New Delhi, November 6
If you plan to spend your Sunday visiting memorials like the Rajghat and Humayun Tomb, you would be advised against it. US President Barack Obama would be visiting both these monuments in the afternoon shortly after he lands in the Capital.

Obama would first pay homage to the apostle of peace at his memorial and then visit the mausoleum of Humayun, father of great Indian emperor Akbar, around 4.40 pm. Both the places, already among the better-kept monuments, have undergone a fresh bout of renovation with the security drills being the most visible aspect of all the preparations.

Apart from a couple of officials, most of the regular employees at both the monuments would not be allowed during the President's visit. He would be led around the tomb by a senior Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) official.

Noted Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande had received the then US President George Bush during his visit to Rajghat in 2006 and shown him around. She died in 2008 and the local manager of the Mahatma Gandhi's memorial is likely to guide the President during his visit.

Barack Obama's wife Michelle Obama is also tipped to visit the crafts museum at Pragati Maidan. The proposed visit of Michelle has led to a spurt in the number of visitors to the museum, which houses the crafts from the states across the country.

A museum official said they had been receiving up to 500 visitors daily for the last 10 days or so since the word about the visit of Obama's wife went about.

However, it is the massive security measures put in place at all the places, most of all the ITC Maurya where Obama and his entourage would stay, which seem to be the most noticeable aspect of preparations for his visit.

People planning to travel through these routes might face some inconvenience due to security arrangements. They should be ready for a possible delay of 15 minutes, said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police, Traffic.

The hotel looks like a garrison with the US and Indian security personnel dotting the place. Multiple rings of security are in place which include monkey and dog catchers.

The police said traffic restrictions would be in place around the hotel till the President's stay. Over 2,000 police and paramilitary personnel would be deployed in and around the hotel. The Maurya Sheraton had also hosted the US Presidents, Bill Clinton in 2000 and George Bush in 2006.

Greater Noida, November 6
The Yamuna Expressway Authority, which is connecting Noida with Agra from the eastern bank of the Yamuna river, has announced a scheme of commercial and institutional plots on the sides of the Expressway.

This is the first commercial scheme of the Yamuna Expressway Authority and is an open- ended scheme which will be close to both the residential sectors of the authority. The sale of application forms will start from Monday and the scheme is expected to help create demand for the residential plots in the nearby sectors too. Plots for offices have also been included in the scheme.

Significantly, the scheme also includes plots of various sizes for hospitals, nursery schools, senior secondary schools, inter-colleges, degree colleges, university, vocational training hub, including management and technical institutes.

The application will be on sale for Rs 1,100 per form at the Oriental Bank of Commerce situated in Jagat Farm, HDFC Bank, in the commercial belt of Greater Noida and the Union Bank of India, situated in sector 62 of Noida. The forms will have to be deposited in the same banks. Ten per cent of the total price of the plot will have to be deposited along with the form.

It may be mentioned that the Yamuna Expressway Authority had earlier launched a scheme of bigger plots from 50 to 250 acres for industrial, IT, biotech, institutional, sports, recreational and service industries. Universities and big colleges will be set up in these plots. There are over 21,000 allottees in residential sectors No 20 and 21 and the work has already started for the development of the town.

Sewage, drains and roads are under construction while other infrastructure like hospitals, markets, schools, etc are also being developed.

There are over a hundred schools and colleges in Knowledge Park 1, 2, and 3 of Greater Noida. According to officials, thousands of students are expected to get admission in these institutes.

New Delhi, November 6
About 250 doctors at the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital struck work today as relatives of two patients manhandled doctors on duty on Friday night.

Some doctors said relatives of two patients beat up a couple of doctors for different reasons and the security personnel were also roughed up.

Relatives of a patient were angry after he died while those of another patient lost their cool when they were asked by doctors to leave the emergency.

Scores of doctors assembled on the hospital premises today and raised slogans, decrying the administration's lack of action and demanding more security.

