New Delhi, June 1
Medical students at Safdarjung Hospital have gone on hunger strike, protesting against the poor living conditions, including lack of air-conditioning and drinking water in the classrooms, in the hospital’s medical college known as Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College.

The Resident Doctors Association in the evening threw its weight behind the striking students which is likely to affect the health services in the hospital from tomorrow.

Karan Vats, president of students’ welfare association of the college, said resident doctors have expressed concern over the pathetic infrastructure in the college and would strike work from tomorrow.

Over 300 students have joined the protest, the second in the last two months, but more intense this time. They have accused the hospital management of giving hollow promises and doing nothing tangible to redress their “genuine” grievances.

Students in their white robes with placards bearing slogans like “No Hostel” and “Wake-up Central Government” sat on protest with banners outside the OPD.

Vats said they would continue with their hunger strike till the union health minister or health secretary gave them assurance that they would be provided with basic facilities.

He said two striking students, Aakansh Jain and Vivek Jindal, fainted due to heat conditions.

Vats said the classrooms have no ventilation facilities and students are cramped there. The building was planned for central air-conditioning and thus has no ventilation.

He added that students have been put up in an “unsafe” building. They should be given proper hostel facilities.

Another demand of the students is a lift as patients, doctors and students have to climb to the fourth floor. The availability of drinking water is also poor.

The students had gone on strike in May for similar reasons and relented after the management’s assurance.

Striking students had symbolically blocked the OPD for some time this morning, but the patient care was not seriously affected. However, things will worsen if the resident doctors also keep off from work.

New Delhi, June 1
The Congress, which is the opposition party in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), has alleged scam in the construction of swanky toilets for the upcoming Commonwealth Games by the BJP-ruled civic body. According to the Congress, the civic body floated tenders for the construction of the toilets without complying with the rules and also didn't discuss the plan at the meeting of the corporation.

"All the projects of the MCD having budget of more than Rs 5,000 are implemented only after the approval of the standing committee and the House. But the project for the construction of high-tech toilets, which will cost crores of rupees, was never placed before the standing committee members for discussion," said Jai Kishan Sharma, Leader of Opposition.

Sharma demanded an investigation of the role of civic body officials and strict action against them, if found guilty.

On May 2, the civic body had floated tenders for the construction of 216 toilets in posh markets involving two lakh square feet of land.

According to MCD officials, multi-national companies (MNCs) will be roped in for the project.

According to the proposal, MNCs will be given land on lease for a period of 30 years.

"They will have to pay an amount of Rs 10 crore (onetime payment) and an annual fee of Rs 20 lakh. They will construct the toilets and bathrooms and will also run them," said an official.

The officer said to make the project successful, 70 per cent of the ground floor space in each toilet will be used as loo and 30 per cent will be for commercial use for the MNCs. On the first floor, the companies would be allowed to construct offices and shops which they can lease out.

"According to market rates, 100 square yards of land in Greater Kailash or South Extension market costs around Rs 10 crore. Then how can MCD give land worth crores of rupees without taking permission from the standing committee," said Sharma.

New Delhi, June 1
Many SC/ST aspirants of Delhi University (DU) have been leaving campus disappointed as their mark-sheets have not yet arrived.

The DU administration does not provide application forms to the SC/ST students applying under the reserved category without checking their mark-sheets. Many students complained that their results were not yet out and they should be given more time to produce their documents.

“Like in the case of general students who apply through the common pre-admission form, the university should ask the SC/ST students to submit their original documents at the time of allocation of seats in colleges,” said Robert Rehman Raman, M.Phil. student at DU, who is providing assistance at the SC-ST admission counter in DU Arts Faculty. The OBC candidates, who apply through the centralized forms do not need any proof of marks at the time of submitting their applications.

However, for SC-ST candidates the university adopts an independent system of admission where the proof of their caste and marks has to be produced before procuring the application form.

Every year students’ organisations take up the matter of SC-ST admissions with the administration, but in vain.

“To make this simpler for SC-ST students, we have even started accepting Internet printouts of their mark-sheets, but they have to get them attested from their school principals,” said sources in the DU administration.

