New Delhi, January 12
Over a thousand people protested after the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) today demolished an 'illegal' religious structure in south Delhi's Jangpura area and the police had to use mild force to keep the situation under control, the police said.

The protesters blocked the entry gate of the Hazrat Nizamuddin police station and tried to enter the religious structure situated in the B block of Jangpura area.

The DDA officials had reached Jangpura to carry out the demolition around 6 am amid heavy police security to demolish the structure which, according to them, was illegally constructed on DDA land.

When the officials demolished the structure, hundreds of people of a particular community blocked roads in the area and gathered outside the Nizamuddin police station around 2 pm.

"They gathered outside the police station and marched towards the demolition spot. They were prevented from approaching the spot, following which they broke the barricades and tried to enter the premises," a senior police official said, adding the police then used teargas shells and lathi-charge to disperse them.

"The protestors were uncontrollable and we had to resort to lathi-charge and teargas shells," he said.

Protestors said the DDA's action was arbitrary and insensitive to their religious sentiments.

A senior police official present at the spot said that to ensure security and safety, around 10 companies of police personnel were deployed in the area.

During the demolition, all the senior police officials of the south district were present at the spot.

"We knew that this could raise protest of a particular community and so all the police stations of south district were asked to be ready for instant action. We required big police force to control the protestors," said an official.

Meanwhile, traffic from Bhogal towards India Gate was blocked during the day, said a senior official.

According to DDA spokesperson Neemo Dhar, the religious structure was demolished after all the clearances were taken.

"The court gave us an order for demolition of the illegal construction on DDA land. A slum and this structure had come up on DDA land. We had cleared the slum earlier but did not touch the structure as we needed a clearance from the committee looking into demolition of such structures," Dhar added.

It is to be noted that last year in February, March, May and September, the DDA had tried to demolish the structure four times, but backed out due to inadequate police force.

New Delhi, January 12
Wholesale traders of onion today called off their strike after Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit assured them that they would not be "harassed in the name of income tax raids" and told them that their cooperation was needed to bring down the spiralling prices of onion.

The Chief Minister assured the traders that their grievances would be looked into and the matter would be taken up with revenue authorities.

However, the strike in the first half of the day meant there was no offloading of onion at Azadpur Mandi and the supply chain was broken.

Umesh Aggarwal, a trader, said it would take at least two days for the business to normalise.

The strike also resulted in retailers further jacking up the prices of onion even as Safal outlets in many places began selling it at Rs 39 a kg. In the retail market, onion is available at Rs 60-70 per kg.

Though the quality of onion at Safal outlets was not very good, as complained by the buyers, the huge difference in its price as compared to the open market resulted in a large number of people turning up at these outlets since early morning.

Apart from Safal, NAFED outlets also attracted a large crowd of buyers.

Officials, meanwhile, claim that the fresh crop of onions would hit the markets in a few days and bring down the prices.

Aggarwal said the onion supply was down by almost half and its prices will go down drastically once the wholesale market received new crops from Gujarat and Nasik.

"The income tax raids and other actions against us were portraying us as hoarders. The actions were sending a message that we were responsible for the rise in the prices. We have called off the strike because we did not want to cause inconvenience to the people and also because Dikshit said we would not be harassed in future," Aggarwal said.

The income tax sleuths had raided city mandis on January 10 to see if traders were hoarding onion.

The government suspected that the prices of onion had risen because of hoarding. However, responding to the allegations, the wholesale dealers had said that onion was a perishable commodity and could not be hoarded in godowns for many days.

Traders of Azadpur, Gazipur and Keshopur mandis alleged that instead of checking the godowns, the sleuths checked their account books.

"It is obvious that traders try to evade tax. Having seen discrepancies in accounts, the sleuths threatened to book us for tax theft," traders said.

Noida, January 12
The Noida police today sealed the office of EndMark Forex Services at Chorenthum complex in Sector 62. Yesterday, investors had lodged an FIR against the company directors for duping them by promising high returns of the money. It is reported to be a Rs 500-crore scam.

On the complaint of Saranjit Singh Sondhi and others, the police lodged the FIR against company director Mayank Gupta, Dipanshu Anand, Neha Chauhan, Ravinder Singh, and Archana.

Today, the police interrogated Neha and inquired about the whereabouts of director Gupta. She told to the police that she was only an employee and did not know much about the fraud.

Till this evening, around 30 complainants were filed against the company at the Sector 58 police station. The FIR has been lodged under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC.

In the FIR, it was stated that the company promised daily return of 1 per cent on the sum invested. Minimum sum was Rs 30,000 and there was no maximum limit.

The complainants initially invested small amounts. As they got the return on their investment as per promised, they were lured to invest more. When investors stared investing huge amount the company closed its office.

The company has given 18-month postdated cheque for the invested money and promised weekly returns to be credited to their accounts. The company had also given bank guarantee to the investors. Now, bankers say it was a fake guarantee.

