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CAG points out inefficiencies in govt depts
Rs 2,042-cr loss to DTC
Luxury tax Bill passed
DU admission through ECA, sports quota tougher this year
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Gun runners held
Bill on placement agencies to check child labour ready
13 injured in cylinder blast
2 held for robbery
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CAG points out inefficiencies in govt depts
New Delhi, June 6 The report pointed out that revenue through the motor vehicle tax was reduced as the transport department failed to formulate an IT strategy for registration of motor vehicles. The data base was incomplete and essential information relating to the vehicle owners was not captured in the database. Business rules were not mapped resulting in short recovery of tax to the tune of Rs 83.37 lakh on account of one-time tax. Irregular claim of exemption or concessional rate of tax without proper supporting statutory Forms C, F, E-1, E-2, H and I resulted in short payment of tax of Rs 1,463.56 crore in 1,408 cases in the commercial tax department. Incorrect claims of exempted sale of unexempted goods under the schedule resulted in short payment of tax of Rs 2.30 crore. The report also pointed out irregular award of work and excess expenditure of Rs 11.59 crore in PWD. Till January 2012, Rs 167.10 crore has been paid, which resulted in excess expenditure of Rs 11.59 crore. The unlawful rescission of a contract by the PWD resulted in extra expenditure of Rs 2.21 crore as the balance work was executed at higher rates under the new contract. Absence of proper planning with assessment of actual requirement and lack of coordination among different divisions of the PWD resulted in infructuous expenditure of Rs 1.76 crore. The Directorate of Information and Publicity placed orders for advertisements at higher rates resulting in extra expenditure of Rs 1.06 crore and undue benefit to the firm holding exclusive rights on BQSs. In the Directorate of Education, there was delay in allocation of budget for plan schemes like uniform subsidy and supply of free text books for students. The Directorate suffered shortage of manpower in every cadre. A loss of Rs 22.68 lakh was incurred due to delay in the award of contract for sale and lifting of dry fly ash by Indraprastha Power Generation Company Limited, the report said.
Rs 2,042-cr loss to DTC
New Delhi, June 6 The Delhi government has 13 PSUs. Of them, nine earned a profit of Rs 310.80 crore, the report said. The CAG report was tabled in the House today. The losses by the PSUs have been attributed to deficiencies in planning, monitoring implementation of projects and financial mismanagement. The CAG said PSUs, which employed 48 lakh employees, have registered a total turnover of Rs 4678.90 crore for 2010-11 as per their latest finalised accounts as on September 30, 2011. The report said that the profit-making PSUs are: Pragati Power Corporation Limited that earned a maximum profit of Rs 127.21 crore followed by Delhi Transco Limited and Indraprastha Power Generation Company Limited which made a profit of Rs 93.09 crore and Rs 23.18 crore respectively. The DTC lost potential revenue of Rs 33.14 lakh due to the delayed action in handing over the 157 bus queue shelters to private concessionaire.
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Luxury tax Bill passed
New Delhi, June 6 There was no opposition to the passing of Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bills, but when the Speaker tried to pass the Tax on Luxuries Accepting the demand of the opposition, Speaker Yoganand Shastri asked for discussion that was begun with the speech of the leader of the opposition Vijay Kumar Malhotra who said that the Bill was anti-people. It is not a luxury to hold functions at banquet halls and eating at restaurant. The Bill also levies tax on gym and spa. Instead of imposing tax on them, the government should make these services free of charge for the youth. If the youth are healthy, the city will be healthy, Malhotra said. Besides Malhotra, BJP MLAs, Jagdish Mukhi, Sahib Singh Chauhan, Harshvardhan and Ramesh Bidhuri, LJP MLA Shoaib Iqbal spoke on the issue, demanding the withdrawal of the tax. However, Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely and Congress MLA Mukesh Sharma supported the Bill. Giving reply to the objections, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said that Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, and Maharashtra had already imposed VAT between 10 and 15 per cent. Delhi is not the first state that is imposing luxury tax. "We are not imposing tax on marriage halls and community centres where the poor celebrate weddings and social functions," she said. She appealed to the Speaker to pass the Bill saying that if anything went wrong in the Bill, it would be corrected in the next session.
