; Sachin Kumar (24), TGT teacher; Jitender Singh (40), section officer (CPWD) and Yogesh (26), lower divisional clerk with CBI. According to Neeraj Thakur, additional CP, the cops learnt that the accused had planned to leak the question papers of examination for recruitment of DTC drivers. For this, they had conspired with the principal of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, where the exam was to take place. “A team raided Sarvodaya Vidyalaya and apprehended the gang members. Question papers of DTC drivers’ recruitment examinations, and several other documents were seized in the raid ,” said Thakur. The interrogation of the gang members revealed that they had been helping candidates pass the written examinations of the Delhi Staff Selection Board for recruitment to various posts in government departments. Two of the gang members were running tutorial institutes— Education Point in Kanjhawala— for imparting coaching to candidates of recruitment examinations . ‘These candidates were asked to pay Rs 2-3 lakh,” revealed Thakur. Talking about the modus-operandi of the gang, the officer said the gang members would gain entry into the examination centres after conniving with the officials at the centre. As soon as examination began, the question paper was photocopied and smuggled out of the centre and solved by experts engaged by the gang. “After solving the question paper, the answers were sent to the candidates through mobile phones,” said the officer. |
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Gang of robbers nabbed
Noida, March 22 A police team was sent to
the Film City area to nab the culprits. The team arrested four gangsters around 12.5 am at the flyover near Film City gate. The accused have been identified as Shahnshah Ansari, Shraft Ali, Usman and Neenu Pandit. The police team recovered 13 cell phones, 2 gold chains, one gold ring and Rs 2,000 in cash from them. Further, an Indica car, a .315 bore revolver and cartridges were recovered from Ansari and one dagger each from Usman and Neenu. SSP A.K. Singh told the press that Ansari was a cab driver, who would roam around with three or four other criminals in the car and on finding a lonely person, would rob him. |
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No beef during Games, assures govt
New Delhi, March 22 Speaker Yoganand Shastri today accepted a privilege motion moved against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Congress MLA Subhash Chopra on the issue. The Speaker said that he had received the privilege motion and would issue notice against Dikshit and Subhash. The issue was raised by the Leader of Opposition, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, a few days ago. Malhotra had said that chief secretary, Rakesh Mehta, had made a statement that beef would be imported for the sportsmen. |
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Rs 10-lakh burglary
New Delhi, March 22 The victim family returned to Capital today morning. In a statement to the police, Sharma claimed cash and jewellery worth Rs 10 lakh was stolen from the house.
— TNS |
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