New Delhi, April 7
An 11-year-old girl student was killed in an accident and three were injured, two of them seriously when a motorcycle on which they were travelling was hit by a tractor this morning at Nithari village in Outer Delhi.

The deceased was identified as Gayatri (11). The injured Sangeeta, Pooja and Kuldeep were admitted to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital. Sangeeta and Puja were in critical condition, the police said.

According to the police, Sangeeta, Pooja and Kuldeep belong to one family while Gayatri was their neighbour. They were going to school in Prem Nagar. Kuldeep was driving the bike. When they reached near Nithari village, the tractor that was carrying a water tanker hit the motorcycle from behind. Gayatri died on the spot while others were taken to hospital by the police.

Driver of the tractor ran away just after the accident.

When the people of the area came to know that the driver had run away, they became angry and gathered in a large number on the spot and raised anti-police slogans. They demanded the arrest of the tractor driver. The police used teargas shells to disperse them.

Finally, the driver was arrested. He was identified as Mohammad Sameen. A case of 279 IPC (for rash and negligent driving) and 304 IPC (for death not amounting to murder) has been registered against the driver. 

New Delhi, April 7
To woo the voters, the Congress has given a list of promises in its manifesto released today at a function attended by many senior leaders.

The manifesto has a list of 54 commitments and areawise projects. It has listed the achievements of the Congress when the party had been in power from 2002 to 2007 in the MCD.

Prominent among the commitments of the Congress are: relaxation in property tax for senior citizens, widows and single women and setting up of computerised single window citizen service centre in each of the 12 municipal zones in the city.

The party also promised to set up an indoor and outdoor sports complex in each ward based on the availability of land.

Laying emphasis on transparency, the party also promised to simplify the procedure for approval of layout plans and designs for construction of buildings across the city. It said online approval of layout plans would be initiated to streamline the process.

During the assembly election, the Congress had promised regularisation of unauthorised colonies. It had even issued provisional approval certificate to 1,400 colonies. Now in the MCD election this year, it says it will expedite the clearance of layout plan of identified unauthorised colonies so that they can be regularised without delay.

In the 20-page copy of the manifesto, the Congress promises to develop Old Delhi, Paharganj and Karol Bagh areas in accordance with the wishes of the people.

For improvement of education in the MCD schools, the Congress promises that its government would construct school buildings, besides making adequate arrangements for water, power and toilet facilities in the schools.

At present, many schools do not have desks. Children sit on floor. The party assures the voter that it would provide desks to each student enrolled in the MCD schools. Computer-aided learning facility will also be provided. Punjabi, Urdu and English will be taught in all the corporation schools.

The function brought together top Delhi Congress leaders, including Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Union ministers Ajay Maken and Krishna Tirath, DPCC president J P Agarwal and MPs Mahabal Mishra and Ramesh Sharma besides Delhi government ministers.

New Delhi, April 7
Two persons have been arrested from Dwarka by the Delhi police who had demanded Rs 20 lakh as "protection money" from a real estate businessman.

A resident of Paschim Vihar had filed a complaint with the police that he was receiving extortion calls from two unknown numbers.

He told the police that the caller demanded Rs 10 lakh from him as "protection money" and threatened to kill him, if he failed to fulfil his demand. The caller further threatened the complainant that if he would not pay Rs 10 lakh till April 4, the amount would be doubled to Rs 20 lakh.

The complainant said that some unknown persons had also enquired about his whereabouts from his ancestral temple in Haryana.

Soon, the police zeroed in on Jameel shah (37) and his nephew Firoz shah (19), both residing at Sector 19, Dwarka.

Jameel and Firoz were arrested from Dwarka last evening, said a police official.

During interrogation Jamil said that he had worked as a petty contractor for the complainant's maternal uncle and constructed a building right opposite to the complainant's office in Dwarka. He had observed that heavy cash transactions were often being made from his office.

Jameel then planned to extort money from the complainant and procured a SIM card on fake ID to make the threatening-cum-extortion call to the complainant. He roped in his nephew Firoz and on his directions, Firoz made extortion call to the complainant.