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DU admission through ECA, sports quota tougher this year
New Delhi, June 6
The candidates applying for the ECA and sports quota seats will now face tougher cutoffs, which will be fixed by the ECA admission committees of the respective colleges. "Until last year, the ECA admissions were more or less based on the trial performance and the track record of the applicant. Even if a candidate did not have sufficient percentage, but he/she was a good player or performer, the colleges could admit him/her. However, this year, the university has decided that the maximum difference between the cutoffs for the general category and the ECA category applicants can be only 15 per cent. So if the cutoff for a course is 95 per cent, no applicant below 80 per cent can apply under the ECA category," said SK Garg, principal, Deen Dayal College. The ECA trials will continue to carry 75 per cent weigh and 25 per cent weight will given to the certificate. Only the certificates of international, national, state, zonal and school levels will be considered for weight. For the sports category, equal weight will be given to the trials and certificates. For both the categories, certificates issued only within the past three years will be considered. Even the trials are all set to get tougher this year. The applicants will now have to undergo two rounds of trials. The first or the preliminary round is mandatory for all applicants. Based on the performance in the first round, the candidates will be called for a second round. "At trials, the aspirants will face a tougher jury this time. The colleges will have to include at least two experts from the fields concerned on their ECA admission committee. The university has decided that the colleges can rope in experts from the National School of Drama, Sri Ram Centre of Performing Arts, Faculty of Music and Fine Arts, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, College of Arts, Sangeet Natak Academy, Doordarshan, All India Radio, Sahitya Kala Parishad and Kathak Academy. The decision of the ECA committee will be final," said a senior official at the Dean of Students' Welfare office.
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Gun runners held
New Delhi, June 6 It was learnt that Shekhar had bought the pistols bullets from a man named Rajkumar in order to supply them in Delhi through Bambam. "Shekhar had procured the pistols from Munger and brought them to Delhi. Bambam had developed contacts with criminals and ordered the pistols for intending customers," said Ajay Chaudhry, additional commissioner of police (southeast). Shekhar worked as a driver with a contractor. He is unmarried and has a dispute in family with his stepbrothers over property. Bambam has been living at Ballabhgarh for the past two years and working as an electrician with a multinational company in Faridabad. |
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Bill on placement agencies to check child labour ready
New Delhi, June 6 And it is not to anybody's surprise why Delhi stands today as the most unsafe city in the country when it comes to children and women, with nearly 2,000 illegal placement agencies turning out to be the hub of child labour and trafficking in the recent years. In view of this, the Delhi government has proposed a special legislation for regulating the functioning of such agencies and preventing child labour. A draft titled "Private Placement Agencies (Regulation) Bill" has been prepared by the city's labour department and currently uploaded on its website to solicit suggestions from all stakeholders, including NGOs, media and public. At present, there is no separate provision to monitor the illegal activities of placement agencies which are just like any other shop or commercial establishment. "The proposed legislation will control the functioning of these agencies, which have been accused of human trafficking. Primarily targeting those which supply domestic workers, it will deal with registering and regulating them," additional labour commissioner Piyush Sharma said. While on the one hand, the special legislation is looked as a step towards safeguarding the interests of the unorganised sector workers hired through the placement agencies, on the other it will help in ensuring the protection of the employers, particularly elderly people in view of the increasing crimes involving domestic helps. The draft proposes the maintenance of records related to the details of the persons employed by the placement agencies while suggesting the eligibility criterion as to who can be engaged as domestic workers. It says the sourcing agency should monitor the persons employed through it and no person below 18 years can be employed as domestic help. "We have invited feedback from all stakeholders in the next 15 days and in another 15 days, it will be processed. It should be ready to be tabled during the next assembly session," added Sharma.
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13 injured in cylinder blast
New Delhi, June 6 The fire was reported from House No. 80/173 in the Rajeev Camp slums. The call regarding the incident was received at 7.10 am, according to a fire service official. The injured were rushed to Hedgewar Hospital in Karkardooma. Two of them were referred to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital in Dilshad Garden. According to a police official, the five-year-old Kajal, who has received 80 per cent burns, is critical. All the other victims have received minor burns. Food was being cooked in the room when the fire broke. There are seven rooms on the first floor of the building where the incident took place. On smelling gas, residents of the floor had gone to the room to check the cylinder when it blasted. The residents got burnt when they attempted to douse the fire. The injured treated at Hedgewar Hospital have been identified as Shambhunath (18), Shaukat Ali (23), Lalu (21), Ajay (21), Basant (45), Ravi (17), Anuj (22), Durgesh (16), Tribhuvan (17) and Surjeet (17). A case has been registered against unknown persons. The charges evoked are negligent conduct with respect to combustible matter and causing hurt under Sections 285 and 337 of the Indian Penal Code.
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2 held for robbery
New Delhi, June 6 Chaman Lal (35) and Akhlaq Ahmed (36) have been held on businessman Manoj Saini's complaint that his jewellery shop in Dilshad Garden named Mahaveer Jewellers was robbed on May 30. The buyer of the stolen jewellery has been identified as Dal Chand (52), the owner of a jewellery shop in Bhajanpura. — TNS |
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