New Delhi, July 12
A 54-year-old woman along with her 80-year-old mother-in-law resisted the robbery attempts of her former maid and her accomplice and led to their arrest in the Subhash Place police station area of northwest Delhi.

The incident was reported from A-35, Lok Vihar around 7 pm yesterday wherein a PCR van found Shanti Devi and Veena lying in a pool of blood and rushed them to hospital.

According to Meenu Chaudhary, DCP (NW), the police learnt that Radhika, a former maid who had worked for a month in their house, attacked them along with her accomplice Ramesh.

"A few days ago, Radhika again approached them, demanding a job for her daughter and husband, but Veena refused. Yesterday evening, she again came with one T. Ramesh and entered the house on the pretext of drinking water. Both of them then attacked Veena and her mother-in-law. Sticks and glasses were used in the attack, but Veena resisted and even grappled with the man. She managed to alert the neighbours," said Chaudhary, adding that her shouts for help were heard by the neighbours though the attackers fled from the spot.

Radhika was soon arrested blood-stained clothes from a nearby under-construction house. She was identified by the injured. A hunt was launched for T.Ramesh who was arrested by the Rani Bagh police. "During the interrogation, Radhika and T.Ramesh revealed that they were living together as a couple and had plans to settle at their native place," said Chaudhary, adding that the women are still recuperating at the hospital.

New Delhi, July 12
Monsoon and the MCD negligence at the Bhalswa landfill have caused numerous problems to the residents here. Malfunctioning of bulldozers and garbage trucks add to their woes.

A muddy track filled with garbage separates the landfill from Bhalswa Dairy, which is a residential colony. The houses of the residents are filled with a thick mass of garbage.

The MCD officials at the landfill site are assigned to manage the movement of trucks and prevent garbage from being scattered to the colony.

The residents say that their complaints are not heard. Ramesh Kumar, a resident of Bhalswa Dairy, said that he had made a vain attempt to contact the MCD commissioner.

One of the officials posted at the site said on condition of anonymity that the municipal system is responsible for this as out of the five bulldozers used to level the garbage, only one is working.

"Due to the monsoon, the bulldozers conked out. On June 26, only one was working. The trucks had to wait for three hours before dumping the garbage at the SLF. The situation was the same the next day," said Sachin, a supervisor of the trucks owned by Metro Waste Handling Private Limited.

The MCD has hired Metro Waste to collect garbage from Delhi's west zone and transport it to the landfill.

Around 300 to 400 trucks dump garbage at the Bhalswa Sanitary Landfill (SLF) every day. Sometimes, the number of trucks can increase, depending upon the amount of garbage collected at the zones.

At times, the trucks get stuck in the sludge while trying to dump garbage at the site. Sachin said the bulldozers have to be used to push the trucks out of the sludge.

After the private concessionaires complained to the SLF management, the MCD commissioner K. S. Mehra held three meetings with the authorities. A machine workshop for the bulldozers is being constructed at the site now.

Furthermore, the bulldozers have been "outsourced" by BEML Limited. "We are planning to buy three new bulldozers from BEML Limited, for the Bhalswa SLF. The cost of one bulldozer is Rs 80 lakh," said MCD spokesman Deep Mathur. 

New Delhi, July 12
The Delhi Transport Corporation, which runs the world's largest fleet of CNG buses, has a record revenue collection of Rs 3.78 crore on a single day yesterday. This has been possible after the DTC has launched a drive against the passengers who travel without ticket and drivers who do not stop buses on each stop.

DTC spokesman Anand Sharma said that during the drive, chairman Naresh Kumar, regional managers, DMs and other officials were deployed in different parts of Delhi to educate the drivers to halt at proper stoppages and encourage passengers to travel with tickets. The officials also inspected the proper upkeep of the bus Q shelters.

The spokesman said that the DTC's highest single-day earning was achieved yesterday when its buses ferried over 48 lakh commuters.

The average daily revenue collection has been around Rs 3.3 crore in the last few months.

New Delhi, July 12
The much-awaited Anand Vihar-Vaishali corridor will be open for public on July 14. The services will begin at 7 in the morning.

Passenger services will start simultaneously from Anand Vihar (for going towards Vaishali) and Vaishali (for going towards Dwarka). However, the normal train services will continue on July 15," said an official statement of the DMRC.

The decision comes after the inspection of the 2.5-km Anand Vihar-Vaishali section by the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS), R.K. Kardam, today. This section has stations at Vaishali and Kaushambi and it is fully elevated

New Delhi, July 12
A group of over 100 children suffering from cancer along with their family members today visited the Metro Museum at Patel Chowk Metro station. They also travelled in the Delhi Metro for a joyride for the first time. These children who hail from different parts of the country are undergoing treatment for cancer under the aegis of an NGO, CanKids.

They spent over two hours on the Delhi Metro. Aged between five and 14 years, the children were shown around the Metro Museum where they got to know about one of the most modern Metro systems in the world.

Thereafter, a train ride was arranged for them from Patel Chowk Metro station to Inderlok Metro station. They got an experience of both the underground as well as the elevated Metro sections.

The DMRC has been arranging visits for such sections of society in the past also. As part of its corporate social responsibility, it has also built a shelter home for street children near Tis Hazari.