The administration believes that it was not feasible to give away forms without being sure of the candidates’ credentials. “These forms cost the university Rs 50 and we are giving them to the students free of charge, the least we need is to be sure of the candidates’ credentials,” said Gurpreet Singh Tuteja, deputy dean of Students’ Welfare, DU.

He said the university had to allocate seats reserved under the categories on the basis of the information available at the time of receiving applications.

“If the information is wrong, our list becomes redundant and the next candidate in the merit loses a seat,” said Tuteja.

New Delhi, June 1
Many Metro travellers were affected today when the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) system developed a snag on the busy Dwarka-Noida/Anand Vihar line.

Due to the failure of the intermittent automatic train supervision (ATS) server, most Metros on line 3-4 were running late by around 30 minutes.

"Services on the line were affected because of the server failure, which resulted in frequent loss of train identification numbers and bunching of trains on this line," said Anuj Dayal, spokesperson, DMRC.

The Metros generally run on automatic mode through which they are located by their individual numbers. In case of system failure, the trains are shifted on manual mode, where the driver takes control in absence of any feedback from the control room. So, today all the trains on the line were running at slow speed as they could not be tracked down.

The constant delay of trains resulted in stations on the line getting crowded to the point that some counters had to stop selling tokens.

"My train was delayed by at least 45 minutes and there was no space on the platform to even stand. People were getting pushed beyond the yellow line," said Kriti Pawar, a frequent commuter on the line.

The Metro officials said the communication network technical snag affected the services from 10 am to 4 pm. The disruption led to the cancellation of 10 trains.

All other lines, however, remained unaffected.

Gurgaon, June 1
A local residents’ body, Mission Gurgaon Development (MGD), has demanded that the water distribution system of the city be improved.

Addressing a press conference here today, the office-bearers of the MGD maintained that at present, the population of Gurgaon was nearly 20 lakh and as per the existing norms, the city residents required 360 MLD or 80 MGD water.

“However, the waterworks at Basai village has a capacity of delivering only 60 MGD of water…so, there is a net shortage of 20 MGD of water,” they said, adding that in addition to shortage of water, there was a bigger problem of its unequal distribution.

The MGD maintained that HUDA had only two rising mains of 1300mm and 900mm, which were unable to supply the required quantity of water, particularly during the peak demand hours.

“Hence, HUDA needs one more rising main to cater to a group of sectors. Distribution network is equally important to ensure adequate water supply to each street of the town. What HUDA lacks squarely is an adequate distribution network. There are many areas where the distribution system has yet not been laid and these areas have to entirely depend on tubewells for water,” they asserted.

The MGD office-bearers pointed out that even the local Municipal Corporation and the Public Health Department were running around 30 tube-wells to provide water supply to some of the areas. Therefore a fare amount of population of Gurgaon city is still dependent upon the underground water. This heavy withdrawal of groundwater is resulting into lowering of water table by 5.0 metres per year.

The MGD exhorted the well-meaning residents of Gurgaon to organise themselves and exert adequate social and moral pressure on the authorities concerned to tide over this crisis.

New Delhi, June 1
The Delhi government, indicating a hard stand on the issue of power tariff, today said that it would not allow the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to announce the new tariff order if it failed to redress the grievances of distribution companies.

A senior official in the state government said that the regulator should not go in for ‘populist’ measures and must consider the overall reform process in the sector while finalising new rates.
Also, BSES Yamuna Private Limited (BYPL) today refuted claims of the statutory power regulator on the financial position of the power distribution companies. In its reply to the DERC, the company refuted the claim of the regulator that it had profits of Rs 157.33 crore.

“You have arrived at a cash profit of Rs 157.33 crore after accounting for Rs 262.55 crore as regulatory assets, which is an income receivable from future tariff. In fact, our profit after tax comes to a loss of Rs 185.7 crore,” said the company in its reply.

Another discom, BSES-Rajdhani, is likely to send its reply to the DERC this week, after they were given a week’s time to reply to the letters of the regulator in which it had rejected point by point the demands for tariff hike.