"Junior doctors on duty are always at the receiving end of the anger of patient's relatives. We are blamed if somebody dies or even for small things like asking the kin to leave the emergency. It is because of poor security in the hospital and also this belief among patients that they could mistreat us and get away due to the administration's apathy," a couple of agitating doctors said.

Doctors, though, marked their attendance did not join their duty. The management issued a circular to the doctors to return to their work but in vain.

Even the emergency services were disrupted as the doctors refused to do work.

A senior hospital official said the agitating doctors were resorting to high-handed tactics. "Things happen in hospitals. We are willing to talk to the doctors, but they should also be reasonable," a senior official said.

He said they would take action against them if the doctors did not join duty at the earliest.

Junior doctors at Safdarjung Hospital had also gone on strike in September in a similar manner. Kin of a patient had beaten up a doctor and the medicos struck work.

They broke their strike after assurances of better security at the hospital.

New Delhi, November 6
The Delhi government is contemplating new ways to reduce traffic congestion at some of the most crowded places.

Official sources said the special task force's, which was set up on the orders of the High Court, recommendations had come up before the cabinet meeting a couple of days ago, but ministers decided to defer a discussion on it to their next meeting.

The task force had called for a study to see if congestion tax could be slapped on vehicles entering some of the most crowded places like Connaught Place and Karol Bagh, where pollution level is also significantly higher due to traffic jams.

The Delhi government had sometime back increased taxes on purchase of new cars, but it has been of little use. Delhi already has more cars than those in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai put together.

One of the moves being contemplated is that the congestion tax could be imposed during peak hours, especially in those places which are linked with the Metro services.

"Places like Connaught Place and Karol Bagh have come up for informal discussion as they are well connected by the Metro and as such we should encourage people to use trains not cars," a transport department official said.

The cabinet is also likely to discuss a study by Rites, a noted engineering consultant, which had called for expansion in the Metro services and BRT corridors. It had also called for introduction of monorail. The study was undertaken to make recommendations to reduce traffic on Delhi's roads.

It had said there should be 360 kms of BRT corridors by 2021 and 40 kms of monorail. It had called for better and quicker connectivity of Delhi with neighbouring states' cities.

Besides, the Rites recommendations had also stressed removal of encroachments to increase parking spaces across the city.

Ballabgarh, November 6
The police has not yet arrested the persons booked in connection with a mob attack following the death of two women in an accident here on Wednesday.

The cops on Thursday registered two FIRs involving 200 persons in connection with the violence wherein the mob had pelted stones on its personnel and set afire the office of the chief parliamentary secretary of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha and local Congress MLA Sharda Rathore, a PCR van and two dumpers.

The SHO of the Ballabgarh (city) police station Narender Singh today reasoned that no arrest could be made as the police was busy with the upkeep of law and order on Divali.

The police has imposed Section 307(attempt to murder) against the accused in both the FIRs. However, for strange reasons, the cops were not ready to go on record as to who were the persons named in the FIRs.

The apparent lackluster approach of the police in making the arrests has generated resentment among the public as well as raised questions about its efficiency. Not only the effectiveness of the police has been questioned regarding its follow-up action, but it has also come in for flak for its failure to protect the office premises of Sharda Rathore, who, by virtue of her post of chief parliamentary secretary, has the status of a minister of state.

The mob turned violent after two women were run over by a dumper on Mohana-Ballabgarh Road, near the office of the Congress leader.

The mob pelted stones on police personnel and set ablaze a PCR van and two dumpers, besides blocking the road. Some people then headed towards the office of the Congress leader and set it on fire after vandalising it for about 20 minutes.

Now, the fact that is troubling people is why did the mob target the leader's office when it had nothing to do with the accident?

According to many, the incident indicates of conspiracy. The question that the people here are asking is: Why did the police fail to protect the office of a senior government functionary? Where was its intelligence set-up mechanism at the time of the incident? And now, instead of arresting the accused, the police is using Divali as an excuse for delaying arrests.

New Delhi, November 6
After it failed to get the mandatory safety clearance, the Delhi Metro's Airport Express Line is set to begin operations later this month.

