New Delhi, November 21
In a harrowing tale of insensitivity, survivors of last night's fire at Nand Nagri have alleged that the locals and in some cases, even the police snatched jewellery worn by the injured or dead victims.

A eunuch prayer meeting ceremony was being conducted at a community hall when the fire broke out, killing 13 and injuring 37.

The police has identified seven people and postmortem of six bodies has been done.

A pandal was set up in the open space of the community hall. The hall has a boundary that is some 6 ft high and it had iron grills and barbed wire making it some 10 feet high, making it impossible for any body to attempt an escape.

The hall has only one exit or entry gate. The community hall is situated at a residential colony in Nand Nagri, north-east part of Delhi.

Priya, a eunuch and a victim's relative, said the sacred ceremony ended disastrously. She said, "When the fire broke out the police prevented us from reaching our burning friends inside while some residents of the area jumped over the wall to snatch bangles and necklaces worn by the victims. They had also cut the hands of some eunuchs so that they could take out the gold bangles."

Another eunuch and a survivor of the fire said, "There was only one gate from where we could escape. But, since it was slightly open not many of us could reach outside. Some locals even jumped over the wall and were stealing jewellery from the burnt bodies of some eunuchs".

Brham Prakash Dhikiya, president of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of Nand Nagri, refuted the allegations, saying the locals were assisting the fire officials to rescue the eunuchs. "I, along with other members of the RWA, rushed to the community hall and saw that the main gate was locked. The eunuchs were trying to come out through a small gate within the main gate. This created a stampede which killed three people. Ten other eunuchs tried climbing over the wall, but they could not and died on the spot".

Dikhiya claimed to have saved at least 80 people from the fire.

Further tragedy was averted as some seven to eight LPG cylinders were dunked inside a water tank to prevent the fire.

Initial reports said the fire started due to short-circuit in the electrical wiring. The wiring was installed around the pandal and the boundary wall. The iron gate on coming in contact with electricity lines was a death trap.

Dhikiya said there three youths were caught stealing jewellery. One of them, Aslam, was caught red-handed by the public when he was stealing a necklace from a body.

New Delhi, November 21
Hours after 13 charred bodies were recovered from the Nand Nagri area where a major fire broke out last night during an annual convention of the transgender section, anxious members of the community kept waiting for a sight of their dear ones at Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital today.

Among the injured admitted to GTB Hospital, one Sonia (50) from Kolkata with 85 per cent burns is in a critical condition and two others Reshma (50) and Panna (60) are serious with 50-55 per cent burn injuries and doctors maintained that in such patients the chances of infection run high.

Sonia's master or "guru" Bedana just wanted an assurance for the survival of her disciple and was ready to spend any amount. "Tell me how she can be saved? I'm ready to take her anywhere in the world. She is in pain. Please save her," said old Bedana as she couldn't hold back her tears.

Payal from Delhi was seen praying for her master's life.

"We saw spark, flames and then suddenly a big blast (of the cylinder). People were seen running helter-skelter and many were trapped inside the kitchen area," said Janak De who had a narrow escape.

Speaking on the gravity of the burns, the head of the burns and plastic surgery, Dr Varun Kulshreshtha said, "The three victims are very serious while 14 others having 30 per cent burns may die due to septicemia. Sonia has suffered flame as well as electric burns and is left with left foot gangrene."

The hospital received a total of 50 patients, most of them with combined thermal and electrical burns, including three who left against medical advice.

"While one patient with bone injuries was shifted to the ortho ward, we currently have 32 patients with us-10 are in the burns ward and four in the surgical emergency on the first floor, six in the disaster ward I and 12 more in the other disaster ward on the ground floor," Dr Kulshreshtha said.

"Our main aim at this point is saving the patient. Any patient who comes after a fire and stampede has to be kept under observation for at least 48 hours to rule out any possibility of head, chest and abdomen injury," he added.

Medical superintendent, GTB, Dr Raj Pal said, "Around 7:30 pm, we started receiving patients and all the bodies were completely charred. One patient, Chanda admitted to bed number 40 in the burns ward has been on O2 since last night and her consciousness could be recovered late at night."

Two patients from GTB were referred to LNJP, where medical superintendent Richa Dewan said one was brought dead and two others Sheela (60) with 45 per cent burns and Dalbati (65) having 15 per cent burns are stable.

New Delhi, November 21
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today asked the Divisional Commissioner (Revenue) to look into all the aspects of fire incident that had taken place last evening.

