New Delhi, September 6
Greenpeace activists, with assistance from chefs of Le Meridien and students of the International Institute of Hotel Management, today prepared 342.5 kg of organic baingan bharta (eggplant dish), the largest amount of the dish ever cooked in the world.

The event, held at Dilli Haat in south Delhi, was a mark of protest against the government's proposal to table the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill 2011 in the current session of Parliament, which if implemented, would promote the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops.

"We prepared the bharta to convey the message that the public is opposed to GM crops. If the government implements the Bill, it would probably be the last organic baingan dish that people are eating," said Kapil Mishra, campaigner, Sustainable Agriculture, Greenpeace.

Besides opposing the BRAI Bill, with the protest, Greenpeace got itself registered in the Limca Book of Records and the India Book of Records for preparing the "world's largest amount of GM-free baingan bharta".

Wearing T-shirts that read 'Don't corrupt my food', activists of Greenpeace portioned some bharta for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A petition against the Bill, signed by one lakh people across the country, was also presented to the PM, said Mishra.

"We went to the PM's residence with the baingan bharta and the petition, but were directed to the Prime Minister's Office. When we went there, the PMO rejected the dish, but accepted the petition," he said.

Rajesh Krishnan, campaign manager, Sustainable Agriculture, Greenpeace, said, "The Alliance for Safe Food-- an organisation representing farmers, traders, consumers, civil society members and scientists from Delhi and the NCR-- had written a letter to the PM on September 2, requesting him to stop the implementation of the BRAI Bill. In the letter, they had listed issues regarding the Bill."

"Genetic modification (GM) is an imprecise and unpredictable technology and is a risky technology whose safety is not yet established," read the letter.

"The main problem with the Bill is its mandate, which increases the use of biotechnology, promoting the cultivation of harmful GM crops. Second, the Bill is proposed to be under the ministry of science and technology, which promotes biotechnology. Third, it overrides the Right to Information Act. If passed, it will be called 'confidential commercial information'. Fourth, it overrides the state government's role in agriculture and health. Fifth, the government is dealing with a technology that can harm our health. Due to the centralised and autocratic decision-making process, the public cannot give its suggestions, which is against democracy," explained Krishnan.

He also said that the "draconian and unconstitutional" Bill was introduced by the government last year, but due to public outcry, it was revoked.

Krishnan pointed out that the government introduced the revised version of the Bill in February this year and proposed to table it in Parliament on August 17. However, Anna Hazare's protest against corruption prevented it from doing so.

Rocky Singh, an anchor of a food show, 'Highway on my plate', said there was no system for labeling GM and non-GM products in the market.

"We will never know which vegetable is modified. The GM products can have harmful affects on the body. I have young children and we all must be careful about the future of foods. I have the right to say what I don't want to consume GM food. If the Bill is implemented, it will be a transgression of my rights as a citizen," said Singh.

Greater Noida, September 6
The bodies of two men, who were kidnapped on Sunday evening, were today evening recovered from a drain in the Dadri area here.

The victims have been identified as Rajesh Kumar, a manager at Oxford Green Public School, and his friend Ram Kishore.

It is suspected that Tikam Singh, a property dealer, is behind the kidnapping and murder.

Yesterday, the car in which the victims were traveling when they went missing was recovered from the Junpat village area.

A case of kidanapping was lodged at the Surajpur police station by Rajesh's brother, Rakesh Kumar. "Investigations have revealed that Rajesh had given a loan of Rs 3 crore to Tikam Singh. On Sunday, he asked Singh to return a part of the loan, after which he went missing," said Rakesh Jolly, superintendent of police.

The bodies have been sent for postmortem, the official added.

"The bodies have bullet marks and their faces have turned black. Probably, acid was thrown on the faces and then the bodies were thrown in the drain," he said.

"Singh was absconding till late evening. His two sons too have been named as accused in the case," he said. 

New Delhi, September 6
With the campaigning for students' union elections at Delhi University nearing its end tomorrow, parties now planning big moves to attract maximum attention.

The ABVP released its party manifesto today revealing the agenda it promised to fulfil if it gets elected. The Congress students' wing, the NSUI will also unveil its party manifesto tomorrow.

Both the students' political giants have locked horns with as many as six police complaints being filed on their party members. Numerous brawls reported from in and around the campus due to election rivalry.

Even today, the ABVP questioned the candidature of NSUI's candidate for DUSU secretary Parag Sharma. However, the offices of dean and the vice-chancellor have not yet cancelled the nomination.

As for the ABVP agenda, the student leaders were quick to mention the anti-corruption drive, not missing out to cash in on the sentiments that ran high with Anna Hazare in DU students last month.

Next on the ABVP's agenda are opening up of new colleges in the university, connecting the respective DU college libraries through internet, cheaper food in college canteens both in North and South Campus.

