New Delhi, October 25
Each year around Divali, while the Capital is seen bathing in colourful beads of electric lights and markets are swamped with people trying for the best bargain, the casualties of the city hospitals are flooded with ten times more cases of injuries on the festive night.

According to doctors, among the burn cases witnessed by both the government and the private hospitals, hand burns are quite common in children resulting from improper handling of crackers and other fireworks. With a variety of options available, the bomb, chakri (spiral-shaped cracker) and anar being the favourites, doctors warn people against improper ways of igniting them.

"Children light crackers from diyas and at times jump over them, leading to accidents. They should not be allowed to play independently," cautioned Dr V K Tiwari, professor and consultant at the burns, plastics and maxilloficial surgery department of Safdarjung Hospital (SH).

While most of the cases are superficial ones, a large number of patients also report with deep burns resulting from electrocution, cautioned city doctors.

Hence around this time, the emergency and the burn wards at the government hospitals are readied with special arrangements, such as increasing the number of beds in the burns unit and deputing additional staff for the festive night owing to the steep jump in the burn cases.

"The incident of burns around any festive time goes up and on Divali night, our burns casualty here sees as many as 200 cases against 15-20 cases on any regular day," Dr Tiwari said.

Interestingly, most of the cases involve literate people, for instance two days ago, a Delhi University student came to the emergency of the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SRGH). He had hurt his palm after burning a cone-shaped anar.

Besides, a number of patients come with burns due to short circuits from the heavy lighting seen adorning tall buildings and vast stretches. In view of the expected climb in cases of burns, the emergency staff strength has been increased in the burn centres of the tertiary government hospitals, such as Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital (GTB), Lok Nayak Hospital, Bara Hindu Rao Hospital, Jag Parvesh Hospital, Sucheta Kriplani Hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.

"For Divali, we have kept 50 per cent of our burns unit beds vacant and we have also arranged 32 extra beds for emergency. We have prepared a roster and there would be extra staff from burns, medicine, surgery, ENT and dental departments. Most of the cases come after 8 pm and so senior doctors would be on-call apart from senior and junior resident doctors and nurses," GTB Hospital's medical superintendent Dr Rajpal told The Tribune.

Ghaziabad, October 25
Facing allegations of financial misconduct, activist Arvind Kejriwal broke his silence today daring the government to conduct a probe against him and other Team Anna members even as he questioned the motive behind the "smear campaign".

Defending himself and Kiran Bedi, who is under attack for inflating her travel bills, Kejriwal said, "If someone paid the ticket examiner in railway because he needed a ticket, so that person cannot question Suresh Kalmadi? Is this the message being given out? "Do you mean to say that out of 120 crore people, only saints can question UPA's corruption and government will keep on robbing people? If anybody questions then that person will be asked to look into his case first," he said and warned that if the current smear campaign continues, the next movement will be 10 times bigger.

Kejriwal, who was accused by Swami Agnivesh of depositing donations for Hazare agitation in a trust run by him, said if they have committed mistakes, then the government was free to probe and punish them by taking the strongest possible action.

"Dont forgive us. Give us twice the punishment given to common people. But bring Lokpal and you will have to," he said.

He lamented that the whole attention is being shifted from corruption movement and Lokpal to Core Committee which has "no importance".

"Whether Kiran Bedi paid bills or not has become national issue. It will not benefit nation. It will be useful when Lokpal will come. Government should understand that their ways and methods are increasing the anger among people," he said.

"If these smear campaign continues, then the people of this country are watching and the next movement will be 10 times bigger," he said.

"If Kiran bedi has committed a crime, hang her. Send her to jail but talk about Lokpal Bill. Whatever mistake she has done, investigate and punish her but we cannot decide it in a press conference whether the allegations are true or false," he said.

On Digvijay Singh's allegations that he was supported by RSS and BJP, Kejriwal said he had always maintained that it is "useless to comment" on the utterings of the Congress leader.

On Lokpal Bill, he said there was no other way than passing Lokpal Bill and they were ready for dialogue.

"When had we run away from dialogue. But on the other hand, allegations were levelled against us every day. They spoilt the atmosphere. Who is creating disturbance. If the government's intentions are honest, then the Bill can be passed in a day," he said.

Asked about the "Gang of Four" referred to by Hazare, Kejriwal said it was a guess and only Hazare knows about it. "I don't know," he said.

Kejriwal claimed that the income-tax department officials were after them and their chartered accountant was summoned by the officials yesterday.

"Investigate us, put all the agencies in the country after us, punish us in the harshest way but you will have to bring the Lokpal Bill," he said.--PTI

New Delhi, October 25
Three Delhi police personnel have been sentenced to three years in jail by a city court for conspiring and abusing their official position to intimidate a man to pay bribe of Rs 7,500 about 11 years ago.

Special Judge Padam Kant Saxena convicted Ramesh Kumar, Nagender Nath Tiwari and Haripal Balu, who were sub-inspector, head constable and constable respectively in the crime branch of Delhi police at the time of the incident.

The three accused "had entered into a criminal conspiracy to demand illegal gratification amounting to Rs 7,500 from the complainant and in order to extort that amount Accused 1 (Ramesh) and Accused 3 (Balu) had abused their official position, extended threats to the complainant and his son..." the court said, convicting them for criminal conspiracy and under various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The case dates back to year 1999 when west Delhi resident Jarnail Singh filed a complaint that he he had sent his brother-in-law Sodi Ram to Dubai in June 1999 through M/s Trehan International with the help of Haripal Balu, who was a driver of ACP crime branch R K Puram.

As per the agreement, a sum of Rs 35,000 was to be paid to Balu before Ram left for Dubai, but Balu extorted Rs 50,000 from them.