She announced a relief of Rs 5,000 to each affected person. Victims with major injuries will be given Rs 50,000 each and those with minor injuries will get Rs 10,000 as financial assistance.

The next of kin of the deceased will be given Rs 2 lakh after due verification. If the deceased has no relative, the amount will be kept with the government, a spokesman of the CM office said.

This announcement was made when the Chief Minister visited GTB Hospital to enquire about the condition of those injured in the fire.

Thirty-three patients are admitted to hospital. Health minister AK Walia, MLA Veer Singh Dhingan, principal secretary (Health), Anshu Prakash and DC Vijay Dev accompanied the CM.

Dikshit met the victims in different wards and enquired about their conditions. She instructed the hospital authorities to provide them with all possible treatment free of charge.

New Delhi, November 21
Two teenaged sisters were killed in a fire at their residence in Mayur Vihar, which started due to short-circuit.

The deceased have been identified as Shivani (14) and Rinki (12). They were rushed to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where doctors declared them brought dead.

A fire official said that the fire started about 5.30 am today.

Sources said that the fire started due to short-circuit.

The deceased are daughters of one, Basant Lal, who is a landlord. They are residents of Mayur Vihar, Phase 3.

Greater Noida, November 21
The Uttar Pradesh entertainment tax department wants tax on 14,000 complimentary tickets of Formula 1. The total tax is estimated to be Rs 24.59 crore.

The Supreme Court recently said F1 organizers must pay entertainment tax on ticket sale. The department has sent a notice today.

"The complimentary tickets issued by the company are for their business promotion. As per E.Tax Act, tax is applicable on such tickets too even though the company has not charged money," said a tax official.

"On October 21, the Supreme Court had treated the Formula 1 motor racing event as entertainment and felt it could not be given exemption as applicable to sports activities. The court had directed the company to deposit the 25 per cent value of the total sale proceeds," he said.

From the sale of tickets, the company claimed to have received Rs 123 crore.

"Beside complimentary tickets, the company has also mentioned additional 1,100 seats offered to VVIPs. We have not added these seats. Moreover, the company has calculated on tax inclusive pattern," he said.

The official said the company would reply after consulting experts. However, they claim that no tax liability is applicable on complimentary tickets. Moreover, they feel they will be able to convince the Supreme Court that motor sport too attracts exemption.

Gurgaon, November 21
Hurt by allegations that he was biased, a senior IAS officer overseeing the razing of illegal structures here hit himself with his shoe.

People were taken aback last night when Parveen Kumar, from the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), resorted to the bizarre step to prove his innocence, witnesses said today.

He was having encroachment removed in the Sikandarpur area of Gurgaon when a group of villagers expressed their fury.

Initially, the officer tried to appease them. But when they alleged that he had favoured a known builder, Kumar took out his shoe and hit himself on the head repeatedly.

All the time he kept saying that he had never taken any bribe, but he was punishing himself since people thought he was corrupt.

The officer's action had a dramatic effect. People who were protesting the demolition drive rushed back to their homes.

The drive went on till Monday evening, overseen by the officer, who dozed off on the pavement when he felt sleepy.

Amid large security, the demolition squad pulled down several buildings, including some major showrooms.

Kumar was earlier deputy commissioner in Faridabad where he carried out special drives for sanitation and against encroachment of public land. He registered more the 20 FIRs against corrupt officers. — IANS

New Delhi, November 21
The Delhi Cabinet today gave its nod for implementation of e-registration fees project in the sub-registrar offices.

Talking to media after the meeting, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said in order to achieve the wider goal of computerisation of sub-registrar offices the cabinet had decided to implement e-registration fees project which is highly secured with proper audit trail and cross verification system.

It is also a secured electronic way of paying registration fees of any denomination from any location with unique reference number. The fee is levied on various instruments of transaction of property presented before the registering authority for registration under the provision of the Registration Act, 1908.

Prior to this, the daily collection amount of registration fees in the offices used to be around Rs 5,000 to 6,000, whereas it increased to approximately Rs 6 lakh per day. This led to the problem of managing the difficulty in handling the cash.

The Chief Minister said in order to resolve the difficulty, it was felt necessary to improve the registration fees collection system by using technological intervention as being used in case of stamp duty.

It would be done through Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL) whose performance in implementing the e-stamping project in Delhi was satisfactory.

It would also help in integration of the data base of the sub-registrar offices. This would reduce footfall in the offices and cut short the waiting time to get the delivery of the documents.