The company has offices in London, USA, Hong Kong and Noida. Its website has announced another plan with 1.5 per cent daily return from January.

"We are also investigating whether Mayank used the foreign addresses and contacts to commit fraud or some foreigners too were involved in it," said HN Singh, Superintendent of Police.

New Delhi, January 12
After the much-awaited safety nod from Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) on the Airport Express line arrived, other concerns of security and speed now haunt the express line.

CMRS RK Kadam had earlier said he had given his nod for the line was on a restricted speed of 105 km per hour as he was not 'completely convinced' for the trains to run at an earlier promised speed of 120 km per hour speed.

Facing hurdles for the second time now with the CMRS over the express line, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has now sought approvals from the Research, Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) to run trains at a higher speed - 120 km per hour - as promised earlier. Yesterday, the DMRC moved an application to the RDSO for the permission to ply trains at 120 km per hour on the Airport Express line.

"We always wanted the Metro speed on the line to be at 120 km per hour. But CMRS categorically told us not to increase the speed of trains beyond permissible limit without a clearance from the RDSO. So yesterday, we appealed to the RDSO to allow us to maintain the speed at 120 km per hour," said E Sreedharan, Managing Director of the DMRC.The RDSO's clearance is now expected within a week's time.

Even Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd, the concessionaire company, is quite hopeful about the increase in limit. "The speed of Airport Express line Metro will increase to 120 km per hour. The DMRC is in the process of obtaining an approval from the RDSO on the same. Once the train is operational at 120 km per hour, commuters' travelling time from New Delhi station to the IGI airport will be 18-20 minutes," said a company spokesperson.

Another unresolved obstacle to the airport line is the refusal of the private airlines to set up counters at the Metro stations due to very high rentals. DAMEPL, which claims to have provided "the complete" necessary infrastructure for setting up check-in counters at the stations, says talks are on with Air India to set up counter at the Metro station. But except for Air India, no other leading airline has stepped forward to set up their counters on the line.

New Delhi, January 12
The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and the Maharaja Agrasena Institute of Technology which is affiliated to the GGSIPU varsity were found defaulting by admitting general category students without consideration of their ranks in vacant reserved seats.

In fact, the Delhi High Court just this week directed the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and the Maharaja Agrasena Institute of Technology to put an end to this "unfair admission" of general category students in seats that are reserved for SC/ST or OBC students.

Rajeev Jain, a student from GGSIPU university, said, "For some time now, GGSIPU and allied institutes especially the Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology have been conducting admissions in an unfair manner. They have admitted general category students on seats which have been reserved for quota students and this has been done without paying attention to the rank of students. This will not be tolerated especially by the students of the Maharaja Agrasena Institute where this happened recently."

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Manmohan from the Delhi High Court put aside an order of a single judge who had earlier allowed the admission of general category candidates on quota seats without considering their ranks.

The division bench declared that the admission of general category students in vacant reserved quota seats without consideration of their ranks was an "unfair" practice.

The bench opined that, "we have no shadow of doubt that the learned single judge is not justified in directing giving admission to the respondents in both the writ petitions solely on the grounds that the seats should not go waste and they should be given admission."

The High Court was objecting to students having been recently admitted in vacant quota seats in Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology (MAIT), which is affiliated to GGSIPU university in the 2010-2011 academic year.

Jain further said, "Originally a common entrance test had been conducted by the varsity on June 5, 2010 for admission to B.Tech. and engineering courses. However, some reserved category quota seats at the Maharaja Agrasena Institute of Technology were filled by general category students on the direction of a single bench judge last year.

The university authorities are explaining this as a convenience as they want to fill in vacant quota seats rather then let them lie empty. But this is not a fair practice and is unfair to quota students. Besides, if this has to be done ranks should be considered otherwise the admission becomes nothing but a farce."

Gurgaon, January 12
The state director of census operations, Neerja Shekhar, has appealed to all residents to get themselves counted during the second and the last phase of census from February 9 to 28, 2011.

Addressing the officers related to the census work of all six districts in the Gurgaon division here yesterday, Shekhar pointed out that during the first phase of census carried out in Haryana in May-June last year, all houses located in the state and the people living in them were counted whereas in the second and last phase, all persons living in the country (and not only Indian citizens) are to be counted.

"The data so prepared will be used in the formulation of schemes and policies of the future. During the 20 days of the census, detailed information of every individual like date of birth, religion, level of education, mother tongue, number of languages known, marital status, economic activities undertaken, fertility details etc. will be registered by the enumerators," she maintained.

Shekhar disclosed that the counting of homeless population would be done by the night of February 28, in which the nomadic population, including workers at constructions sites, stone-crushers, truck unions, railway stations, bus stands, red-light areas, people sleeping under flyovers and in the dhabas etc. would be covered. The mapping of these areas would be done before February 28, she added.

