New Delhi, March 13
A 15-year-old schoolboy was allegedly stabbed to death by his friends after he complained to their parents for not reimbursing their share of contribution in the party they held on December 3 last year. According to the police, the incident was reported from the Srinivaspuri area of South East Delhi last evening.

The victim was Yash Gupta, student of Class X, Cambridge School.

According to the police, all nine accused are juveniles and have been arrested and sent to the juvenile home.

Yash was a resident of Chandni Chowk in Old Delhi and since his school is located in Srinivaspuri, his family had arranged a rented accommodation for him near his school.

The investigation has revealed a very petty reason for the murder. According to information, Yash had thrown a party in which he spent Rs 2500 after his friends assured to pay him later. However, after the party when he started asking for the money, no one returned. "The victim had spent some money in the party which his friends were not returning. As a result, he started contacting the family members of these boys and told them about non-payment of his money. While some scolded their sons, a couple of parents even thrashed their son for this. Angry over Yash telling their parents, they decided to take revenge and attacked him last evening," said a police official.

As per the police, the nine accused got together and, as planned, stopped Yash in the Srinivaspuri market yesterday when he was returning from a tuition class.

"They started beating up Yash and when he tried to flee, they chased him to Ram Lila Maidan and one of the accused stabbed him. All fled after leaving him, lying in pool of blood. A passerby helped the boy to hospital where he died," said the official.

The boy told the police the names of all the accused in his statement before dying. All the boys, who are minors, were arrested soon after.

"Seven of the accused are from the Sangam Vihar area and two are students of open schools. We can't reveal the names as all of them are juveniles," the officer added.

Meanwhile, the victim's father Madan Lal Gupta has alleged that there were no policemen in the public place and if there was one, his son could have been saved. 

New Delhi, March 13
A 77-year-old woman on her way home in a rickshaw was allegedly raped and beaten up by an unknown rickshaw-puller in the Rohini area of outer Delhi last night around 9 pm.

According to the police, the incident came to light this morning when a passerby saw the woman lying in bruised condition in a secluded park near K N Katju police station. While the woman has been hospitalised, the police has rounded up hundreds of rickshaw-pullers who operate in the area.

The victim is the wife of an architect and was on her way home from her sister's house, who lives in sector 15, Rohini.

According to victim's statement, the rickshaw-puller agreed to drop her home for Rs 25 and took a different route saying that it was a short cut. However, when he reached the Japanese Park area, the accused deliberately over turned the rickshaw after which the victim fell down and got hurt.

"Before she could recover, the accused started beating her up and, in fact, made her smell some chemicals after which she became semi-conscious and raped her," said the official.

After that he left the victim in the park and fled the spot. Meanwhile, the victim's son lodged a complaint.

New Delhi, March 13
Some unidentified men barged into the residence of a property dealer Satish Chauhan in the Vikaspuri area of west Delhi and decamped with cash and jewellery worth around Rs 30 lakh last night.

According to the police, Chauhan had gone to his office while his wife had gone to visit her parents in Faridabad when the incident took place.

New Delhi, March 13
The approaching summer season may come as a harrowing experience for the people of Delhi with power officials predicting peak power demand to shoot up to 5,100 MW.

Not only this, the discoms have also warned of power cuts due to shortage in the power supply. "Delhi's ever-increasing power demand in range of average 10 per cent increase year on year, especially during summer, has been setting new records, almost every year," said a senior official of the power department.

"As per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) Power Demand Assessment Report, Delhi's power demand is likely to touch 8,729 MW by 2016 up from the peak of 4,720 MW in June 2010. According to estimates, Delhi's power demand this summer is all-set to cross 5,100 MW," he said.

Although the Delhi discoms have made adequate tie-ups, the final supply position will depend to a large extent on the availability of power from new power projects of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) (Chandrapura, Mejia, Koderma and Durgapur, and Maithon), NTPC Jhajjar and Bawana. Most of these plants, were supposed to have been commissioned before the Commonwealth Games. "In fact the DVC power plants were supposed to have been commissioned two-three years ago, but have been getting delayed due to one reason or the other," said the officer.

While outages might be taken care of, expensive power purchase to meet the shortfall is likely to have an impact on the tariff that are likely to be announced later this year.

"Delhi may face a shortage of 500 MW if it does not get 350 MW of power from the Central Unallocated Quota and at least 150 MW from DVC. Delhi discoms are closely monitoring the situation," said the official.

In 2010, Delhi's peak demand touched 4,720 MW and going by the trend of a 10-12 per cent rise in demand in the past few years, this year the demand could easily cross 5,100 MW.

