New Delhi, June 17
Delhi Chief Secretary D.M. Spolia today reviewed the preparations for flood control at a high level meeting, keeping in view its threat in the Yamuna.

Spolia asked the Revenue Department to evacuate the families from the Yamuna localities by tomorrow noon.

The setting up of the tents and camps will be completed by midnight.

He stated that the discharge from Hathini Kund is going to be the highest this year. At 6.00 am today, 8.06 lakh cusecs of water was released from Hathini Kund. Water takes 36 to 72 hours to reach Delhi.

The meeting was attended by the Divisional Commissioner, Principal Secretary, Public Welfare Department, Principal Secretary (Urban Development), Commissioners of three corporations, senior officers of Delhi Development Authority, Irrigation and Flood Control and Delhi Police.

He instructed all the agencies to submit a daily report on the status of flood in his office by 6.30 pm.

According to the Delhi Traffic Police, there had been waterlogging in 50 places affecting the flow of traffic.

"The jurisdictional issues should not be taken into consideration while tackling the problems emerging out of flood and waterlogging. All the agencies have been asked to coordinate, keeping in view the situation of flood. We also instructed the officials to review the Eastern Yamuna Bandh, keeping in view the discharge expected from Hathini Kund," said Sapolia.

The warning level at Old Railway Bridge is 204 metre and the danger level is 204.83 metre.

The highest flood level recorded was 207.49 metre in 1978 and 207.11 metre in 2010.

The first warning would be issued as soon as the discharge from Hathni Kund exceeds 1 lakh cusec, the second when the discharge exceeds 3 lakh cusec and the third warning would be issued when the flow exceeds 5 lakh cusec.

New Delhi, June 17
The lanes of the busy Lajpat Nagar IV in South Delhi are giving nightmares to the residents of Amar Colony, Dayanand Colony, Old Double Storey as well as commuters who have to cross the area in order to go to the neighbouring markets in Greater Kailash or the adjacent colonies.

According to the residents, the ordeal began almost six months ago when the work of laying the underground sewer lines started under Kasturba Nagar's Congress MLA Neeraj Basoya and now the ready mix concretisation of roads is being taken up by the Amar Colony's BJP councillor Savita Gupta.

Since then it has been a bumpy ride for commuters on rickshaw, motorcycles and cars. What is worse, both Basoya and Gupta have got into a blame-game.

"The coal tar road was broken last year and since then I prefer to get down from the rickshaw and walk to my place. It has become very difficult to venture out," said Amrita Ramola who stays in a rented place opposite Mother Dairy.

Another resident of the same area, Shanu Pathak said, "Road condition is really bad and travelling has become a pain. The situation has worsened after the rains."

Pointing at an office cab whose wheels remained stuck in a crater since this morning, the locals said that as many as 12 vehicles were stuck on Sunday itself just on one stretch from Amar Colony Mother Dairy to the T-point at Raghunath Temple.

To make matters worse, the recovery van and cranes were also stuck in mud for hours. Such is the situation that parents are afraid of sending their children to the parks. "The lanes have become unsafe. I am worried about my children and so keep them indoors," said a woman who resides in B block.

However, the BJP councillor said, "The work of sewer lines has been taken up when the elections are approaching. It should have been done earlier."

While the Congress MLA said, "The councillor didn't take the initiative so I had to take it up. Now the entire work will take ten days."

New Delhi, June 17
Monkeys have become a pain in the neck of the Department of Wildlife and Forests (WLF) of the Delhi Government which spends 12.5 lakh per month for feeding over 15,000 monkeys, rehabilitated in Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary.

The number of complaints in regard to monkey menace, especially from the VIP areas surrounding South Block, is increasing. Seeing this, the department has finally prepared an action plan to combat the simians. The action plan includes imparting monkey-catching training to the civic authorities, arrangement of more monkey trappers from the northern states and procuring a large number of small and big cages.

Monkeys are trapped from the inhabited areas of the city with the help of cages and translocated to Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary by the civic authorities. The wildlife department provides the cages and rehabilitates them by providing supplementary food.

"To contain translocation of monkeys in Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, 100 kg of dry ration which includes soaked gram and 2,500 kg of wet ration containing vegetables, fruit, sugarcane, etc., is given to monkeys on daily basis which costs about Rs 1.5 crore a year to the department," said GN Sinha, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Head of Wildlife and Forest Department.

Sinha said that the department has independently contacted his counterparts in Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhaya Pradesh, requesting them to send names and addresses of monkey trappers willing to work in Delhi. "Some trappers approached the chief wildlife warden for the job. All such names were forwarded to the municipal corporations," he said.

The steep increase in demand of cages has also resulted in financial constraints with the department, for which it decided to ask all the three corporations to initiate procurement at their level.

"We have asked them to procure cages. The South Municipal Corporation has already taken action in this direction," he said. The department has procured 56 big and 120 small cages.

As regard to the census of the monkeys, the officials said that it was not possible because of their free ranging nature and high rate of reproduction.

However, they said that the department is trying to generate an alternative method for counting of monkeys so that a record is maintained about their growing population.

New Delhi, June 17
At least 14 children, mostly newborn babies, had to be evacuated after a fire broke out at the paediatric ward of the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi in the early hours of Monday.

No injuries were reported in the incident. Fire department officials said that a slight delay by the firefighters might have resulted in the death of the infants.

There was hardly any traffic on the roads, allowing firefighters to reach the hospital easily.

The fire reportedly broke out when one of the two window air-conditioners located in the ward, had a short-circuit at 4.13 am. Soon eight fire tenders reached the site and doused the fire by 4.25 am.

The Medical Superintendent, Dr B D Athani said, "No damage was caused. Our staff were quick in evacuating 14 children."

However, the fire department officials alleged that the hospital staff did not know how to deal with the situation. The staff did not activate the fire extinguishing system, which was only activated after the firefighters reached the scene.

New Delhi, June 17
A man in his thirties was found murdered inside a train at Shakur Basti railway station in Delhi on Saturday, police said today.

The man is yet to be identified. He was found in a pool of blood with sharp injuries on his body.

The local train in which his body was found runs from Palwal in Haryana to Shakur Basti railway station every day.

Railway employees who were checking the train found the man inside. They informed the police.

The body was sent to the Sabzi Mandi mortuary. "We are trying to identify him. His belongings were not with him. It is possible that he may have been robbed and then stabbed, while resisting the attempt," said a police officer.

A murder case has been registered at the Sarai Rohilla police station. Investigators have asked the police stations of the neighbouring areas to check for missing persons complaints in order to establish the identity of the deceased.