New Delhi, August 26
The BJP demanded 80 per cent reservation for citizens of Delhi in allotment of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flats under the new housing scheme announced recently.

Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay made it clear that he considers every such person a citizen of Delhi who is a voter in Delhi or has a permanent business or service here.

Today, he talked to the DDA vice-chairman, Balvinder, in this regard.

In a letter written to the Lt. Governor, Upadhyay has said the people of various states get reservation in the government schemes by their respective states and generally there is little interference of the people from outside in these schemes.

In such situation the people of Delhi should get the benefit of the housing schemes by the government agency, especially those who do not have houses of their own.

Upadhyay said due to the shortage of cheap houses, the people of Delhi are compelled to carryout illegal additional construction in their existing houses resulting in undue pressure on the public services and adversely affecting the development works in the area. Therefore, it is necessary that the cheap houses available in Delhi should be allotted to the permanent residents so that Delhi may develop in a planned way.

He also welcomed the decision of the DDA to allot the work of maintenance of old flats to the residents welfare associations and said the DDA should ensure that this scheme continues smoothly in future also.

New Delhi, August 26
A 19-year-old girl from Nepal has alleged that she was gangraped by six men in Mehrauli, south Delhi, said a police officer today. The victim has alleged that she is a victim of human trafficking and was forced into prostitution by a couple, according to the police.

The victim came to India from Kathmandu and first went to Panipat district, Haryana. She used to work as a domestic help and earned Rs 5,000 per month.

In her statement, she told the police that she met a couple, Ranju and Amit, in Panipat about two months ago. "The couple told the girl that it could help her get a better job in Delhi," said the officer.

The girl allegedly arrived in Delhi with the couple and stayed with them in Khirki Extension, south Delhi.

But the couple allegedly forced her into prostitution. On Sunday, the girl was allegedly directed by the couple to go to the house of a man named Subhash in Saidulajab near Mehrauli.

There she was allegedly forced to consume alcohol. Subhash and five others allegedly took turns to rape her. She was not allowed to leave the house on Sunday.

In the early hours of Monday, she managed to escape from the house and informed the police.

The police took the girl to AIIMS hospital, where she is undergoing treatment for the injuries she sustained during the sexual assault. Her medical examination has also confirmed consumption of alcohol.

On the basis of the girl's statement and medical report, a case under the IPC was registered.

The police arrested Ranju and Amit and are searching for the other accused.

New Delhi, August 26
Five parking contractors at Karol Bagh Zone were today penalized Rs 7 lakh by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) for non-compliance of various norms laid down by the civic body for running parking lots.

Karol Bagh Zone Deputy Commissioner Dharmendra Kumar said overcharging, absence of detail board and handheld device was violated at all these parking sites. Many of them were fined earlier also for violations.

At Ajmal Khan Road, two parking sites were raided and four persons have been caught for illegally charging.

"The authorized parking at Ajmal Khan Road was found in violation of norms such as overcharging up to Rs 100 per car, without handheld device and lack of display boards mentioning details of the parking," Kumar said.

Kumar said at Ghaffar Market, the parking was done beyond permissible limit. "The attendants seemed to have been hired by the contractor without police verification. The attendants were handed over to the police to verify the same," he added.

At Arya Samaj Road and Padam Singh Road parking sites also, two attendants each were caught and handed over to the police. The parking lots were also penalised for overcharging and violations like not wearing prescribed uniform, without handheld device, etc.

At PVR Naraina parking, which is situated opposite police station, eight attendants were caught and handed over to police for verification.

The issue of irregularities and illegally overcharging was deliberated in the meeting of the Standing Committee and chairman Mohan Bhardwaj directed that there should be zero tolerance towards unauthorized parking and parking mafia.

New Delhi, August 26
Decrying the retrenchment of six ad-hoc teachers, the Swami Shraddhanand College Staff Association is not ready to buy the college's plea behind the move that it has crossed the sanctioned cap of 173 teachers for whom the Union Grants Commission (UGC) grants funds.