The agenda list further includes the fee hike in several hostels and colleges, security of girl students, especially in evening colleges and in South Campus, etc.

"There has been no new college in the university over the past 12 years and the rush has been increasing day-by-day. If the university finds it hard to open more colleges, the least that can be done is starting evening colleges with already existing morning colleges. The 100 per cent cutoff was a shock for everyone this year. Our main focus will be on the increasing seats in evening colleges," said Rohit Chahal, state secretary of the ABVP.

Sanjay Kumar, media coordinator of the ABVP said, "With crores of expenditure, the sports complex in North Campus is lying vacant. The stadium should be available for students for at least sometime of the year. Also, there is no venue for any student event in North Campus. We will also press for a big hall that would accommodate at least 10,000 students that can be utilised during special events and fests."

New Delhi, September 6
The implementation of the Master Plan Delhi (MPD)-2021is still a distant dream due to Delhi Development Authority's (DDA's) poor planning and lack of vision.

Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) in its report on the Union government autonomous bodies revealed that the DDA had been working on the issue without chalking out a proper planning.

"The DDA did not prepare short-term or long-term plan to achieve the ultimate phased objectives of the implementation of the master plan," said the report.

The MPD has to be achieved through a phased manner divided in three periods like 2006-11, 2011-16 and 2016-21.

A high-level committee formed by the agency for monitoring and management of the plan was supposed to meet at regular intervals under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor (LG) to review the status. However, it has not met in the past two and a half years.

"The committee for monitoring and periodic reviews of the master plan has last met on May 8, 2008. It was then decided that the committee would meet at regular intervals of six months and all departments and local bodies should send a status report. However, no action has been taken by the DDA since then," said the report.

In fact, the agency has passed the buck on the other local bodies like MCD, NDMC, PWD, etc. for not having approved the zonal plans. Also, the monitoring unit created by the DDA to collect and process the primary data of progress made by these local bodies failed to do so.

"In the absence of centralised information on the progress of development of city infrastructure, the ministry would not be in a position to oversee the development made under the master plan," the report added.

The problem of encroachment has also cost the agency losses to the tune of Rs 205.45 crore. The agency has been unable to free a total of 1308.59 acres of land worth Rs 205.45 crore from unauthorised occupation.

The DDA has Rs 32.43 crore of outstanding damage charges, which it imposes on the account of unauthorised occupation. The outstanding amount has been increased by 80 per cent during the period of five years. "Abnormal increase in the charges establishes the casual approach of the department in recovering the government money," mentioned the report.

New Delhi, September 6
Two bike-borne miscreants shot dead a 22-year-old man outside his house in the Kanjhawala area of outer Delhi last night.

The victim has been identified as Arun Kumar. The incident was reported around 10 pm from Rasalpur village. Kumar's family told the police that he was a witness in his cousin's murder and some people were threatening him against appearing in the court.

"Last night, Kumar came out for a stroll after dinner. He was metres away from his house when two bikers came near him and called out his name. When he turned towards them, they shot at him. Arun took three bullets, while the assailants fled," said a police official

Kumar was rushed to Jaipur Golden Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

A murder case has been registered at the Kanjhawala police station. 

New Delhi, September 6
A suspended constable was arrested from north Delhi for conspiring to murder his wife over marital discord, the police said today. Six others involved in an attempt on her life were also taken into custody.

Constable Mangal Singh, 40, suspended from service for disciplinary reasons, who hired killers to murder his wife Meena in a staged road accident, was arrested from Rohini Monday. A car used in the crime was seized.

Mangal Singh's three accomplices Amit Kumar, 19, Anoop, 20, and Subodh, 22, were arrested from Saket in south Delhi yesterday for their involvement in a vehicle theft case. During questioning, they revealed details about their involvement in the attempt to murder Meena.

"The accused revealed a startling story of a conspiracy hatched by suspended constable Mangal Singh to eliminate his wife Meena. He paid Rs 1 lakh to the accused to kill his wife in a staged road accident," said a senior police official. His three other aides arrested the same day from Rohini.

"Mangal Singh disclosed that he was disturbed over the behaviour of his wife and their fights. He wanted to get rid of her and conspired to kill her," official added.

The staged accident aimed at killing Meena took place on July 25 near Sector-6, Rohini. Meena suffered injuries but survived. Mangal Singh married Meena in 1995 and they have three children. Meena had earlier filed a dowry harassment case. They later formally compromised and started living together.-- IANS

New Delhi, September 6
Over a thousand seats have gone vacant due to defective admission policies in the past five years at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), reveals the CAG report 2011 on autonomous bodies.

Unfilled seats continued to increase from 79 in 2006-7 to 359 in 2009-10 despite the fact that the university was not facing any deficiency in the number of aspirants seeking admission every year.