"We are expecting that the line will open this month. Our work is over. Now, it is up to Reliance," said a senior Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official. He added that a team of DMRC officials had completed the inspection of the line last week.

A subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra), the Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL), has to get the operations of the 22-km high-speed line ready under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The DMRC has completed the civil construction work for the line.

Last week, R-Infra wrote a letter to the DMRC, asking it to facilitate an invitation to Metro Rail Safety commissioner R.K. Kardam to carry out the final safety check before the line was opened for operations, the official said.

"As per the contract, Reliance has to invite the commissioner for inspection. But we are helping them out. They have requested us to facilitate an invitation to the commissioner for inspection," the official said. The commissioner is likely to inspect the line the next week, he added.

In September, the Airport Express Line had failed to get the safety clearance from the commissioner due to technical glitches. The DMRC said that those issues had been taken care of. The DMRC had also issued a fine of Rs 11.25 crore on the DAMEPL, after it missed the August 31 deadline. According to the concession agreement, the DAMEPL was supposed to make the Airport Express Line operational by July 31. In view of the slow progress, the DMRC extended the deadline to August 31.

The line was scheduled to open to the public before the Commonwealth Games, but it could not as it failed to get the commissioner's safety clearance. On September 30, the DMRC imposed the Rs 11.25-crore penalty on DAMEPL and gave it three days time to pay the fine.

THE FESTIVAL IN ALL ITS SPLENDOUR. Tribune photo: Sayeed Ahmed

Many others, especially the talented, contend that they will have to forfeit one year of their extra-curricular activities (ECA) records. All is not lost though. Since many college societies had long been preparing for the yearly fests, they would be allowed by the management to sit for competitions being held outside their colleges.

Bigger and costlier fair

The international trade fair to be held in Pragati Maidan during November 14-27 will be bigger and a bit costlier. As the annual event gets more popular, organisers are confident of pulling in crowds without offering incentives. There would be no longer free entry for school students, who will now have to buy tickets like others.

A ticket would also cost Rs 40 instead of Rs 30 charged last year. Besides, tickets would be available only at the counters at three gates of Pragati Maidan or at Metro stations unlike last year when they were available even at Mother Dairy outlets. Tickets would be sold at the same price at the Pragati Maidan and Metro stations while it used to be cheaper at the outlets earlier. Authorities hope this would bring only the serious visitor to the fair.

Road safety experts to meet in month-end

India accounts for a whopping 10 per cent of the fatal road accidents across the world. Nearly 1.3 million such accidents take place in the world every year. Delhi contributes considerably to the country's accident figure, with more people losing their lives on its roads than in any other city. Poor traffic management, delayed emergency facilities and indiscipline among drivers are considered prime reasons for the shameful statistics.

Now the Delhi government and the ministry of road transport have joined hands to reduce the number of road accidents and, more importantly, death toll.

They would host about 400 road safety experts in the city for a two-day global meet on 'Institutional Arrangements for Reduction of Road Fatalities', organized by Geneva-based International Road Federation. Delhi police officials and road transport department's mandarins will rack their brains with noted experts to devise means in order to ensure that there is less blood on the Capital's roads.

The meet begins on November 25.

When will Lovely walk the talk?

Proposed installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) on Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses has long been bandied about by the transport department as a panacea for passengers' complaints.

Transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely's attention was brought to inconsistencies in running timing of DTC buses - sometimes passengers have to wait for buses for a long while, at other times they seem to arrive one after another.

He said the GPS would take care of this problem as officials would know the location of different buses and stagger their timings accordingly.

The problem is that Lovely and his officials have been selling the cure-all GPS formula for too long while there is still no clear sign of this happening in the near future.

Lovely says the work to install GPS is going on, but there is no deadline. It is high time the tracker device was installed on DTC buses.

(Contributed by Jyoti Rai, Kumar Rakesh, Syed Ali Ahmed)

New Delhi, November 6
Even as the deadline for bursting crackers in the national Capital was 10 pm, Delhiites continued their Divali celebrations well past midnight.

