New Delhi, October 21
Following the Prime Minister's call to Members of Parliament to adopt rural villages and transform them into a model village with all facilities, Bhati Mines Village of South Delhi has been identified for developing as a model village under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

A survey was conducted on the socio-economic condition of Bhati Mines Village through District Magistrate (South). Delhi Chief Secretary D.M. Spolia said the village has been identified for its holistic development.

He said the socio-economic profile of the village shows that it lies on the last leg of Main Chhattarpur Road, flanked by Delhi-Haryana Border in south sharing boundary with Asola Village on its right and Fatehpur Beri and Dera Mandi on the left.

"On a flip side, this is also an indication of the fact that not much commercial activity takes place in the area and that it is under-developed despite lying in the South Delhi area," Spolia said.

Spolia said according to revenue record, the area of the village is 18,403 bigha and 03 biswa. Around 5022 bigha and 10 biswa land is for the purpose of cultivation. In 1996, 11,101 bigha and 19 biswa of the gramsabha land was notified under ridge in the Delhi Gazette.

"Thus, a large part of the village rests with the forest department. The revenue village of Bhati has three sub-parts: Bhati Kalan, Bhati Khurd and Sanjay Colony. Another minor part is Har Swarup Colony," said a senior Delhi government official.

The village is occupied primarily by people of the Gujjar community. They do not own agricultural land (with a very few exceptions), which have been purchased by outsiders over a period of time. Almost all households have livestock which serves as the lifeline of the economy of the village.

The Chief Secretary after going through the study said the solutions proposed in this study aim to make Bhati a self-sustaining autonomous ideal village of Gandhiji's imagination.

The village will get a boost to set its economy rolling and the people will find a more meaningful existence. This study is only the first baby step towards making Bhati a model village.

New Delhi, October 21
Six hundred and sixty-two police and security forces personnel, including 12 Delhi Police officials who were killed while serving for their forces, were commemorated at the Commemoration Day Parade organized by the Delhi Police here today.

Personnel were killed between September 1 last year and August 31 this year. The parade held in their honour was organized at the New Police Lines Ground, Kingsway Camp. Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi read out the names of 12 martyrs of the Delhi Police.

These personnel are inspector Ashok Kumar, sub-inspector Hem Raj, head constable Ravinder Singh, head constable Ashok Kumar, head constable Mahavir Prasad, constable Praveen Chaudhary, constable Vinod Kumar, constable Mana Ram, constable Bintu, constable Prahalad Sahai Meena, constables Shiv Raj Singh and Vikas Kumar.

Delhi Police Commissioners (Retrd) M.B. Kaushal, T.R. Kakkar and Neeraj Kumar paid homage to personnel by laying wreath at the memorial.

New Delhi, October 21
After taking views of all stakeholders in development work in the national Capital, Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu desired that the new simplified building bye-laws be 
notified by the end of December.

The minister expressed his views at stakeholders meeting that was attended by experts in building construction and other development works, including architects engineers, real estate representatives, urban planners, representatives of housing societies, development agencies who have highlighted the haphazard development in the national Capital making urban living a hardship.

Giving suggestions, participants have strongly urged that the bye-laws should enable construction of high-rise buildings to meet the growing demand in the national Capital and in view of scarcity of availability of land.

They pointed out that Mater Plan Delhi-2021 provides for re-development but no such activity has been allowed over the past seven years.

They said re-development can meet the needs of expanding the national Capital by up to 40 per cent.

Other suggestions made by the stakeholders include specific time frames for approvals for layout and building plans, increasing floor area ratio (FAR) norms, not considering circulation areas as part of FAR, avoidance of duplication in approvals like not requiring approvals for expansion when the layout plan was cleared, allowing multi-level parking without taking this areas as part of FAR, online approvals, ensuring structural safety, seismic planning norms with Delhi being in earthquake prone zone, providing bye-laws for commercial establishments, removal of discretions, furnishing of mandatory quality certificate by the builder, enforceable set back norms, etc.

A committee will consider the suggestions for incorporation in the draft simplified bye-laws and the second version of these bye-laws will be placed in the public domain i.e. on the websites of DDA and DUAC till the first week of November, for further suggestions and feedback from the public and other stakeholders.

Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary (Urban Development), said keeping in view the problems being faced in realizing the objectives of Master Plan of Delhi and to meet the growing demand for housing and other purposes, building bye-laws are being simplified.

Balwinder Kumar, DDA vice-chairman, referring to the problem of growing chaos on various fronts despite the Delhi Development Act of 1957, noted that the only two major achievements have been increasing green cover to over 87,000 acres and protection of Lutyens Bungalow Zone.

Durga Shankar Mishra, Additional Secretary (UD), expressed concern over compounding of violation of bye-laws rather than approving such constructions.

Dr. P.S.N. Rao, DUAC chairman, said simplification of bye-laws is undertaken to make them contemporary and user friendly.

New Delhi, October 21
A Delhi Traffic Police head constable was allegedly beaten by an advocate near the Rohini Court this morning, when he had stopped the advocate's car for driving on the opposite side of a one way road, said a police officer.

The victim has been identified as Santosh, who is posted in Rohini. He saw a car moving from the opposite side of a one way road and heading towards the court.

When the constable flagged down the car, the driver stopped and got out of the vehicle and allegedly started slapping and punching Santosh. The accused also allegedly tore Santosh's uniform. The accused was later identified as Virender Sangwan (29), an advocate. Virender is practising at the Rohini court.

"The crowd which had gathered at the spot intervened and stopped the scuffle between the traffic official and the lawyer. The lawyer then went inside the court premises. The traffic policeman reported the matter to the police post located at the court premises and the lawyer was summoned there," said the officer.

A case under Sections 186 and 353 of the IPC.