Noida, March 2
The move of the Union Cabinet to clear amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act, proposing an increase in the punishments for various traffic offences across the country, has come as a big relief to the traffic police in Uttar Pradesh, especially Gautam Budh Nagar district.

Despite frequent traffic drives, the police here has not been able to curb cases of violation of traffic rules.

"The increased punishments, both in terms of fine and imprisonment, will certainly deter violators," said AK Vijeta, superintendent of police (traffic).

Every day, more than 170 people are fined in Noida for various traffic violations. The number of challans issued in a year is about 60,000. While, two-wheeler drivers comprise about half the violators, about 35 per cent of those fined are four-wheeler drivers.

The number of drivers not wearing helmets or seat belts in Noida has gone up by 18 per cent. This happened during a safety awareness month, when the traffic policemen were very alert about such violations," said a senior official.

Lack of adequate parking spaces in Noida has contributed to an increase in the number of cases of traffic violations.

Of all traffic offences, 18 per cent cases pertain to parking in no-parking zones. Most cases of vehicles parked in no-parking zones have bee reported from Sector 18, Atta and Brahmputra markets. And, most cases of drunk driving have also been reported from these areas too.

Most commuters fear that the move by the Centre to increase punishments for traffic offences will increase bribery, as the defaulters will prefer to offer Rs 100-Rs 200 to traffic policemen instead of paying a higher fine.

Talking about the apprehension, another police official said, "To counter corruption, the city police plans to conduct surprise visits and take action on every complaint by commuters."

New Delhi, March 2
Even as JNU went to poll after a gap of four years, the political loyalties of the students appear to be the same with the AISA leading the polls on all the seats for the main student union panel once again after an earlier clean sweep in 2007. Apart from staying ahead in the counting for the main panel tonight, the AISA also bagged 16 councillors out of the total 29.

The trends have declared a virtual win for the AISA today with the camp already launching celebrations. The counting for school councillor elections was completed by the evening, after which the counting for the main JNUSU panel began around 4 pm. By 9 pm, nearly 900 votes had been counted.

According to the last confirmed figures, the AISA was riding way ahead on all the four posts including the president, vice-president, joint secretary and general secretary.

Results for the main panel are likely to be announced by tomorrow morning; however, celebrations had already begun in the AISA camp this evening. Last year as well, before the Supreme Court stayed the JNUSU elections, the AISA had managed to come to power with a clean sweep.

"We claimed the maximum number of councillors this time and are confident we will have a considerable representation in the main panel as well. It will be a huge victory for us if all the four panel seats come to AISA this year. Even after four years, if we come back to power again, it is enough to shut our critics up. The students have spoken through their votes. It's now just a wait and watch game for tomorrow's results. We are satisfied with our performance," said Sandeep Kumar, senior AISA member.

The SFI camp, on the other hand, also sounded optimistic for the main panel results. However, it managed to claim only three councillors this time.

Reckoning the trend today, SFI state president Roshan Kishore also agreed that there was a major possibility for a clean sweep by the AISA.

Surprisingly, the NSUI managed to claim four councillors this time.

"This is the first time in JNU that the NSUI has won four councillors. Out of these four, three are from the School of Life Sciences. All the three councillors are ours, and hence we get to appoint a convener for the centre as well. This is the first time, that the NSUI will get a convener in JNU," said Shahnawaz khan, NSUI national secretary who was also an elected councillor in the last 2007 elections.

The ABVP claimed two councillors while they backed an independent candidate in Centre for Computer Sciences. Youth for Equality (YFE) failed miserably to make a comeback, unable to grasp even a single seat in the councillor elections.

New Delhi, March 2
The BJP today announced that it constituted a party's election committee to scrutinise the bio-data of ticket seekers and take decision on giving tickets to the candidates for municipal corporation elections.

The panel consists of 19 members that include 16 members and three special invitees.

The names include Vijender Gupta, Delhi unit chief of the BJP, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, leader of opposition in Delhi Legislative Assembly, Vijay Goel, former Union minister, Vijay Sharma, general secretary in Delhi BJP, Harsh Vardhan for the Delhi unit chief of the BJP, Arti Mehra, former Mayor, Vani Tripathi, Harsharan Singh Balli, former industries minister of Delhi.

New Delhi, March 2
Making maximum utilisation of the two days left in hand of the BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) before the moral Code of Conduct come into play, it announced the distribution of wheelchairs and sewing machines to woo the voters.