Be it Lajpat Nagar, Saket, Defence Colony, Preet Vihar, Mayur Vihar or Dawrka, city residents managed to defy the 10-pm deadline as the sky could be seen lighting up with crackers all through the night.

The Delhi police had warned people of legal action against burning crackers between 10 pm and 6 am. However, everyone had their own excuse for not adhering to the deadline. For most, it was unrealistic and a bit too early.

"As per the tradition, we start bursting crackers only around 9 pm after Lakshmi puja. There was no way we could have been done with all the crackers by 10 pm. Fun begins only late in the night when all other children in my colony are finished with crackers, and its then when I light the most expensive ones," said Vishal Thakur, a student of class V who lives in Lajpat Nagar.

The policemen, though, said they did stop people at many places from bursting crackers after 10 pm, but there were not many complaints.

"If people are bursting crackers after 10 pm and nobody in the neighbourhood has a problem, it is very difficult for us to intervene. We received complaints from some places and we acted on them," a police official said.

However, most of the people feel that the deadline should be extended to make it acceptable.

"With visitors coming all through the evening, it is tough for the elders to enjoy crackers early in the day. This was my first Divali after wedding and I had to meet a lot of relatives. Only after everyone was gone, we started bursting crackers," said Chaya Sharma, a housewife.

Also, there are some who are not even aware of the deadline.

"I didn't know there was any time restriction on bursting crackers. Had there been a strict warning, people would have been more serious about it. Yesterday, everyone was in a festive spirit and a timid deadline failed to be a deterrent," said Prashant Awathi, member, resident welfare association, Mayur Vihar Phase I.

New Delhi, November 6
Different parameters of pollution saw a significant rise in their levels during Divali with some pollutants recording a more dangerous level than previous years while some others showing an improvement.

The noise pollution ranged between 72.32 and 88 decibels at different locations with Anand Vihar being loudest while Vasant Kunj being quietest. It had varied between 71 db and 82 db last year.

An official spokesperson though claimed that the comparison of pollution levels this year with the previous year would not be relevant as the locations were different and the monitoring system was automatic and advanced compared to previous years.

Carbon monoxide (CO) values were within the limit at R. K. Puram and Mandir Marg while it exceeded the limits at all the other three stations where it was measured, the spokesperson said. Mandir Marg was least polluted as far as the presence of CO was concerned while Civil Lines was most polluted.

The nitrogen oxide level scored better andAit ranged between 63 and 95 units while the average value for 24 hours on November 4 was found to be 76 and 135.96 units.

Giving the figures of sulphur dioxide, He said it shot up drastically during the festival. On Divali day, the average value for 24 hours varied between 26 and 73.5 units while the average value for 24 hours on November 4, was found to be between 6 and 23 units. The increase in CO concentration during Divali days could be attributable to the use of crackers besides the increased vehicular movement. A slight rise was noticed in SO2 concentration on Divali night, said a statement.

New Delhi, November 6
Police has cracked the murder case of a Delhi Jal Board watchman, who was killed on the night between October 29 and 30 at Shahdara in North East district of the Capital.

The police said Tek Chand of Ghaziabad was found murdered, caused by strangulation, and there were no clues to the perpetrators of the crime.

During investigation, it was noticed that some outsiders used to stay at the Delhi Jal Board office during night and were friendly with the deceased, Sanjay Kumar Jain, the district's DCP said.

"We zeroed in on some suspicious people and it was noticed that one of the persons had been missing for about 10 days before the incident. His whereabouts was traced to a village in Rajasthan," he said, adding that the suspect, Ram Niwas, was tracked down and arrested on November 4.

He confessed to his crime during the interrogation. He said he would often stay with the deceased and recently learnt about the presence of cash at the bill payment counter located inside the office.

He called a few persons with criminal background, all residents of his village. They arrived in Delhi on October 28. "They attempted to break open the doors, but failed to break the heavy cash vaults. In frustration, they strangulated the watchman. The co-accused have been identified and efforts are being made to apprehend them at the earliest," Jain said.