New Delhi, March 12
A Delhi court today framed charges against four officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), two others and a private company in the Commonwealth Games street-lighting scam.

Special CBI Judge Pradeep Chaddha said: "The court framed charges against the accused for the offence of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and other sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). The trial will commence from April 3."

The court framed charges against four MCD officials - superintendent engineer DK Sugan, executive engineer OP Mahala, accountant Raju V and the civic body's tender clerk Gurcharan Singh for the offence of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery.

Besides them, the court framed charges against director JP Singh and managing director TP Singh of private firm Sweska Powertech Engineers Pvt. Ltd., which was allegedly favoured in the award of street-lighting contract during the Games in 2010.The court also framed charges against Sweska Powertech Engineers Pvt. Ltd.

Another accused Mehul Karnik, an employee of Philips India Pvt. Ltd., was, however, discharged from the case last month.

According to the CBI chargesheet, the accused had entered into a criminal conspiracy for upgrading the streetlights in view of the CWG in October 2010 and caused a loss of around Rs 1,42,83,000 to the government.

The CBI has alleged that tenders of street-lighting were invited by the civic agency in 2008. Tenders were opened in May 2008 and wrongfully awarded the tender to Sweska Powertech. - IANS

New Delhi, March 12
"Those who have glass houses, should not throw stone on others", said Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit threatening the BJP for launching a campaign against the city government raising corruption issues.

This is the municipal election, the BJP should limit itself to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) otherwise it will be exposed. It has been campaigning against the Delhi government for the last one month. It is enough and now it should stop speaking against the city government, said Dikshit.

Demarcating the limit of the BJP, the Chief Minister said that the saffron party was trying to downplay the government's decision of the MCD's trifurcation and 50 per cent reservation of seats for women in the corporation.

Earlier, 94 per cent of Delhi's area was governed by the MCD. It was a large segment and the MCD was unable to deliver the good governance. Now, it has been divided in three parts - East, North and South Delhi MCD. The MCD has been trifurcated with an idea of good governance. The election will be held on April 15 for three MCDs together, she said.

The Chief Minister said that wife of the Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta run an NGO, Sampurna that got fund from the MCD and the Social Welfare Department of the Delhi government, though the affidavit submitted by the NGO was not appropriate.

Last month, he took out "Jansangharsh Yatra". The BJP is in power in the corporation. He should made public the corruption rampant in the MCD like 30,000 ghost employees' issue, teachers' posts vacant in the corporation, parking, toilet, etc., she said.

There is no maintenance of the civic amenities, roads particularly in outer Delhi, low-floor buses have been withdrawn from the outer areas of Delhi as roads are not in proper condition for these buses.

The Election Commission has enforced moral code of conduct just after the announcement of date for the election and legally no development work can be done thereafter.

But the MCD had announced regularisation of the services of teachers working on ad hoc, renaming of streets and finance has been sanctioned for 103 development projects.

As far as irregularity of funds in the Commonwealth Games is concerned, the MCD took action against its four engineers that confirmed the irregularities in the MCD projects in connection with the Games.

She said that the BJP had raised the issue of forgery case registered against Congress MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah, though he had resigned on the day when the case was registered.

When asked why she is talking about the election issue of the MCD, the Chief Minister said, "We are all Congress workers. It's our duty to work for the party in the election."

New Delhi, March 12
Just 10 days after Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) elected its new students' union voting the AISA to majority, other competitors like the ABVP, Youth against Corruption (YAC) and SFI have become serious about re-strengthening their stance amongst students.

While the YAC and the ABVP participated in a joint struggle against corruption at Jantar Mantar today, the SFI conducted a convention on the plight of Kashmiri youths in the capital.

Both the events saw a good response from participating students.

Earlier at the students' union elections last month, while the YAC failed to grab even one seat, the ABVP also lagged behind with just three councillors. The SFI considered being the biggest opposition to the AISA also failed miserably to grab seats at the elections and could manage only two councillors.

However, parties have not lost faith since the students' union will only serve the term till September.

"The next election will be again conducted after six months and a new union will be elected. Within the next six months, students' parties have enough time to learn from their mistakes and make amendments," said one of the active election campaigners at JNU.

"This convention aims to highlight issues affecting the democratic rights of Jammu and Kashmir youth. A new generation has reached adulthood in J&K, all born and brought up in conflict. Despite registering a higher percentage of literacy, the state has a little to no-employment opportunities for the young people. Stringent laws and curfew conditions have also robbed the youth of a life. The Public Safety Act has been used against innocent young men all over the Kashmir Valley," said state president of the SFI Roshan Kishore.

New Delhi, March 12
The Delhi High Court was told today that the state Cabinet has approved a proposal for the accounts of three power distribution companies, established in 2002, to be audited by the CAG.

Counsel for the Delhi government informed a bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw that the state cabinet has endorsed the suggestion of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to get accounts of BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL), BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) and North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) audited by the CAG.

The notification of the government said: "The Cabinet approved infusion of equity in BSES group of companies to maintain 49 per cent of share holding and enable availing of loan from IDBI (Bank)...The Cabinet approved audit by CAG since inception."

According to the DERC, the government is holding 49 per cent share in all three discoms and has a responsibility to ensure that their accounts are reliable and acceptable to all stakeholders.

"An audit by CAG will not only settle all issues but will give a reasonable assurance to the government on the share received/ receivable from the discoms," DERC said.

The court had earlier asked power distributors to explain why their accounts should not be audited by the CAG while hearing a petition filed by the United RWAs Joint Action (URJA), which alleged that the state government succumbed to pressure of the discoms, which wanted a hike in power tariff by faking losses. — IANS

New Delhi, March 12
The outgoing Mayor, Rajini Abbi today put allegation on the Delhi government of violating moral code of conduct before the municipal polls and asked the Election Commissioner to take immediate step.

In a letter to Delhi Election Commission (EC), Prof Abbi has asked the Commissioner to take strict action against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for publishing advertisements in newspapers. "There have been many advertisements which have appeared in newspapers on behalf of the Delhi government after March 5, the day the moral code of conduct came into play. These should be stopped immediately as it directly gives an advantage to the ruling party in the state assembly," she said.

The Mayor also sought permission to disburse pension to senior citizens, widows and physically challenged. "The pension is pending for the past six months. This is an obligatory function of the corporation which it has been doing continuously for the past four and a half years. The release of pension has no political repercussions as the pension has to be distributed in all wards irrespective of the party representative," said Prof Abbi.

Also, the corporation is yet to distribute over 12,000 sewing machines, the proposal for which was bought last year. The civic agency also took upon the opportunity to ask for the EC's approval on the matter.

New Delhi, March 12
In a road rage incident last evening, driver of a Scorpio car allegedly shot at an i-10 car, when he was infuriated over not being able to overtake it at Bakner Holi Chowk in Narela. The bullets had brushed past the driver of the i-10 car, who was thereafter injured.

Sources said that four to five youths travelling in the Scorpio attacked the driver of i-10 and broke the windows of his car.

According to the police, the incident occurred around 9.30 pm. The i-10 driver, Vijender Khatri, said that he was travelling on Bakner Road and was heading towards Bakner Village. The road was narrow and the Scorpio kept horning in order to overtake the car.

The Scorpio driver brought his vehicle abreast with the car and started firing at Khatri. A bullet brushed past his ear and another one went over his head, added the police.

Khatri lodged a complaint at the Narela police station, where a case of attempt to murder has been registered against unknown persons.

Khatri said that he noted the vehicle's registration number and gave it to the police, who would use it to nab the culprits.