New Delhi, July 10
Two girls were allegedly raped in Delhi. One of them had been sexually assaulted by her schoolteacher for years and the other victim, who is six years old, was raped by her 17-year-old neighbour at Narela this morning.

In the first incident, an 18-year-old girl, who is a class nine school dropout, was allegedly raped by her schoolteacher, Shailender (42), for a period of six years.

A police officer said that the girl was studying in class six when she was allegedly raped by Shailender for the first time.

According to the police, Shailender had taught the victim in her school. "He got in touch with her over the phone," said a police officer.

The police said that in the first week of June, Shailender made a call to the victim's landline number.

"The victim's sister picked up his call and Shailender then uttered obscenities. He thought that he was speaking to the victim," said the officer.

The victim's sister complained about the call to her parents. They then enquired about the man from the victim.

She revealed to her parents that Shailender took her to hotels at Paharganj and Connaught Place, where he allegedly raped her. The victim disclosed to the police that Shailender made an MMS clip of her in one of the hotels. She alleged that he threatened to post the video clip on the Internet if she informed anyone about the incident.

"He was arrested about three days ago," said the officer.

The second rape was reported from Kureni village at Narela in Outer Delhi.

The six-year-old victim was playing outside her house at the village, when her 17-year-old neighbour lured her into coming with him to a nearby park.

The victim's parents disclosed that he sexually assaulted her in the park. The girl managed to come to her house.

She was taken to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, which confirmed that she was raped. 

New Delhi, July 10
At the board meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) approved key projects pertaining to the maintenance and distribution network of water in the city.

The several projects discussed in the meeting, including providing of water tankers by the DJB in five new zones with 3 kl and 9 kl capacity. Each tanker will be provided with a smart card which will be required to be swiped at water filling stations to facilitate check on the quantum of water being supplied. GPS devices will also be installed in the tankers.

"This will drastically improve services provided by tankers by checking wastage, diversion of water and unreliability of tanker visits," said a senior DJB official.

DJB water tankers are supplying water in eight zones of Delhi through its own fleet and hired tankers (around 1,000 tankers).

In order to prevent the leakages of water pipelines, the DJB has decided to replace water lines in the areas of Haiderpur, Prashant Vihar, Delhi Cantonment BPS, Mangolpuri, Meera Bagh and Carriappa Marg at an overall cost of approximately Rs 18 crore. In addition to this, the DJB will replace pipelines from Haiderpur to Lawrence Road Underground Reservoir with diameters 1,100/800 m to 1,100/900 mm. The overall cost for this project is nearly Rs 12 crore.

It gave approval for construction of the 7 ml underground reservoir and booster pumping station at Shalimar Park Shahdara, at a total cost of Rs 10.81 crore. The work is likely to be completed within 15 months.

New Delhi, July 10
The families of patients who died after liver transplant surgeries at Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon, today agitated at a seminar and accused doctors of medical negligence and indulging in money-making practice, in Delhi today.

The seminar was held in the wake of the death of Rohit Chaddha, a liver donor who lost his life within weeks after the surgery in Medanta Medicity on May 29.

The agitators’ concerns surrounded incomplete counselling prior to the procedure, keeping them in dark about the post-operative complications apart from the exorbitant costs

Rohit, who volunteered to donate a part of liver to his brother-in-law, was unfit for donation. But doctors declared him fit for donation just for commercial interests," said an irate Suman Chaddha, Rahul's brother, in whose case an FIR against the hospital and the accused doctors has already been registered.

While this case appears to be a clear case of medical negligence, as per many liver transplant experts raising questions on safety of living organ donation, there were four other families who had similar tales to share.

Yash Arora (10) was transplanted liver in March 2011 and later died in July 2011 after a repeat transplant from matched donors. His parents Mini and Pankaj Arora, from Rudrapur, said that their child was discharged in fever after 15 days of the first surgery even as the package for which they were charged was for 28 days. Later, he was shifted to sharing room with a TB patient due to billing issues, they said.

"We were not told about the post-operative problems which appeared in my son's case and he was discharged even as he was in a critical condition. The hospital refused to readmit despite all our requests. These hospitals will do anything for money and in our case we were charged nearly Rs 30 lakh much more than we were initially told. They know how to exploit people," said Mini.

In another case, Palaksha Sharma also met with the same ill fate. Palaksha' mother Rashmi Sharma said: "I took my six-month-old baby in March 2011 with jaundice and after two-three days, she was admitted and doctors told that there was 95 per cent chance that she would be fine with a liver transplant. She was operated on May 27, 2011, and remained in ICU on ventilator till June 16 when she died. We were told that the surgery would cost Rs 12 lakh and it went to Rs 20 lakh."

New Delhi, July 10
Delhi Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin today recommended to Lt-Governor Tejendra Khanna that a former councillor, who was purportedly seen in a sting operation demanding money for allowing illegal construction, should be administered a "censure".

The Lokayukta said in its order, "It would not be feasible if public functionaries who are found to be guilty of misconduct escape unpunished for the reason that they are not in power. Administration of penalties such as caution, censure, etc is expected to usher in the cleansing process to keep the stream of public life clean and unsullied."

"The Municipal Councillor Manju Gupta has misconducted herself and transgressed the norms of integrity and conduct," the Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin said in his order while expressing "great dismay" at the growing menace of unauthorised construction.

The Lokayukta had taken suo motu cognisance of a sting operation of a news channel last year that showed the councillor demanding money for allowing illegal construction.

Sarin said it was found that the willingness of the councillor to "encourage and facilitate" unauthorised and illegal construction is writ large in the conversation recorded in the transcript.

"The respondent (Manju Gupta) who has been found to be in violation of norms of integrity and good conduct, deserves to be administered a "censure" by the Lt-Governor of Delhi," said the Lokayukta.

New Delhi, July 10
Justifying the escalating power tariff in the Capital, Delhi power minister Haroon Yusuf today said the power situation in Delhi was better than the neighbouring cities of Gurgaon and Noida. He said that the tariff was much less vis-a-vis the cost of the raw materials used for producing it.

"The costs of raw materials, including coal, have increased," said Yusuf.

Citing examples of Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad where power cuts extend upto 12-13 hours, Yusuf said Delhi was much better.

The minister was speaking at the 10th foundation day of Delhi Power Company Limited and Delhi Transco Limited.

"The power tariff in Delhi is much less than what people pay in Bangalore, Mumbai and Kolkata, still there is 24-hour power supply," the minister said.