She said a person should be counted only at one place and if a visitor has come to stay during those 20 days, he/she would be counted at the place of visit. There will be a revision round from March 1 to 5, during which a quick count of births and deaths will be made by the enumerators.

The work of census will be completed in the entire country by March 5 and provisional figures will be released by the Registrar General of India by March 31. Thereafter, a post-enumeration survey of an enumerator block will be conducted through an independent agency and if the error in census data is found to be less than 2 per cent, then the census operation will be considered correct. She revealed that this time, a new category "others" had also been added in the column of sex.

Gurgaon divisional commissioner T.K. Sharma said 3,565 enumerator blocks had been formed for conducting the census operations in Gurgaon, while 1,901 blocks were there in Mewat, 3,079 in Faridabad, 1,937 blocks in Palwal, 1,749 in Rewari and 1,819 enumerator blocks in Mahendergarh. 

New Delhi, January 12
A bright and sunny day brought some relief to the city residents after a skin-numbing early morning chill when minimum temperature dropped to 3.9° C, the second coldest for the season.

The lowest temperature had dropped to 3.7° C on January 4, the season's lowest so far.

Situation improved while the day progressed as the sun came out and drove away the chill. Shallow fog that had enveloped the city in the wee hours also dissolved soon.

The maximum temperature for the day rose to 21.3° C, which is normal for this time of the season and three degrees above yesterday's 19.2° C, a Meteorological Department official said.

The weather office attributed the rise in the day temperature to the absence of icy winds which were blowing across the city earlier. The weather conditions are likely to stay similar for another day with the weather department predicting that the maximum and the minimum temperature tomorrow is likely to oscillate between 19 and 7 degrees.

"A shallow fog is expected tomorrow morning but the day is likely to witness mainly clear sky," added the official.

Yesterday, the department had recorded a minimum of 1.8° C at Jafarpur in south-west Delhi while it was 3° C in Najafgarh and 3.1° C in Narela.

Flight operations at the IGI airport today remained normal despite a drop in the visibility due to moderate fog in the morning.

"Though the visibility dropped to about 800 metre in the morning due to moderate fog, flights operated as per schedule," an airport official said. Some flights to Chandigarh, Amritsar and Patna were cancelled due to bad weather conditions.

New Delhi, January 12
A Jet Airways pilot, Vikas Agarwal, who was arrested yesterday in an accident case leading to the death of a man in the Khan Market area, was granted bail by a city court this morning.

According to police officials, Aggarwal was bound to get bail as he was booked for bailable offence. "It was a bailable offence. He was charged under Section 279 (rash driving) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," said a police official close to investigation, adding that, a penal of doctors will be constituted to conduct postmortem on victim Rajiv Jolly Wilson.

"It will be clear in the forensic examination and postmortem report about the kinds of wound Rajiv received or whether he was repeatedly mowed by Aggarwal. We should wait for the report before jumping to any conclusion," said the official when asked whether it can be said with confirmation that Aggarwal did not deliberately kill .

Rajiv Jolly, manager of Amici restaurant in Khan Market, was crushed to death by Agarwal's Ford Ikon in Khan Market yesterday afternoon. According to witnesses, Jolly was driving out of the market and Agarwal was entering it when the latter's Ford Ikon grazed the former's Hyundai i10. An angry Jolly alighted and entered into an argument with Agarwal. He grabbed the pilot's collar while he was still seated inside the car and slapped him. Agarwal tried to escape but Jolly hung on to the car's window and died when he fell and came under the rear wheels of the car.

New Delhi, January 12
A petty argument relating to hurrying-up of purchase between two customers at a dairy shop led to the murder of a 30-year-old man in the Samaipur Badli area of outer Delhi last night. According to the police, Naval Kishore, 19, was arrested while fleeing after stabbing one Mukesh. The victim, who was admitted to the hospital in critical condition, died this morning. A case of murder has been registered at the Samaipur Badli police station in this regard.

According to information, Kishore, along with a friend, had gone to buy curd from a shop where Mukesh, along with his nephew Rahul, too reached there. The duo was waiting to buy the curd but since Kishore was busy joking around with the shopkeeper, they asked him to hurry up.

According to a police official, Kishore took an offence with Mukesh and indulged in argument with him. "Kishore, along with his friend, had gone to a shop to buy curd but started joking around with the shopkeeper on the terms that he wants all the curd in the shop etc. There were other people waiting for their turn when one of them, Mukesh, asked him to hurry up. This led to a heated argument between the two after which Kishore came with a knife and stabbed Mukesh several times," said the police official close to investigation.

According to him, Mukesh's nephew Rahul raised the alarm after which beat constables Rajiv and Sandeep, present in the area managed to catch the fleeing accused.

Mukesh was rushed to Bhim Rao Ambedkar Hospital but succumbed to his injuries this morning.