"To avoid outages, discoms have no option but to buy expensive power from the central pool. Discoms have been pushing for a tariff rationalisation for quite some time and claim that financially it will be very difficult to purchase this expensive power. For consumers, this means either no power or expensive power," said an official.

"But we trying to take special care to ensure that there are no power-interruptions during days of the ongoing Board Examinations. It is also being ensured that the 'planned' shutdown in an area will not be repeated," said power officials.

New Delhi, March 13
It was a healthy end to the week in the form of a cyclothon that paved the way for an eco-friendly atmosphere in run-up to the Earth Hour to be observed on March 26.Receiving a good participation, the event, "Pedal for the Planet 2011", saw nearly hundred people, including students and corporate executives, pedaling 7 km inAmbedkar Nagar.

The idea behind the event, organsied by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India, was to give momentum to the energy conservation cause that India has taken up by joining in the Earth Hour campaign in 2009."The cyclothon was a run up to the Earth Hour when we pledge to switch off lights and any other energy consuming device for 60 minutes. The aim has been to make people aware of doing a meaningful action to reduce wasteful consumption of energy," Aarti Khosla of WWF said.

"It is a global event and since 2009 when India became a part of it with 56 cities participating in the campaign, it went on to cover 125 cities. This time also an array of activities has been planned across India and starting today a similar event would be held in Mumbai next week.

Besides, a panel discussion of corporates on energy conservation will take place in Bangalore and a college activation event has also been planned in Shimla," said Khosla.

According to secretary general and CEO of WWF India Ravi Singh, cycling as a mode for commuting stands symbol for a sustainable way of life. He said the awareness event was held to make people adopt environmental-friendly ways , especially when the whole world is facing a crisis that promises a worrying future.

New Delhi, March 13
A Delhi court has "recommended" the city government to pay compensation to four youths, wrongly accused in a case, for their rehabilitation.Additional sessions judge Kamini Lau has said that Dalip Kumar, Deepak, Ravinder and Vikas, who were acquitted in a criminal case in 2010 related to an offence of robbery and Arms Act, should be paid compensation of Rs 50,000 each.

"I hereby recommend that each of these victims of false accusations be given a compensation of Rs 50,000 each, keeping in view the minimum wages as prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act, which compensation shall be disbursed to the above victims through the secretary, DLSA, for purposes of their rehabilitation," the court said.

The court also made it clear that if the Delhi government would not accept its recommendation within a month, then the National Human Rights Commission of India would take necessary action in the matter.

"In case if, for any reason, the GNCT of Delhi does not accept the above recommendation made by this court within a month of it receiving the order, then, I direct that a copy of this order be placed before the NHRC for necessary action in this regard," it said.

The court's direction came after the Delhi government refused to act on the case, saying "they would take notice and appropriate action as per the law only if such observations are made by the court".

ASJ Lau termed false accusation as a "crime" and said that such persons should be compensated.

The court had earlier acquitted these youths and had directed institution of proceedings against complainant Nitin and some erring officials of the Jahangir Puri police station who had initiated proceedings against them.

The court had also asked the state why the four should not be awarded compensations.

The state had responded to the court's query, saying there was no provision in CrPC whereby the court of an ASJ could grant compensation to the accused persons against the investigating police officials.

The court, however, said that it had sufficient powers to "ensure that the rights of persons are not taken away.

"I hereby hold that false accusation is a crime as provided under the IPC and persons who suffered detention, loss or injury as a result of false accusation, are required to be compensated more so when they come from poor strata of the society and require rehabilitation," the court said.

The court also noted that the four youths, who were in their early 20s, had to suffer a lot as they came from poor families.

"A court of law has sufficient powers to ensure that the rights of persons are not taken away except in accordance with the procedure established by the law and in case of any violation of such rights, to compensate the victim, without which the implementation is incomplete and meaningless," the court noted.

It added that the Delhi government is yet to prepare a scheme for providing funds for the purpose of compensation to such victims who have suffered loss or injury as a result of false accusations and require rehabilitation. --PTI

New Delhi, March 13
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will now give information on the quality of air we breath in the national Capital.The data will be displayed on big LCD screens to be put across city's 11 districts. The screens will also provide weather updates.

The IMD is already in the process of selecting the places to set up the air quality stations. Such stations were used by the IMD for air quality management during the Commonwealth Games last year.

"We have decided to start a metro weather service where we will provide region-wise weather and pollution updates," said Shailesh Nayak, secretary, ministry of earth sciences.

The weather updates were part of the System of Air Pollution Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) developed by scientists from the Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) at a cost of Rs 100 million. Some weather stations have already been dismantled and shifted to other locations.

"The metropolitan weather service will start within a month from now. As of now, we provide region-wise temperatures but soon people in different parts of the Capital will know about the level of pollution like oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, black carbon and benzene in the air," he said.