Both the association and the Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) today demanded the existing ad-hoc teachers be reinstated and all fresh positions be decided in consultation with the teaching post committee of the staff.

As per the association, the college administration and the principal has allegedly bypassed the teaching post committee of the staff council by not seeking approval of the said committee before reaching at any decision of termination of the six teachers.

Also, it pointed out that additional appointments by the principal were made "arbitrarily" during the current semester without the mandatory sanctions from the relevant Staff Council Committees.

"Six ad-hoc teachers, belonging to English (4), one each of History and Hindi, were issued notices on August 21 that their services have been terminated. These are the teachers who have been working for more than two years or from last semester, but the principal unilaterally targets few departments, saying the college has funds only for 173 teachers. There were already 171 teachers this year then why did he make more than 15 additional appointments without asking for funds from the UGC?" asked assistant professor of Political Science and president of SSN College Staff Association Manish Kumar.

Noting that even as there is a surplus of workload as in Hindi department where an assistant professor is taking 20 classes in a week, two more than the DU Executive Committee guidelines mandate, he pointed, "The paper of Environmental Studies introduced this time has been arbitrarily allotted to some departments whereas teachers in some other departments have been shown the door even when workload exists as per university norms."

The Extended Staff Association held a meeting last Friday and passed resolutions arguing that the fixing of sanctioned posts in each department of a college has to follow the laid down procedure of the teachers post committee of the staff council.

"The committee has not approved the new posts in which appointments have been made in the current session.

“The committee should be given the time to assess the situation and status quo should be maintained on the issue and no teacher should be retrenched before the master time table is set right," said Kumar.

Stating that it is in violation of the instructions from the UGC dated July 21, 2014, DUTA president Nandita Narain also condemned SSN College Principal Dr. S. K. Kundra, accusing him of "high handed and autocratic behaviour" leading to victimisation of teachers.

"The root cause of this problem is the misgovernance and arbitrary decisions by DU Vice-Chancellor. Even as the OBC expansion was complete by the end of 2010, the colleges were only released half the number of posts which the UGC had sanctioned.

“This has created an artificial cap and crisis for colleges," observed joint secretary Anita Ghosh.

New Delhi, August 26
A day after the Supreme Court declared it illegal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today demanded that the coal blocks allocated between 1993 and 2010 be cancelled.

The party asserted that those coal blocks in which mining has started should be immediately transferred to the government-owned Coal India Limited from the private players and all other coal blocks should now be allocated through a transparent and fair auction process.

The party hit out at the leading political parties stating that the "muted response" of major parties on the issue "raises doubts over their sincerity" in speaking against corporate interests.

The coal blocks allocation case is a classic example of the corporate-politician-bureaucrat nexus and signals deep roots of crony capitalism in India, the party noted.

"There is no reason for the Central government to dilly-dally on the issue any further since the Supreme Court's view leaves it with no option, and strictest possible action should be taken against the corporate and individuals who have plundered the natural wealth of the country," the AAP said.

New Delhi, August 26
Delhi Chief Secretary S.K. Srivastava today issued directions to all head of departments (HoDs) to dispense with unnecessary affidavits and undertakings and replace them with self-attestation.

While conducting a meeting, Srivastava said except in cases where there is statutory requirement, the practice of seeking affidavits will be abolished.

He has instructed to all the Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, HoDs and Chief Managing Directors of undertakings and corporations to ascertain the possibility of abolition of affidavits while providing the services to the citizens and replace it with the self-attestation.

He has asked them to submit the list of the services provided by the different departments for which the affidavits could be waived by August 31. The HoDs have been asked to submit the list of modified forms waiving away the conditionality of submission of affidavit with the format of self-attestation.

Principal Secretary (Administrative Reform) Arun Baroka said a number of services provided by various departments where the affidavit could be parted away and could be replaced with self-attestation.

"The application forms for providing various services from the departments will carry an undertaking, saying that the facts stated are true and correct to the best of knowledge and belief. All local inventions type of affidavit will be done away. At the same time, the service seekers may be penalized for concealment of facts, misrepresentation of facts and legal action can be taken under Section 199 and 200 of the Indian Penal Code," Shrivastav said.