Mobile phones and the SIM card used for making extortion calls have been seized.

New Delhi, April 7
Terming the Congress manifesto a document of false promises which may never be fulfilled, the BJP has said that the Congress government which issued a white paper criticising the MCD, is involved in many scams.

festo prepared for the development of all the three corporations before the public and the media tomorrow.

Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta and chairman of Election Management Committee Vijay Kumar Malhotra said that the BJP has made the MCD the first corporation of the country in which the facility of e-governance has been started.

Both the leaders have challenged the Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to prove any of the charges levelled against BJP and MCD. They said not a single college has been opened under Delhi University during the last 13 years of the Congress rule in Delhi. Even the promised hospitals have not been opened.

At the time of assembly election in 2008, the Congress had made announcement for providing 15,000 cheap houses to the poor. Not a single such house has been allotted., added the BJP leaders.

New Delhi, April 7
The Delhi police has claimed to have busted a gang of mobile phone thieves and recovered 2,530 stolen phones worth approximately Rs 27 lakh from the members.

Two persons-- Satish Kumar and Rakesh Kumar--have been arrested. Satish Kumar was the leader of the gang that mostly comprised tempo drivers. The arrests were made yesterday on the complaint of a Punjabi Bagh resident Anand Kumar Aggarwal, who has a business of Chinese phones in Moti Nagar Industrial Area.

In the complaint, Kumar had said that on April 3, he hired a tempo to deliver 51cartons of Chinese mobile phones (each carton had 50 phones) to Sahil Trading Company in Karol Bagh.

The driver of the tempo, Rahul, left for Karol Bagh around 12.30 pm. But when he didn't reach there on time, the godown keeper in Karol Bagh called him. Rahul bluffed him by saying that the vehicle was out of order and that he would get late for the delivery.

After some time, tempo owner Vijay Singh learnt that the tempo had been found parked in front of a liquor shop in Karampura. The vehicle was empty and Rahul was missing.

A case was registered and call details of the phones of Rahul and other workers were analysed. Soon the police was tipped about the gang.

A trap was laid on the Zakhira flyover and Satish was arrested last evening.

He gave the police details of the receiver of the stolen mobile phones, Rakesh Kumar. Subsequently, Kumar was arrested and 2,530 mobile phones were seized 
from him. 

New Delhi, April 7
Even as the concept of "healthy ageing"-this year's theme for the World Health Day-is yet to pick up in India, the ageing population, especially the elderly above 60s, seems to have understood it right.

This morning scores of enthusiastic senior citizens chose to give a healthy kick to the day through laughing session and walkathon at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here.

Many among them may have missed the lessons in the early years of their life, but now they wish to practise it through healthy ways of living, such as resorting to regular laughter therapy sessions.

During the walkathon, which consisted of a round of the community centre on the institute's campus, one Rajiv Kumar, a retired central government employee, said in his message to the youth: "Start living life with laughter and you'll see the difference. My day never starts without a walk at the local park here and I also ask my children to join me. Kids should realise that if they don't adopt healthy habits, they will pass on more of diseases to the next generation."

As these young-hearted oldies went on to promote active and healthy living in tune with the World Health Organisation's (WHO) slogan "Good health adds life to years", there were sessions during a daylong consultation organised jointly by AIIMS and WHO, in which experts and civil society organisations exhorted all to be more receptive to the needs of the elderly population, which has been on an upsurge owing to the increasing life expectancy.

As per the WHO, in view of the demographic shift, developing countries have to take up ageing as a priority area when it comes to health policies.

India will be home to an estimated 300 million people of 60 years and above (17 per cent of the population) by 2050 based on the 2001 census (7.4 per cent).

"With the rising life expectancy, more and more people will live longer in most of the countries and it is imperative to ensure their active engagement in all spheres of life for the benefit of society. This cannot be achieved without investing in healthy ageing and ensuring adequate response to their health care needs," said India's WHO representative Dr Nata Menabde, who along with secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, P K Pradhan, flagged off the walkathon earlier during the day.

Countries and health systems have to look out for innovative and sustainable ways to cope with the changing scenario, she added.