New Delhi, March 21
Amidst noisy scenes, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit who also holds finance portfolio today presented a vote-on-account of Rs 30,970 crore in a one-day special session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

The vote-on-account, which was passed by a voice vote, includes Plan outlay of Rs 15,000 crore, Rs 15,811 crore as non-Plan spending and Rs 159 crore of centrally sponsored schemes.

The vote-on-account was presented to take care of expenses for two months till a regular budget is presented in the House after the MCD elections.

"The Budget Estimates for the total expenditure during the year 2012-2013 is Rs 30,970 crore," said Chief Minister, presenting the budget amid noisy scenes by BJP members who shouted slogans against the government.

"The bifurcation in terms of revenue and capital size of Budget is 2012-13, Rs 21,675.47 crore and Rs 9,135.53 crore respectively," she said.

Tabling the vote-on-account, Dikshit said the proposed budgetary expense of Rs 30,811 crore will be funded from 'revenue receipts' of Rs 31,395 crore that include tax revenue of Rs 24,310 crore, non-tax revenue of Rs 697 crore, other grants from the union government of Rs 1,444 crore, capital receipts of Rs 626 crore and last year's surplus of Rs 3,993 crore.

While concluding the budget speech in the House, Dikshit said, "I would present a more detailed statement on our fiscal performance, policies, priorities, development, programme and tax proposals at a later stage while presenting the regular budget."

She also said the Planning Commission has approved the annual plan for next fiscal at Rs 15,000 crore, which is 5.63 per cent higher than that of Rs 14,200 crore this fiscal year.

While presenting the vote-on-account, she said the Budget size of the Delhi Government for the current fiscal has been revised from Rs 27,067 crore to Rs 27,770 crore that consists of Rs 14,200 crore as plan Budget and Rs 190 crore as centrally sponsored schemes.

Dikshit said the tax revenue during 2011-12 is Rs 20,128 crore, non-tax revenue Rs 640 crore and central assistance Rs 1,481 crore and added that the projected increase is mainly due to grant of loan and investment of Rs 500 crore in equity for power stabilisation funds to DPCL.

She said, "In order to give effect to the revised estimates, supplementary demands for the grants of Rs 983.67 crore will be required for the current financial year. Accordingly, I seek the approval of this august House for supplementary demands for grants amounting to Rs 983.67 crore."

Giving the details of the vote-on-account, Dikshit said that transport and medical departments got the bulk of funds for their functioning till a regular budget is presented with Rs 3.56 crore and Rs 2.03 crore respectively as approved plan outlay, Rs 16 lakh for rural development department, Rs 5 lakh for minor irrigation and flood control, Rs 96 lakh for energy, Rs 2.4 lakh for industries, Rs 8 lakh for science, technology and environment, Rs 3.3 lakhs for tourism, Rs 1.62 crore for general education and Rs 20 lakh for technical education.

New Delhi, March 21
The police today claimed that the body of a 53-year-old woman who had been missing from Nihal Vihar, was found buried in front of a house at Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh.

According to Additional Commissioner of Police (West District), V Renganathan two men, Nafees and Baljit have been arrested for allegedly killing the woman, Iqbal Kaur over a property dispute.

Iqbal was acquainted with the two men. She had told them that she wanted to sell a plot at Nihal Vihar. Nafees offered to buy it. He later gave an advance payment in lakhs of rupees to Iqbal, who refused to give him the property documents, according to the police. Nafees had threatened her with dire consequences. She went missing when she went to a relative's house at Vishnu Garden on February 29, according to the police.

Iqbal's husband, Paramjeet and son, Narender lodged a missing person's complaint at the Nihal Vihar police station.

Narender informed the police about the threats that Iqbal had received from Nafees, who was thereafter apprehended from Vishnu Garden.

Nafees confessed to the police that he and Baljeet took Iqbal to Bijnor. They killed her there and buried her body in front of a house.

The police recovered her body from Bijnor and brought it back to Delhi. A case has been registered against Nafees and Baljeet at the Nihal Vihar police station. They are charged with kidnapping and murder.

New Delhi, March 21
A Delhi-based businessman is in trouble for allegedly trying to use a forged cheque to withdraw Rs 5.77 crore from an account of the Land Acquisition Collector's office in northwest Delhi.

Following a complaint, the police registered a case under sections of forgery and cheating against the businessman, Pawan Kumar, at the Economic and Offences Wing (EOW). Kumar owns Pawan Enterprises at Okhla.

The complaint was about an attempt to withdraw Rs 5,77,45,719 from the account of the Land Acquisition Collector's office . The manager of the Tis Hazari branch of the State Bank of India (SBI) telephoned a clerk of the office. He asked him whether a cheque of Rs 5.77 crore, dated March 12, in favour of M/s Pawan Enterprises was issued from the office.

The clerk examined the office record and discovered that the cheque had been cancelled. He immediately informed the Naib-Tehsildar, who disclosed the matter to the Land Acquisition Collector.

According to sources, the SBI was thereafter informed that the cheque was not issued by the Land Acquisition Collector. The cheque was not cleared thereafter. The forged cheque was allegedly presented by Kumar at the Lakshmi Vilas Bank, which had sent it to the SBI for clearance. The account of Kumar's business company was frozen.

New Delhi, March 21
After the Academic Council meeting at Delhi University, the Executive Council meeting also took off to a rough start today with the vice-chancellor curbing the zero hour in the meeting.

Just yesterday, the zero hour in AC meeting had run for at least three hours. However, no room was left for discussion and arguments today as the EC meeting started without a proper zero hour.

One of the EC members, Rajib Ray said, "The EC has upheld the Academic Council decision to scrap Ramanujan's essay. The EC has also decided to increase the Delhi University's (DU) student union subscription from Rs 5 to Rs 20. In a major decision, the EC has also allowed the representation of non-teaching staff of the governing bodies of DU colleges."

Delhi University's Academic Council had yesterday decided to scrap historian AK Ramanujan's essay from the history curriculum. The AC had yesterday confirmed the deletion of the controversial essay. With the final nod from the EC today, the essay is bound to exit the textbooks.

"The turns of events have been really unfortunate. When we dissented, they told us we can requisition another meeting if we wanted to for revisiting the issue, but the discussion of this meeting was limited. It was just to confirm the minutes of the previous meetings," said one of the nine members who had opposed the initial ban in October.

DTF member Abha Dev Habib said, "The dissenting members pleaded that the reactions and arguments that the issue has generated should be considered. Even the dissent of the elected members was not recorded citing technical problems."

After the meetings for two days, the university has also decided to restructure the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) course and also to increase the course fee. Yesterday several notes of dissents came up for the new course structure for the part-time MBA course.

While the syllabus for the course was passed by AC, the members objected to reducing the seats from 232 to 172 and increasing the fees from Rs 11,000 to Rs 50,000.

The university has also decided to honour Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff with an honorary doctorate.