New Delhi, March 24
Even after four years of Delhi University being declared a smoke-free zone, the campus has still not been able to chuck the butt. However, DU proctor Usha Rao says that in the coming academic session, the administration will act stricter than ever on the matter.

The campus will greet the freshers with strict warnings, lectures, awareness schemes and anti-smoking posters throughout the campus.

"The message will have to be strongly communicated to the students that there is no room to violate this rule. We will make sure that the students get the message clear on the first day of the session. The proctor's office will form a disciplinary committee to track the progress," said Rao.

Over the last several months after the Delhi High Court directed DU to make sure that the tobacco-selling establishments were removed from the campus, the university has been profusely advertising anti-smoking drives.

However, it looks like the efforts to clear smoke in DU have gone in vain. The ban seems to have little effect as many cigarette stalls are flourishing in and around the campus. And if the shopkeepers are to be believed, the local police lends them a helping hand.

"We pay a fixed amount to the beat policemen every month and do our business smoothly. We make good money," said a shopkeeper, near the faculty of law, North Campus.

"The onus of collecting fine from the law-breakers lies on the anti-smoking cell and the police is supposed to give assistance for the purpose. But the irony is that the police remains a mute spectator as people violate the law blatantly. According to the rules, anyone found smoking in a public place is to be fined Rs 200. Thereafter, a fine of Rs 500 is to be slapped on the person if the offence is repeated. But there are hardly any fines imposed here. There is no accountability and so there is this violation," said a senior professor at Delhi College of Arts.

New Delhi, March 24
Ticket seekers of the Congress as well as the BJP are upset as the names of the candidates have not yet been announced officially though Monday is the last day for filing nominations.

BJP activists today shouted slogans in front of the residence of its national president Nitin Gadkari and senior leader Venkaiha Naidu while Congress workers were seen talking to senior leaders, asking them to give tickets to local activists instead of outsiders.

Hundreds of the BJP tickets seekers and their supporters gathered at Gadkari's residence in the morning and shouted slogans. They also protested in front of Naidu's residence when senior leaders were having a meeting to decide candidates for the municipal elections.

According to sources, the names of the BJP candidates were decided yesterday but it could not be announced due to bickering in the party. Former union minister Vijay Goel had boycotted the meeting.

In the morning and afternoon, Vijender Gupta, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Vijay Goel, Harsh Vardhan and a few other senior leaders had a meeting and in the evening, they went to Gadkari with the list.

Many women ticket seekers and others who had been waiting for the list since morning left for their houses threatening that if they were not given tickets, they would work against the party.

Nepotism is the cause of delay for not announcing candidates. They said that the Delhi BJP chief wants ticket for his wife, Shobha, senior leader Jagdish Mukhi for his son-in-law and Vijay Kumar Malhotra for his son while Venkaiha wants tickets for some of his supporters.

As far the Congress, a few party workers from Okhla and Zakir Nagar wards met Rajya Sabha MP Parvez Hashmi, asking him tickets for the local activists. Hashmi assured them that he would meet Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, DPCC president Jaiprakash Agarwal and AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi for getting them a fair deal.

The Congress high command has instructed the DPCC that nepotism should not be there while giving tickets to the candidates.

New Delhi, March 24
With the arrest of three persons from the Central Karol Bagh area, the Delhi police has claimed to have busted a racket of manufacturing duplicate spare parts of Bajaj Automobiles.

The accused have been identified as 28-year-old UP resident Anil Kumar, 28-year-old Samidh of Shahdara and 40-year-old Vineet Kumar of Karol Bagh.

They were arrested with a country-made pistol, two cartridges and a huge quantity of duplicate spare parts of Bajaj Automobiles worth lakhs of rupees.

The arrests came during a raid at Spare & Spare, a shop owned by Anil Kumar, in Karol Bagh on a tip-off regarding the sale of duplicate spare parts there.

A case under the Copyright Act has been registered at the Karol Bagh police station.

During interrogation, the accused revealed that they started the work due to a huge demand of Bajaj spare parts in the market.

Anil Kumar disclosed that he used to buy duplicate parts from Samidh's shop Automen Automobiles in Karol Bagh. Samidh used to buy the counterfeit items from Laxmi Bearings of Karol Bagh, which is owned by Vineet Kumar.

While Anil is a school dropout, Samidh is a graduate from Delhi University.

New Delhi, March 24
African nationals, many of them have been staying illegally in the national Capital, are giving a tough time to the Delhi police.

They are regularly caught for being engaged in drug trafficking, net-phishing and fake lottery scams.

Mostly Nigerians, they are gradually creating their own "international communities" in south and southwest Delhi. Chattarpur and Maidangarhi are some of the places that are inhabited by them.

Sources said the African nationals settle in areas such as Uttam Nagar, Kishangarh, Burari, Nawada and Maidangari, which are not very expensive. They form close-knit communities here.

Some of the houses in the unauthorized colony of Chattarpur are rented out to these foreign nationals without a proper verification. Some of them are staying there on expired visas, while others claim that their original travel documents have been submitted at their respective embassies, the police said.

However, most of them are able to procure forged travel documents with the help of their own countrymen.

In February, five African nationals were apprehended by the Delhi police crime branch for allegedly providing forged travel documents to those who had entered India illegally via Nepal and Bangladesh.

Some are involved in criminal cases at the localities where they stay. For instance, the residents of Chattarpur lodge more than 10 complaints against them at the Mehrauli police station every month. But, the number of cases that are registered is very low.

In 2011, 11 cases of cheating and illegal activities such as fake lottery scams were registered against Nigerians at the Mehrauli police station. This year, only three cases of cheating have been registered against African nationals.

"In one of the cases, the accused had sent an SMS about the winning of a lottery jackpot to a complainant, who was tricked into paying the accused a hefty amount of Rs 20 lakh," said a police officer.

The reason behind such low number of registered cases this year is because the investigating officers find it difficult to trace the foreign nationals.

According to a police source, the African nationals involved in illegal activities stay in India on a fake identity and provide forged documents for residence verification. They buy cheap phones for communication, which are disposed of after they commit a crime. They also change their SIM cards which they purchase on forged documents.

"They are elusive as they use their original phone numbers to telephone people of their own communities only. They would place a call to their victims from a PCO booth. This makes it difficult for us to trace them," said the source.