The percentage of vacant seats was higher in respect of admissions of foreign nationals as it remained in the range of 50 to 61 per cent, the report said.

The main reason for the vacant seats in totality was the admission policy of the university according to which only a single list of selected candidates was to be released with the exception that in case the intake in any programme of study fell short by 50 per cent by the prescribed date, the second list will be released.

This condition was not met in any of the years and the university did not release the second list resulting in seat remaining vacant.

The CAG report also said the university could have admitted Indian aspirants against the vacant seats meant for foreign nationals by modifying its admission policy.

The university failed to fill its OBC quota seats to its capacity with the figures worsening every year.

While 68.58 per cent seats were filled in 2008-09, just 64.48 per cent were filled in 2009-10 and only 50.80 per cent in 2010-11.

The university, however, had replied in July 2011 and assured to fill most of these seats by March 2012.

The report also said the university did not utilise 31per cent of the infrastructure grant during the period of the report. Due of systemic fault of keeping large sums in saving bank account instead of investing the surplus funds over and above the average requirement of funds in the short-term deposits, the university suffered a loss of interest of Rs 1.39 crore.

It also mentioned the non-implementation of the recommendations of the Punnayya Committee (1992-93) regarding the mobilisation of internal resources by the university. As a result, JNU could only generate 1.49 to 5.91 per cent of its total recurring expenditure as against 15-25 per cent recommended by the committee.

Poor monitoring of research projects: Recommendations of last audit not taken up back in 2003, the CAG had pointed out that the university had no centralised system to monitor the projects executed by different departments as it could not produce information about the number of schemes completed, number of published research findings. The university did not take any action in this regard and it again could not provide any information about completed projects' utilisation certificates and final technical progress reports for the period 2005-06 to 2009-10.

The university had again replied in July 2011 that efforts are being made to computerise and capture complete date/information for proper monitoring the projects by all departments.

New Delhi, September 6
A total of 37,231 motorists in the capital have been prosecuted till August this year for using tinted film on their car glasses, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minister of state of home affairs Mullappally Ramachandran said that the Delhi traffic police was taking various steps to educate motorists and spread awareness on the issue.

He said the Delhi police had strengthened night deployment and were carrying out special night checking.

"There is also increased presence of senior officers and traffic personnel on the roads," said Ramachandran.

The minister added that steps had been taken to ensure safety of women and children.-- IANS

New Delhi, September 6
The Delhi government's scheme replacing the public distribution system with cash transfers is a "total fraud" as the poor would not benefit from receiving a fixed sum when the prices of essential items were rising, NGO Rozi Roti Adhikar said today.

The NGO kicked off a 20-day yatra across the Capital to galvanise opinion against the government's decision.

The yatra will move through various parts of Delhi, and meetings will be held to seek people's opinions on the issue.

One of the organisers, Deepti Sinha, said, "We want to let the public know that the Delhi government's scheme of cash transfer in lieu of ration subsidy is a total fraud. We demand that instead of luring people with cash, government should strengthen PDS scheme and make it available to common people at the subsidised rates."

Expressing concern, Pushpa Lata, a slum dweller in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar area, said, "We don't want cash because today the government may give us Rs 1,000, but what will we do a few months down the line when the food prices rise?"

She wondered whether the government would keep increasing the cash amount to match with the rising food prices.

Another slum dweller, Sunita said, "We all know that such leakages and malpractices are also there in the public healthcare system, so will the government decide to shut down government hospitals next and give us a fixed amount of money for our medical needs too?" -- IANS

Greater Noida, September 6
With Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority hiking the land allotment rates by 16 to 40 per cent, the Noida Extension builders will hike the flat rates proportionately.

Flat owners said this was not justified. It was the fault of the authority which had not followed the proper land acquisition process, forcing them to negotiate with the farmers out of court.

"The burden should be borne by the authority and it should not be passed on to the builders as it will affect us," said Gunjan Sharma, a buyer.

Meanwhile, GNIDA officers have been meeting the farmers of non-Patwari villages in Noida Extension to strike a deal. Instead of additional compensation of Rs 550 per sq mt, the authority has decided to give additional land this time.

"Three per cent additional land will be given in lieu of hiked compensation amount. Around 100 farmers of Haibatput and Itheda have submitted applications under the new plan," said Akhilesh Singh, deputy chief executive officer, GNIDA.

Noida Extension farmers today held panchayat and decided that they will not accept the land plan. They are in favour of compensation in cash.

The Allahabad High Court will begin hearing from September 12. The authority officials want to strike a deal with maximum villages.

Meanwhile, Yamuna Expressway farmers too have decided to file petitions. Around a dozen of them filed them last week. The authority here has approved compensation of Rs 34 per sq mt, but the farmers want Rs 550 per sq mt as was given to Patwari farmers.