The SHCIL will be allowed to charge 0.65 per cent of the registration fee or Rs 30, whichever is less for generation and issue of every certification of e-registration fees.

Greater Noida, November 21
Power failure and fog were reasons behind the train accident at the Dadri station which occurred around 2.30 am on Sunday.

There was a power cut in the area at the time of the incident which led to the signal failure at the Dadri station. Because of which, a goods train rammed into another goods train from the behind.

Two container wagons of first train were derailed while the engine of the second train was damaged.

The only saving grace was that there was no human loss in the accident while financial loss has been estimated at crores of rupees.

The railways has ordered a departmental inquiry into the accident.

Officials at the railways have confirmed that there was a power cut at the Dadri station from Saturday evening.

The officials said fog was the other reason of the incident. The driver of the goods train, which was coming from Dhanbad, Jharkhand, loaded with coal for the NTPC, could not see anything on the track. The train loaded with coal rammed into a Ghaziabad-bound container goods train at Dadri crossover.

Railway superintendent RC Meena said the accident took place due to failure of first signal for want of electricity and driver's error. Railways divisional manager D Minz said all stations in the Dadri area were being checked.

New Delhi, November 21
Amidst all the fervour to visit the India International Trade Fair, there are a number of visitors who say that visiting the fair is a hectic affair.

The tussle starts from the moment one reaches the Pragati Maidan Metro station. The long walk from the station to the entrance gates can be quite hectic for the elderly and children.

For those travelling by car, the parking is almost a kilometer away towards Mathura Road.

"By the time we entered the fair, we were already tired," commented a hassled visitor today.

To top it all, lack of proper signage inside the fair is adding to everyone's woes. With almost 6,500 exhibitors inside the fair this year, visitors are finding it hard to locate their favoured destination.

The printed map on sale at several counters is also proving unhelpful as it does not have the pavilion mapping on it. The increasing rush at the fair every day adds to the problem in the vast Maidan spread across 6 km.

"Even if we want to purchase something from a pavilion that is towards the exit, we have to enter the pavilion from the main gate, and travel up and down hundreds of stairs overcrowded at all the times. It's tough for my parents to climb so many stairs. They are already tired and we have visited only the Himachal pavilion so far," said Krishi Rathore, a south Delhi resident at the fair today.

Apart from the problems of undefined routes and proper signage across the fair, visitors are complaining about the lack of space to sit and relax.

"We understand that all the comforts cannot be expected at a fair and that too of such magnitude. But there is no decent place to sit anywhere. Families sit at the small parks and by the afternoon, these parks get littered. The food area is simply overcrowded. One has to stand and eat even at the food court. It is torturous to travel with the elderly and children," added Tanya Roy, a five-star hotel executive, visiting the fair with her children.

New Delhi, November 21
The Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) has chalked out a comprehensive plan to make Delhi an advanced industrial state as far as the non-polluting manufacturing sector is concerned, said industries minister Ramakant Goswami.

He said that the industries department intended to generate a large number of employment opportunities in rural as well as urban areas in the city. The rural belt in Delhi will be developed in such a way as to overshadow the industrial and IT-developed neighbouring cities of Noida and Gurgaon.

Goswami stated that in order to encourage non-polluting small and medium industries in Delhi, the DSIIDC is setting up a very large multi-level manufacturing hub in northwest Delhi which will be located on 150 acres.

The estate will be developed with an estimated cost of Rs 3,100 crore at Rani Khera. The construction will start within the next nine months.

With the development of this project, the rural belt will become a centre of attraction resulting in the economic prosperity of the city.

It is expected that this project will provide direct employment to one lakh persons and indirect employment to around two lakh persons.

Ghaziabad, November 21
A six-month-old child was killed and an MNC executive and his newly-wedded wife and three other occupants of a car were injured when a speeding truck rammed into their vehicle in Ghaziabad today, the police said.

The incident occurred in the morning on National Highway-58, that links Delhi to Meerut, near Morta neighbourhood.

Arun Kumar, 27, working with an IT MNC at Noida, along with his wife Nishi, 25, was returning to his native town of Meerut from Delhi after their wedding when the accident took place.

Arun Kumar's six-month-old neice was killed. His sister Jaya, 29, brother-in-law husband Sachin, 30, and younger sister Preeti, 23, were injured.

"We have seized the truck after the driver fled the spot, we are trying to nab him," said police circle officer Praveen Ranjan Singh. — IANS