Nayak said IMD needed to be really careful while selecting places for the weather stations as it should not have the impact and shadow of buildings.

The air quality stations will provide information on level of pollution within a four-kilometre radius on an hourly basis and forecast about air quality 24 hours in advance through wireless colour digital display panels, thus alerting people and helping them avoid immediate exposure to unhealthy air.

SAFAR is a computer model wherein data like wind speed and humidity are keyed in and the information forecasts the pollution level 24 hours in advance. The real-time data will help predict air quality 95 per cent accurately.

New Delhi, March 13
Though the Delhi government has given approval for building half a dozen more Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) corridors, experts from the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture have stated that such corridors are not suitable for the capital city.

The experts specialising in road safety have stated that the BRTS corridors are not a winnable proposition for the capital city.

"The BRTS is all about rapid mobility, but in Delhi, the problem is to give accessibility to various artery roads and colonies on the way. The whole character of Delhi is not made to experiment with BRTS corridors,"says A K Sharma, director of the School of Planning and Architecture.

Sharma advocated that the BRTS corridors should, at best, be constructed on highways going out of Delhi for better results. He stated that the BRTS requires mobility of vehicles along with features like pedestrian and cycling tracks apart from giving accessibility to the commuters to access bus stops without hassles.

Former director-general of the roads A V Sinha also states that there is a need for much improvement in the BRTS corridor that the Delhi government has constructed.

"The mobility aspect of the BRTS and pedestrian accessibility in the existing system are contradictory. If colonies are there on the route of BRTS, then making such a transit system would be wrong," Sinha adds

He further states that to improve the existing BRTS corridor and for the upcoming ones, the government should construct subways and underpasses for giving accessibility to the colonies lying on the routes without disturbing the mobility aspect of the vehicles on the corridor. Sinha rues the fact that nothing of this sort is being done by the government.

The Delhi government has given its nod for building six more BRTS corridors in different parts of the capital which together will cover a length of about 600 km.

The first BRTS corridor between Ambedkar Nagar and Delhi Gate had run into controversies with a

number of hitches having hit the project and the city government is still struggling to streamline the project. 

Last week was full of birthday parties. The first was the eightieth birthday party of Dr Karan Singh. That afternoon, the Prime Minister released Doctor Sahib's book, "Kashmir and beyond".Manmohan Singh and Karan Singh have known each other for 60 years since the days of Government College, Hoshiarpur. The Prime Minister was all praise for the birthday boy .He complimented his ability to tackle difficult assignments with grace and intellectual content and dignity.

A short film illustrating Karan Singh's 12 beliefs on the future of humanity in his words was shown.

The Prime Minister and he both agreed that India is more than an emerging market. It is an emerging idea. The Prime Minister was right when he said that Karan Singh is a man of a unique global citizen and a man of great learning. Nobody represents and symbolises the ethos of civilisation more than him.

But have to say that the capital's crème de la crème in their chiffons and pearls and the men in their suits sat through till the end, which is very rare for Delhi. The man of the moment spoke about how much he missed his wife. Most people are not aware of how the Nepali princess not only learnt Dogri, her husband's mother tongue, but also sang beautifully Dogri songs.

Karan Singh's elder son Vikramaditya and wife hosted a dinner the same evening.

A pleasant evening of quiet chatter included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Arun Jaitely, Barkha Dutt, Suman Dubey and a host of royal relatives. Kashmiri kahwas ensured that guests got a gentle reminder of the gentleman royal that Karan Singh is. The royalty of Kashmir made sure that this was a memorable day for the family and close friends. But the elegant and beautiful late Yasho Rajya was missed by all.

The same crowd was later seen congratulating the other birthday boy, Shashi Tharoor. His wife Sunanda made a huge effort of inviting all their friends and Shashi's colleagues for the evening.

There was a big mix of Bollywood celebrities, industrialists and politicians of the younger generation. Sunil Mittal, Sachin Pilot, Palam Raju and some media honchos were present. Rahul Bose and Anil Kapoor had especially flown in for this evening. Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress was seen busy answering questions on seatsharing in Bengal and on whether Mamta will become CM after the elections or carry on as Railway Minister.

The birthday boy is still absolutely enamoured with his Kashmiri wife, one could see. The new minister from Punjab, Ashwani Kumar, eloquently explained the government's stand on a variety of issues.

Sunanda claims to be an expert cook in Kashmiri cuisine, which was the menu that evening.

As it was also Navin Jindal's birthday the same day, he walked in late with his wife after his own celebrations.

A hectic evening of birthday celebrations for Delhi's elite, indeed.