The senior official in the state government also said that the DERC has finalised the tariff structure on the basis of discoms’ audited accounts for the year 2008-09 and not 2009-10.

“The DERC has not taken into consideration the audit report of the three discoms for 2009-10. The discoms bought power at a very high rate last summer and if that cost is not adjusted, then people will have to be burdened with a very hefty hike next year as the interest component will also have to added,” he said.

New Delhi, June 1
A Delhi court today extended the CBI custody of the CMD of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) and two others in an alleged corruption case, by three days. Allowing the CBI to interrogate M P Dixit, CMD of SECL, Surojit Samanta and Vijender Singh for three more days, additional sessions judge O P Saini said,

“Considering the huge amount of bribe and involvement of a very senior officer and the fact that co-accused are to be arrested and required to be confronted, the trio is remanded in police custody till June 3.”

The court, however, sent Sanjay Singh and V N Singh, the receiver of the bribe, to judicial custody till June 15 after the investigating agency submitted that their custodial interrogation was not required.

The accused have been booked under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act, dealing with accepting and giving illegal gratification to seek favour from a government servant.

Seeking further custody of the SECL CMD and others, the CBI prosecutor said names of two more accused Bajrang Aggarwal and Ram Avtar Aggarwal have come up for the first time in the probe and they are to be arrested.

Earlier, the court had allowed the agency to quiz all the five in custody for three days.

However, the point was argued by counsel for Dixit, Aman Lekhi and Ramesh Gupta, who submitted that the accused being in custody for sufficiently long time, no further interrogation is required.

Dixit had demanded Rs 1 crore from Vijender Singh, director of Bilaspur-based firm Bedford Group of Companies, for favouring the firm in a matter pending with the SECL, the CBI claimed.

New Delhi, June 1
With the arrest of two men-- Sonu (26) and Deepak (26), of MCD colony in the Samaipur Badli area, the outer district police has busted a gang of truck robbers.

They were caught carrying robbed goods in a stolen car.

According to the police, the duo was arrested during a routine check in the Samaipur Badli police station area.

"The accused disclosed that 20 days ago they had stolen a Maruti car from the Sultan Puri police station area. The police found that the case was registered at the Sultan Puri police station.

They used to change the number plate of the car and used it for committing burglaries and robberies from godowns and trucks at Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar and Samaipur Industrial Area," said Chhaya Sharma, DCP (outer).

Sonu is a school dropout and has two children. He works as a sweeper.

During his duty, he finds out the houses to be targeted. Deepak works as a helper to masons.

New Delhi, June 1
With the arrest of two men, the south district police has claimed to have solved 30 cases of snatching, vehicle theft and robbery that took place especially in the west Delhi area during the past two months.

The accused have been identified as Deepak (20) and Gurmeet, alias Lovely (23), of Uttam Nagar. One stolen Maruti car and one motorcycle have been seized from them.

DCP (south) H.G.S. Dhaliwal said that the two were arrested this morning from Aurobindo Marg in Lodhi Colony. They had come there to commit vehicle theft and snatching.

"The two have been involved in about 30 cases of robbery, snatching, vehicle and house theft. They had been arrested earlier too. The accused were also involved in the infamous burglary that took place in Lajpat Nagar, in which over Rs 50 lakh was burgled. In this case, two police constables were also arrested with them," said Dhaliwal adding that Gurmeet had played an instrumental role in this burglary. The crime branch seized the stolen articles and arrested his associates at his instance.

After their release from jail, they again started committing crimes under one 'Gora', a stuntman involved in more than 100 cases of snatching.

Dhaliwal said that Deepak and Gurmeet along with other gang members committed a series of crime in the area of Tilak Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Vikas Puri and Paschim Vihar.

"In the morning, they snatched chains and ladies' bags, while during night they stole Maruti cars and motorcycles. In the evening, they committed small robberies. In the lean time, they would assemble near places where 'chabbil' (distribution of 'sharbat' on religious occasions) or 'sangat' were organised and pick the pockets of devotees," said Dhaliwal.