Acceptance of self-attestation will save people from buying stamp papers, locating a deed writer, saving them from payment to notary and executive magistrate. It will also save from pecuniary loss which is around Rs.300-500 per affidavit.

New Delhi, August 26
A 29-year-old Nigerian national, who was allegedly involved in drug trafficking has been arrested with 115 gm cocaine worth Rs 1.25 crore, the police said today.

"The accused identified as Kingsley Chinedu Odefour, a native of Nigeria, was arrested by the Crime Branch yesterday after it got a tip-off that a drug trafficker would be coming to Najafgarh Road," Addl CP (Crime) Ashok Chand.

During interrogation, it was revealed that the accused had come to Delhi in 2012 on single entry Business Visa. His Visa expired in November 2012 but he continued to stay illegally in India, he said.

He got into drug-trafficking after losses in his business.

A case has been registered under sections of the NDPS Act and further investigations are on. — PTI

2 persons murdered by friends

Two persons were allegedly murdered by their friends in a brutal manner in the national Capital over the past 24 hours.

Usman Khan (55), a scrap dealer, was bludgeoned to death by his friend Suresh (30) in Mehrauli on Sunday night, following an argument over monetary issues, the police said today.

In another incident, Rajinder (22) was stabbed to death by his friend in Kalkaji, the police said.

His body was found around 4 am by passersby who informed the police. There are more than a dozen stab wounds on the body.

The accused has been identified and efforts are on to nab him. —PTI

New Delhi, August 26
A delegation of the BJP under the leadership of its Delhi unit president Satish Upadhyay met the Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, appealing him to work out the difficulties faced by the e-rickshaw drivers as driving e-rickshaws have been banned by the Delhi High Court.

The delegation appealed to the minister to solve the problem of livelihood of the e-rickshaw drivers and the inconvenience to the people of Delhi.

Gadkari assured the delegation that the government will complete all the legal formalities and submit the required papers in the High Court on the date of next hearing.

New Delhi, August 26
Terming them as "trained blood hounds" and "feral beasts", the Delhi High Court today upheld the death sentence of three youths for abducting, gangraping and killing a 17-year-old girl here, saying the case fell within the realms of the "rarest of rare" category.

Awarding the capital punishment, the court said, "The sordid facts of the present case reveal that the victim after having been abducted in public gaze and consequently removed from society was ravished and murdered." "The tale of malignity was far from its conclusion as thereafter the sadistic perpetrators grotesquely stamped the breast and the umbilical region of the deceased by using the heated spanner," it said.

A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta, in its 97-page verdict, dealt with the evidence relating to the horrific crime and the sentencing patterns of various countries, including the US, in sexual offences cases.

"It is a whimsical and bizarre crime, conceits of which kind are not common in the annals of crime. After raping unfortunate Anamica (name given by the court), they battered her to death. They then defiled her body.

Their acts revealed the intention to carry out a crime for the excitement of a criminal act.

"From the injuries caused to Anamica which led to her death it is apparent that the duration of Anamica's physical suffering was prolonged, it is apparent that the three accused intended to traumatize the victim emotionally, maximizing terror through humiliation, all for experiencing pleasure of the criminal action and the pain and suffering of Anamica and benefit from the excitement of the criminal act," it said.

The bench dismissed the appeals filed by the youths - Rahul (27), Ravi (23) and Vinod (23) - against the death sentence awarded to them by a trial court and allowed the plea the state seeking confirmation of the death penalty.

The girl, who was working in Gurgaon's Cyber City, was abducted by the three youths in a car near her house in Qutub Vihar here and was gangraped and murdered by them on February 9, 2012.

In its judgement, the bench referred to the sequence of events.

"We refer back to the first three paragraphs of our decision which brings out that the three accused moved as trained blood hounds, picking out a scent. They got one when they saw Pooja, Sangeeta, Saraswati and Anamica. — PTI