New Delhi, July 12
The Delhi High Court today pulled up the deputy speaker of the state assembly, Amrish Gautam, for unauthorised construction on his property here.

Gautam had approached the court pleading that a Lokayukta order for a probe into the illegal construction at Khichripur in east Delhi be set aside.

Justice Hima Kohli said, "If you admit that there is some unauthorised construction then why don't you demolish the illegal part or else get clearance from the civic agency."

After Gautam's counsel failed to give any undertaking the court asked him to file his response by July 22.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Gautam seeking direction for setting aside a May 30 Lokayukta order which had rejected his plea seeking immunity against inquiry into the alleged unauthorised construction.

Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin's order came after Gautam maintained that the anti-corruption watchdog does not have the jurisdiction to probe allegations made by a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) councillor Preeti Behn.

She had approached the Lokayukta to initiate the probe against Gautam for carrying out unauthorised construction of 109 square metre on his property.

Sarin said according to the "constitutional scheme", the deputy speaker does not enjoy any immunity and the allegations of breach of norms are related to a period when he was only a legislator.

The order said a notice was sent to Gautam last December after receiving an MCD report that there was unauthorised construction on the property which Gautam had purchased in 1989. -- IANS

New Delhi, July 12
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has decided to construct new buildings for 13 municipal schools under its development scheme which has an allotment of Rs 11,328.23 lakh.

Chairman of the works committee Jagdish Mamgain said the committee had approved a development scheme and allotted Rs 11,328.23 lakh for it. Apart from the school buildings, a mini stadium will be constructed at Mukesh Nagar under the scheme.

The stadium will cost Rs 205.91 lakh.

He said the move would facilitate the poor students studying in the primary schools of the MCD.

The school buildings will be constructed at Guru Nanakpur (Fateh Nagar), Prem Nagar (Rohini), Shiv Vihar (Shahdara, North), Bankner (Narela), Mubarakpur Dabas (Narela), Bhorgarh (Narela), Dayanand Colony (Lajpat Nagar-IV), Janapura Extension, Chander Vihar (Shahdara, South) South-Extension Part-2, Pant Nagar, Sant Ravi Dass Nagar and Dilshad Colony (Shahdara, North).

A budget of Rs 5,094.27 lakh has been approved for the construction of the schools.

Meanwhile, the MCD has alleged that the state government has not yet released its second installment of Rs 220 crore under the education head for 2011-12.

The chairman, education committee, Mahendra Nagpal, said the MCD had not received any money after the first installment of Rs 55 crore. He said the second installment should have been released by July.

"Last year, the MCD had received only 50 per cent of its allocations by this time. Delay in the release of funds may cause delay in the implementation of the schemes for classrooms, uniforms and midday meal etc for the students of primary and nursery schools," said Nagpal.

Nagpal said he had written a letter to Chief Ministerof Delhi Sheila Dikshit, requesting her to release the installments at the earliest.

New Delhi, July 12
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) today issued a notice to the Delhi government, asking it to submit a report on the incident of a woman giving birth in front of Ambedkar Hospital after being denied admission, yesterday. The woman died due to excess bleeding.

The notice, which is addressed to the chief secretary and health secretary, calls for a detailed, report to be submitted within two weeks, on how the doctors refused to admit the woman.

The notice was issued after someone filed a complaint against the doctors on duty and sought compensation for the victim. He also requested the commission to issue directions to the authorities to ensure that such an incident do not happen in future.

Delhi health minister AK Walia yesterday constituted a three-member committee to probe the incident. He also directed that the medical superintendent of the hospital should not be included in the team of doctors to conduct the postmortem. 

New Delhi, July 12
In a surprise drive carried out by the traffic police last night, 204 people were prosecuted for violating different traffic rules in the national capital. According to the traffic police, while 161 were challaned for drunken driving, 25 were prosecuted for dangerous driving. Ten persons were challaned for violating no-entry restrictions and eight for reasons like not wearing helmet or not carrying relevant documents.

Drivers of 111 two-wheelers, 59 cars, 26 light trucks and 80 heavy trucks have been prosecuted. According to a senior traffic police official, the department would conduct surprise drives on weekdays in order to curb traffic violations and accidental deaths.

New Delhi, July 12
A 53-year-old Nepali national has been arrested for killing his teenaged daughter when she attacked him with a brick during a 'lecture on good behaviour'.

According to the police, Vishnu Bahadur Thapa bludgeoned to death his daughter Shanti in the Begumpur area of outer Delhi on July 5 and dumped the body in a vacant DDA plot nearby. The body was discovered three days later following which the police took up the investigation and zeroed in on her father.

During sustained interrogation, Thapa confessed to his crime and revealed that he was fed up of her. She used to return home late at night. When he advised her to behave properly, she would turn violent.

"On the day of incident, Thapa was sleeping when Shanti returned home around 11 pm. When he told her that her activities were bringing a bad name to the family, Shanti became furious and picked a piece of brick to hit him. At this, he went ballistic and hit her with a stone on her head, killing her on the spot," said a police official.

Thapa hails from Palpa in Nepal. He came to Delhi four years ago and works as a casual labourer.