New Delhi, April 18
The BJP today had a meeting with senior leaders to decide the coveted posts of the Mayors of the newly created municipal corporations - South, North and East Delhi. The meeting continued for more than an hour.

The meeting also discussed how to woo the independent candidates to get a majority in South Delhi as it had only 44 seats out of 104 municipal wards.

In other two MCDs, the BJP has a clear majority, sources said.

According to the sources, in MCD the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Leader of the House, Standing Committee Chairman are changed after every year. According to the law, the first Mayor will be a woman. In the meeting, a few names cropped up for the post of Mayor for each MCD, but no decision could be taken as there was some opposition about the names discussed in the meeting.

The sources said that final decision for the post of Mayor would be taken by the chief of Delhi unit of the BJP, Vijender Gupta, national president Nitin Gadkari and Venkaiha Naidu who is in-charge of Delhi affairs.

The Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijay Kumar Malhotra and former Union minister Vijay Goel will also propose some names of their choice for the post of Mayor, Leader of the House and Standing Committee Chairman.

The date for swearing-in-ceremony has not been announced so far by the municipal secretary. He will announce the date after getting permission from the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, Tejendra Khanna who will appoint a senior municipal officer for the swearing-in-ceremony.

Later, the LG will nominate the Mayor for each corporation. Thereafter, the elected members will elect the Leader of the House, the sources said. 

New Delhi, April 18
Several Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Delhi, which had appealed to Delhiites to come out and vote, have blamed the Congress party's indifferent attitude towards the people for its debacle in the municipal polls.

"Despite various representations and objections to the Delhi government and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority (DERC) against power tariff hike, nothing was done. The Sheila government sided with the private power distributors. Similarly, water tariff was increased unannounced burdening Delhi citizens," said Anil Bajpai, president, Delhi Resident's forum and RWA Federation, Delhi East.

Earlier, RWAs and other forums were consulted and their suggestions incorporated by the Sheila government while taking important decisions, he said.

The 'Bhagidari' partnership between the citizen and the government is almost over across the city. Complaining against the biased attitude of the government, the forum members alleged that only a few favourite associations of the Delhi government were being looked after.

"Earlier, an email to the CM office was enough. The CM herself would take interest and intervene. Now there is no citizen complaint cell in place," said Bajpai.

The other factors that have played against the Congress-led state government are inflation, increase in milk prices every second day, power tariff hike, poor roads and sewerage system, the members said. The government will have work on its policies in order to improve its image and performance in next year's Assembly elections, they said.

"The government should reframe its anti-people policies and work for better Delhi in order to face the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections," Bajpai added. 

New Delhi, April 18
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who had got the MCD trifurcated, is now trying to wash her hands of the defeat of her party in the civic polls, saying that it was not her election. Distancing herself from the results, the Chief Minister said it was MCD elections.

However, when asked that she was the face of the Congress, the Chief Minister said she was taking the responsibility and not shying away from it.

"The BJP has won the election by a narrow margin. Though the Congress has lost the polls, it has increased its seats in the corporation. Whatever shortcomings have happened in the elections, the party will look into them. The mistakes will be rectified in the Assembly election due for next year," Dikshit said.

The BJP won 138 of the 272 wards in the three newly created municipal corporations of Delhi while the Congress secured victory in 78 wards. The BJP lost 26 seats as compared to 2007 when it had won 164. The Congress tally went up from 64 to 78 seats.

However, Dikshit did agree that price rise was an issue, though the MCD had no connection with the inflation. But she refuted the talks that the trifurcation of the civic body was one of the reasons for the defeat.

"The trifurcation will not benefit the party, but the administration. Small civic bodies will have better functioning and a transparent administration," she said.

Spokesman of the DPCC also yesterday admitted that price rise was one of the reasons for the Congress Party's defeat. 

New Delhi, April 18
A decomposed body of an unidentified man hidden at a sealed nursery near Khan Market was found last night. According to Joint Commissioner of Police (Central Range) Taj Hassan, "The body is yet to be identified. It was found at 11.50 pm."

The body has been preserved at RML Hospital.

Sources claimed that last night some drivers at a nearby taxistand saw smoke billowing out from the nursery. They informed a constable, who found the body, which was on fire. He doused it and recovered the remains.

The police believes that the body is about three to four days old. A local said, "For the past three days the rear end of the nursery emitted a foul smell."

Kamal Nursery is owned by Kamal Kishore Saini. He also runs Masjid Nursery which near Khan Market.

He claims that Kamal Nursery was opened in 1955. It was sealed by a monitoring committee of the Supreme Court on January 10, 2010.

"I could not even take out the plants inside the nursery, ever since it had been sealed. I know that people take drugs there. This morning, I came to work at Masjid Nursery and saw a large group of policemen standing outside the gates. When I enquired about their presence, they told me to go away. I have not been questioned," said Saini.

The body has been decomposed beyond recognition. The police is probing the possibility of a link between the body and a 15-year-old boy, who mysteriously went missing from his residence at Prithviraj Lane on April 10.

Suresh, the father of the 15-year-old boy named Atul, alias Bunty, was called by the police to identify the decomposed body.

"He claimed that it was not his son's body. We will conduct a DNA test to ascertain the identity," said Taj Hassan. 

New Delhi, April 18
The insensitivity of Delhiites towards the rights of poor children comes echoing with two more cases of abuse and assault of children engaged in domestic work -- that of an eight-year-old girl from Vasant Vihar and a 17-year-old maid from Geeta Colony- surfacing today.

In the latest instance, the eight-year-old minor was rescued from the house of one Rajesh, working in a private pathology lab and his wife, a stock market professional in Munirka Village following a call made to NGO Butterflies by a citizen today.

The girl was brought to the city a month ago from Bihar's Chapra district and her mother who works as a domestic help in the same area was apparently promised that her child would be educated in exchange for her job of looking after Rajesh's baby.

"Yesterday the child was beaten up by the employers and when she tried to run away, she was badly hit. Today, after a call around 12 noon, we contacted the police of Vasant Vihar and went to the employer's house where we found her alone. An FIR has been registered and the employer is arrested under section 23 and 26 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 apart from Child Labour Act and Bonded Labour Act if applicable," said Jabish Mathews, a representative of Butterflies-run Childline service.

In the other case, the other 17-year-old girl, who had earlier refused to recognise her mother due to fear of her employers four years ago, could not hold her tears when she met her family today.

"I was not getting a single penny for my work and my whole salary used to go to the placement agency. I had no freedom of movement and had absolutely no contact with my family. Whenever I asked them to let me go to visit my home, they would say that I can't go as they don't have any other maid," said the girl after her rescue by the Delhi Police and NGO Bachpan Bacho Andolan.

"Payal was trafficked to Delhi by a local agent Ajay Kumar who was a resident of our own village. He brought her to an agency which was running in the name of an NGO "Aadivaasi Seva Samiti" in Shakurpur near Samrat Cinema, Delhi,” said Sukurmuni, her mother.

New Delhi, April 18
A 28-year-old school teacher was found murdered with stab and bullet injuries at a park in Narela yesterday. The victim, Pradeep, was a resident of Rajiv Colony and taught at Aditya Bharti Public School in Mamurpur.

Pradeep was found lying in a pool of blood at the park at 10 pm. He was declared dead at a hospital.

Sources claimed he was shot six times and had also sustained stab and head injuries.

According to Pradeep's maternal uncle, he had left his residence for an evening stroll at 7.30 pm yesterday. The family approached the police when he did not return.

The police believes it to be a case of personal rivalry.