New Delhi, April 5
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) today announced an increment of 25 per cent in the basic pay of the employees and officials of the gurdwara committee.

The DSGMC president, Manjit Singh (GK), said that with the increment of 25 per cent in the basic salary, an employee would get a raise between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 and officials would have an increment between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 in the total amount of their salaries. The decision would give a relief to the committee employees and officials.

He said that during the DSGMC election, the SAD (Badal) had assured the committee employees that if the party was voted to power, their salaries would be increased. Today the promise has been fulfilled, he said.

The employees have not been getting their salaries on time for the past many years. But now they are getting them on time, he added.

Manjit has warned of strict action against those employees who do not follow the rules and regulation of the gurdwara committee.

New Delhi, April 5
A large number of BJP activists led by the Delhi unit president Vijay Goel marched towards the residence of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to submit a memorandum, demanding cheap houses for the poor.

The protest march, begun from the BJP central office , reached Moti lal Nehru Marg where they were stopped by the police and taken to the Tughlak Road police station.

Goel said just before the last assembly election, the Chief Minister had promised low-cost houses for the poor under the Rajiv Ratan Awas Yojna, but so far the houses have not been allotted.

The BJP leader said that he is representing lakhs of people whose dream of having a low-cost house shattered.

The leader said that he had raised this issue many times, but every time the voice of the poor remained unanswered. Every time the issue was raised, false promises were made.

More than four lakh houses were to be built under this scheme but only about 500 have been made so far and out of that too about 85 have been allotted, he said.

Goel said the recent CAG report too which Dikshit had tabled on the last day of the assembly session to avoid heat in the House, clearly indicted the city government on this issue apart from others for gross corruption in her government.

The BJP leader said that the CAG has mentioned the fact that the Sheila government is lagging behind in all aspects of governing and administration, leading to rampant corruption.

New Delhi, April 5
After three protests over the last two weeks, northeast students today sought intervention of the Human Resource Development Minister against the imposition of Hindi by Delhi University under its four-year undergraduate programme.

A large number of students from different communities of the northeast gheraoed the ministry. Organized under the banner of NEFIS (North-East Forum for International Solidarity) along with a number of other organizations, the students submitted a memorandum to the minister, demanding his intervention to stop the imposition of Hindi /Modern Indian Languages (MILs) course by Delhi University.

"A delegation of five students met the senior secretary of higher education in the HRD Ministry, who received the memorandum. He had already been reportedly instructed by the HRD Minister to look into the issue positively," said a member of the NEFIS.

In the coming academic year, the Delhi University administration is going to introduce a syllabus according to which it would become compulsory for all the students to do a foundation course during the first year of their graduation. In this course, they would be required to opt for a language which would either be Hindi or one of the Modern Indian languages (MILs). 

New Delhi, April 5
With the arrest of Shekhar Ganguly, the Delhi police today claimed to have busted a racket of cheating unemployed youths on the pretext of getting them jobs in the Ministry of Railways.

Ganguly, who was arrested on April 3, cheated the job seekers of Rs 16 lakh, said a police official.

The police seized 10 packets of letter heads of the private secretary to the Ministry of State for Railways from his house at Shree Radha Brij Govardhan in Mathura. Besides, two mobile phones and four SIM cards were also seized from the accused.

The police has a complaint from Dilip Pandit Patil, who along with his friends, came to Delhi in December 2010 and met Ganguly. The accused promised them to get jobs in the Indian Railways and collected Rs 300 each as registration fees from the complainant and his friends. Later, the accused called the complainant and demanded Rs 50,000 each for the job. The amount was collected near Palika Bazar in May 2011.

Later, he showed a forged letter alleged to be issued by the Ministry of Railways to the victims and again collected Rs 50,000 each. After that, the accused did not respond to the phone calls of the victims following which the victims registered a complaint.

The police contacted the accused through a decoy customer. A trap was laid and the team contacted Ganguly with the request to get them jobs in the Indian Railways. The accused fell into the trap and asked them to meet him at Corus Hotel, B-Block, Connaught Place on April 3 from where he was apprehended.

During interrogation, the accused said that his family lives in Mathura. He never gave correct address to the victims. The police raided the house of the accused in Mathura and seized 10 packets of letterheads besides two mobile phones and four SIM cards.

New Delhi, April 5
An endeavour started by three young friends to nurture their dreams of art, 'Trio' debuted with its first painting and sculpting exhibition in the Capital today.

Saravpriya Singh, Deepu David and Mohammad Abbas will open a weeklong exhibition, 'Vibgyor', at the Lokayukta Art Gallery at Hauz Khas Village in South Delhi. Starting tomorrow, the exhibition will be open to all till April 11.

"A total of 12 artists have been showcased at the exhibition. Our aim is to reach out to the young talent and help it share a platform. When we started working on Trio, we had envisioned widespread participation from the Indian art students. We have many more projects in the pipeline. Many artists have already contacted us on the upcoming exhibitions. Our goal now is to achieve optimum visibility," said Saravpriya.