The civic agency has got a precious two days' time to make public welfare announcements for which the MCD has also decided to keep its office open tomorrow as well to make announcements, inaugurations or take new policy decisions. The Code of Conduct will be implemented from March 5.

The MCD today approved a proposal for distribution of wheelchairs for disabled and 11,580 sewing machines for widows and women below poverty line. The machines will be distributed to poor women in each municipal ward on recommendation of area councillor.

With the apparent urgency to procure the machines, chairman of the Standing Committee Yogender Chandolia said that the tenders were called online as well as through manual sale and submission by giving wide publicity. Though only two tenders were received manually, no response was obtained online.

"The sewing machines will cost a total of Rs 2.62 crore and hence required administrative approval and expenditure sanction of the corporation," Chandolia.

State Election Commissioner Rakesh Mehta had announced April 15 as the date of polling for the three municipal corporations. When quizzed why the Model Code of Conduct will come into force on Monday, the Commissioner said there was no law which made it mandatory for the code to come in effect the same day.

"There were a lot of ongoing projects and we didn't want to disturb them," said Mehta.

New Delhi, March 2
General secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Harvinder Singh Sarna and his follower Manjit Singh Sarna were today allegedly attacked by a group of unidentified people on the premises of Gurdwara Bala Sahib, where they had gone for "ardas" for the start of the work of Guru Harkishan Hospital, which has been in controversy for the past more than a year.

The leaders were admitted to RML Hospital.

The attack led to a riot between two Sikh groups.

According to local people, one group belongs to Sarna while the other belongs to the opposition group led by Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and local Congress MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah, also president of the Kendriya Guru Singh Sabha. Both the groups were armed with swords, sticks, bottles and bricks.

Just after the attack on Sarna, more than 50 youths armed with swords and sticks entered the gurdwara premises. When the opposition group came to know this, they also reached the gurdwara in a large number around 2 pm.

As they tried to enter the gurdwara premises, a few youths armed with swords and sticks came from inside. Some policemen tried to pacify the groups. However, when the police saw the adamant attitude of the groups, it closed the gate, which infuriated the youths who were outside the gurdwara.

They pelted bottles and bricks. In reply, the other group from inside the gurdwara, pelted bottles and bricks. It continued for about 25 minutes.

When the police assessed that the situation was going out of control, it lobbed tear gas shells.

When another group of youths armed with sword and sticks came from outside, police personnel of three police stations - Sunlight Colony, New Friends Colony and Jamia Nagar-- were called along with senior district officers.

The police lobbed eight tear gas shells and fired a few rounds in air to disrupt the rioting groups. The tear gas shells and firing led to the closure of nearby shops.

The youths inside the gurdwara said it was the handiwork of the MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah and Kuldeep Singh Bhogal, member of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). They do not want the hospital work to restart as the hospital that has been given on lease to a private company.

They demanded that cases should be registered against them.

Harvinder Singh Sarna said that he along with his party activists Manjit Singh Sarna and a senior official of the company to which the hospital had been given on lease had gone to the gurdwara to pray for the restart of the construction work. As soon as he came out of the gurdwara, a few youths attacked him from behind. He and Manjit sustained injuries.

Their cars were badly damaged.

He alleged that the attackers were supporters of Badal and Marwah groups.

Marwah and Bhogal, however, denied the allegations. They said it was the community members who attacked Sarna because they had donated money for the charitable hospital. They are not interested in giving the charitable hospital to a private company.

All these leaders and president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) Manit Singh visited the gurdwara.

The police has registered a case of rioting, but no arrest has been made so far, according to an official of the Sunlight Colony police station.

Delhi unit chief of SAD Badal Manjit Singh (GK) said the attack was the reaction of community members against the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee decision to give the hospital to a private company.

Ghaziabad, March 2
Over 12,000 bottles of English and country-made liquor and 25,000 ltr raw and adulterated liquor has been seized in Ghaziabad district, where allegedly a huge amount of booze has been used freely during the run-up to the just-concluded Assembly elections.

According to the police, the carriers managed to smuggle huge caches of liquor into the district because of the porous nature of the Ghaziabad border.

"The liquor seized has been sampled and cases filed in a city court," said a police official.

"Depending on the decision of the court, the liquor will be destroyed by breaking the bottles in the presence of a magistrate. At present, it is not possible to calculate the exact market value of the liquor," he added.

Meanwhile, around 7,000 ltr of illicit liquor has been seized from the neighbouring district of Gautam Budh Nagar and another 8,640 liters from Bulandshahr.

Seventeen FIRs had been filed against political parties for violation of the code of conduct, the official added.