New Delhi, November 17
A 28-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide in her house in Anand Parbat area of central Delhi while her family suspected that she was tortured to death by her in-laws for dowry.

Police have arrested the woman's husband Vipin (31), who runs a printing press, and mother-in-law Sushila after her family filed a complaint alleging that she was harassed and tortured to death for dowry.

The incident was reported on the intervening night of November 15-16, after a private hospital, where Nidhi, mother of two daughters, was brought in unconscious state by her husband and in-laws, called the police.

Nidhi's family alleged that Vipin was demanding a four-wheeler from them.

During questioning, the victim's in-laws said that she had an argument with her mother-in-law over cooking food. And later in the evening, Vipin received a phone call from his mother that Nidhi had committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance, the police said.

When Vipin reached home, he found Nidhi lying unconscious in a bedroom. She was rushed to the nearby private hospital where she was declared brought dead, the police said. — PTI

New Delhi, November 17
Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel today said that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is totally unaware of the ground realities of Delhi.

Goel made these remarks while holding public meetings in support of party candidates Mahinder Nagpal from Ashok Vihar and Ravinder Bansal from the Shalimar Bagh assembly constituencies. Goel said, "Rahul feels Delhi has become a world-class city, which is far from the ground reality. A report prepared by the Urban Development Ministry of the UPA says that Delhi has failed on basic urbanization parameters such as electricity, drinking water and poverty index. Rahul should not depend on the incorrect and misleading figures supplied by the Congress Government of Delhi."

"Can someone call a city developed and the government efficient, if it cannot construct a sanitary landfill site, a night shelter, an old-age home or a mega-bus terminus? asked Goel.

New Delhi, November 17
Chief ministerial candidate of the BJP Harsh Vardhan today visited slum camps opposite the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and another such camp behind the residence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. He spent two hours with thousands of poor people living there.

He said that even after 67 years of Independence, people in the neighbourhood of the residences of the Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi are living in nightmarish conditions.

It is surprising that the Chief Minister, who makes tall claims about the development of Delhi, has not provided basic amenities like water, toilets, roads, cheap ration, health, education to these slum dwellers in her own assembly constituency.

Vardhan's visit to Bhaiya Ram camp and JJ clusters near Tughlak Lane continued for about two hours. He said that there are only four to five toilets for the population of 4,000 people. The water supplied was not drinkable.

Women were compelled to attend the nature's call in the open.

Attacking the so-called love of the Congress for the poor, Vardhan said that on October 27, Rahul Gandhi had addressed a rally where he claimed that the Congress had worked for the uplift of the poor, minorities, Schedule Caste people, etc., but he did not tell the people of Delhi that about 800 poor people had been living in hellish conditions behind his official residence at 12, Tughlak Lane for decades.

New Delhi, November 17
Fifty-five couples tied the knot at a mass ceremony organized by the social welfare department of Sant Nirankari Mission at Samagam Ground, Burari.

Among the bridegrooms, 27 belonged to Delhi, seven to Uttar Pradesh, six to Haryana, four to Punjab, two each to Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand. There was one each from Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Chandigarh.

Among brides, 17 came from Delhi, nine from Uttar Pradesh, eight from Haryana, five from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttarakhand, two each from Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and one each from Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Chandigarh. One bridegroom came from Dubai and one bride from the UK. 

New Delhi, November 17
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), known for its out-of-the-box methods, has apparently set a precedent in preparing a 'customised and people-centric manifesto' ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections.

What's more, the party is in the process of finalising different manifestos, apart from the central manifesto, for each of the 70 assembly constituencies that would feature the issues in consultation with the local people.

Following the maverick's footsteps, both the seasoned Congress and the BJP Delhi units are also paying attention to their parties' manifestos in the run up to the polls on December 4.

This comes as a boost to the AAP for its debut elections with its senior leaders saying they are happy that the "Congress and BJP are copying its ways".

According to psephologist Prof Yogendra Yadav, also the in-charge of AAP's manifesto, the idea of constituency-specific manifesto has not been attempted earlier by any political party in the country and this idea along with organising 'mohalla sabhas' has been derived from 'swaraj' (self-rule).

"We decided to have separate manifestos and hold mohalla sabhas in every corner of the city as a first step to direct democracy. Both separate manifestos and mohalla sabhas come from the concept of swaraj and we want people to take charge of their areas and in a first why not involve them in making election manifestos," noted Prof Yadav.

He explained, "We realised that most manifestos don't see the problems and miss out on raising people's concerns. Hence, we took the decision so that they can relate to it and bring the issues concerning their locality."

The volunteers of the AAP and candidates have been interacting with people during the local street shows, gatherings and door-to-door- campaigns to know what the electorate wants in manifestos.

"This is the first time that we are having separate manifestos besides a main manifesto. It is a three-stage process and we have a complete team sitting and collating data received from individual constituencies and after filtering, we would soon release the main manifesto," said AAP's national secretary Pankaj Gupta.

On the other side, both the Congress and BJP moving from their conventional strategy have adopted participatory process for preparing their manifestos unlike in the past. While the Congress has invited suggestions from people on its website around the third week of September, the BJP too has sought views from 1,000 well-known people.

In response, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Dr Harsh Vardhan noted, "Manifesto is a symbolic thing though involvement of people is very important and we have called for suggestions. It is nothing new and we have always taken people all along."

Also, the party is considering having separate manifestos or at least including one local issue from each area, confirmed BJP spokesperson H Khurana.

Delhi Congress Party's general secretary Jitender Kochar said, "We are seeking public suggestions on line keeping in mind that this time there is a significant chunk of young voters who use computers. We have a dedicated team working on the manifesto at our city office and soon after the nominations, we would finalise it. Earlier, our party leaders used to put forth their suggestions, but this time in line with what was said by Rahul Gandhi in the party's manifesto committee meeting in September, we have decided to follow this process."