According to the complainant, after a few days, Balu came to his house and demanded Rs 7,500 as commission. Thereafter, three persons came to his house saying he has been called to the police station as there is a complaint against him.

He was then produced before sub-inspector Ramesh Kumar who asked him to pay commission to Balu or he would be implicated in a case. His son and wife were also threatened that they will be implicated in a case under Arms Act.

He lodged a complaint with the CBI pursuant to which a trap party was laid and all the three police personnel were nabbed while accepting bribe of Rs 5,000 near the office of ACP Crime Branch at R K Puram.--PTI

New Delhi, October 25
A Delhi court has asked the governments to consider framing a policy which could act as an eye opener for drug trafficking convicts by showing them the pain and agonies suffered by addicts, victims of their offence.

The court stressed the need to make drug traffickers aware of the plight of the victims while awarding five years jail term to Mukesh Sharma and Parveen Kumar Rajguru, residents of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively, for peddling contraband heroin.

"The Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act does not contain any such provision. It is for the governments and all concerned authorities, including prison authorities, to ponder over as to the manner in which drug traffickers can be sensitised of the pains and agonies of drug addicts so that when such like convicts become free from jail, they do not opt for such nefarious trade," the court said.

Such convicts, while serving prison terms, be periodically taken to hospitals, drug de-addiction centres so that they see the pain and agonies of victims and such visuals would leave an indelible impression on their minds, Special Judge Narinder Kumar said.

The convicts were arrested here in September 2008. Mukesh was found in possession of over 500 grams of heroin. They were also asked to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 each.

Praveen was charged with abetting the commission of offence under the NDPS Act as he had delivered the bag containing the contraband to Mukesh, the court said.

The accused claimed implication saying they were arrested at Jaipur by police on the pretext of getting them jobs here.

"In case of a drug addict, not only he suffers pain and agonies, his family members like parents, sisters and brothers also feel the pain and humiliation while having all sympathies for him..--PTI

Noida, October 25
The Noida toll bridge company, which manages the DND flyway, and the Noida Authority, have sorted out the impending issue of a hike in toll rates. Noida Authority chairperson Balwindar Kumar said the two parties have agreed on a 10 per cent hike. The toll bridge company was represented by its chairman R.K.Bhargav and CEO Harish Mathur.

While the private toll operator has been demanding that the current toll rates be hiked by 25 per cent, the authority is willing to approve a hike of just 10 per cent.

"Our concession agreement allows for a hike each year. However, toll rates have not been raised for the last three years. We have suggested that they should implement this hike from April 2012, but the private operator is keen on charging the increased amount from November 1," said Noida chairman.

As per the contract, the Noida Authority owes Rs 2,000 crore to the toll bridge company. The company will hand over the bridge to the Noida Authority by 2031 by which time the company would have earned Rs 53,0000 crore.

Against the company's proposal for a 25 per cent increase, Noida authority has agreed for 10% hike. The company has withdrawn the condition of 20 per cent profit.

It has been agreed to increase the rates as follows:

The present rate of two-wheeler is Rs 10 and the proposed rate is Rs 11; the present rate of car/jeep is Rs 20 while the proposed rate is Rs 22.The same way the present rate of buses/trucks is Rs 50 and the proposed rate is Rs 55.

Greater Noida, October 25
Over 150 food joints, parking facility for 16,000 cars, a helipad, two medical facilities and a media centre may sound like a mini-city, but these are just some of the facilities to cater to an expected 100,000 spectators of the inaugural Indian grand prix here.

"Our plan is simple, we want every spectator to enjoy the race; for this we have created several world-class facilities which will look after all the needs of the spectators and the teams," said Sameer Gaur, managing director of Jaypee Sports International (JPSI).

Gaur said the Buddh International Circuit was more than just asphalt and concrete, as it houses several state-of-the-art facilities ranging from technical assistance for the race teams to kitchens dishing out cuisines from the world over.

"When we started out the project, we did not know that there were so many things that need to come up. We did everything from erection of the facility to engineering, electronics, communication," Gaur told IANS.

The inaugural race is scheduled for October 28-30.

"At other tracks, you find several different firms involved in putting up various facilities. But here we did it all on our own," said Gaur.

The food section has been designed to cater to the palette of Indian and international spectators, teams and the huge contingent of overseas media. Popular culinary brands such as Haldirams and Nirula's will also put up their stalls.

"We would be having 150 food marquees that will be open to all spectators, serving all kinds of Indian and international cuisines, snacks," said Boris Lazaric, JPSI's chief operating officer for construction.

"We have around 10-mega kitchens spread across the facility, with every kitchen designed for supply of particular food items, such as snacks, main courses and others," added the Croatian civil engineer.

The race track facility also houses a media centre for around 450 international journalists expected to be at the three-day event and offers a dedicated broadband with speed of 840 MB.

"The media centre over here is of international standards. You can take this facility and place it in London or anywhere and you would not see any difference"," Klaus Kock, senior project manager at Siemens India, which is responsible for constructing the media centre, told IANS.

The 5.14-km circuit has been designed by German architect and racetrack expert Hermann Tilke, who was also associated with similar projects in Malaysia, Bahrain, Indonesia, China, Turkey, the UAE, South Africa, South Korea and the US.

The track's combination of 16 corners, high-speed straights and dramatic changes in elevation has been designed to provide ample opportunities for overtaking, taking motor racing to the next level of excitement, officials said.

The circuit is part of Jaypee Sports City, spread over 2,500 acres, which will include a cricket stadium, a hockey arena, a sports training academy and similar infrastructure for other sports.

Another big attraction will be a performance from American pop icon Lady Gaga -- her first ever in India -- on the last day of the race.--IANS