New Delhi, November 20
Properties worth lakhs were gutted in a fire last night which broke out in an old furniture market in the Shaheen Bagh area of Jamia Nagar in south-east Delhi although no one was injured.

According to Delhi Fire Services, the fire was reported to them at 12.50 am following which 26 fire tenders were rushed to the spot which brought the flames under control by 4.20 am.

"However, by the time the blaze was doused, at least 10 shops, two houses and two vehicles were gutted in fire. Nobody was injured in the incident," said a police official.

The cause of fire is yet to be ascertained although prima facie a short circuit appeared to be the cause. Being a furniture market, the fire spread quickly consuming wood and other easily combustible material, a fire official said.

In a similar incident, fire broke out here this afternoon in the Bawana area, Outer Delhi.

The fire reported from a factory at 11.20 am which manufactured plastic irrigation pipes.

"The fire was on the third floor where pipes were stored while the basement and ground floor were used as manufacturing units. The blaze was doused by 2.50 pm using 17 fire tenders. Nobody was injured in the incident," the fire official said. — PTI

New Delhi, November 20
Following the Karachi Airport attack by armed terrorists in June, the security agencies at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, Delhi, are planning to install CCTV cameras outside its cargo terminal.

In the Karachi Airport attack, armed gunmen had entered and attacked the cargo terminal of the airport with automatic weapons, hand grenades and rocket propelled grenades.

At least 28 people, including 10 militants, were killed and about 14 others injured in the attack.

In view of such an attack, the security agencies at IGI Airport decided to strengthen the security of the cargo terminal.

The CCTV cameras installed at the airport are a crucial support unit for the security agencies in identifying suspicious people and helping them track such people.

Close to two months ago, DIAL, the IGI Airport operator, had done a survey for installing CCTV cameras outside the cargo terminal.

Currently, the CCTV cameras are in the process of being procured and will soon be installed outside the terminal, covering the entry and exit points. On the other hand, hundreds of CCTV cameras (the actual figure has not been given for security reasons) are already installed at the cargo terminal.

"After the Karachi attack, it was felt that the loopholes should be removed and that certain areas would need stronger protection," said an official at the airport.

He said the CCTV cameras to be installed outside the cargo terminal are part of the same project of the installation of 100-odd cameras around the airport.

Some of the places where these CCTV cameras will be installed include Central Spine Road, public transport near Centaur Hotel, tunnel road, Mahipalpur chowk, Customs House, besides the cargo terminal of the airport.

These are important entry and exit points to the airport and have a heavy footfall of people.

In February, four men indulged in a carjacking near JW Marriott Hotel at Aerocity. During the next month, four persons posing as passengers near Terminal-3 of the airport hired a private cab. They forced the driver out of the car near Mahipalpur and fled with it.

"The idea is to have more and more coverage and to have these areas under constant surveillance," according to sources.

But the police sources said the CCTV cameras are yet to be installed even though the need for them arises by each passing day, with the numerous alerts of terror threats to the airport.

New Delhi, November 20
Hoping to make a comeback at the Delhi Assembly, a majority of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) utilised their development funds before the dissolution of the fifth assembly in November.

Each MLA gets Rs 4 crore under the Local Areas Development Fund (MLALAD) for carrying out works in their constituency.

As AAP is trying hard to cast its spell once again in the elections, its MLAs not only managed to utilise their own funds in the past ten months, but also the unused amount of previous year.

The elections come as a do-or-die situation for the party which has already started door-to-door campaigning.

AAP had won 28 MLA in the assembly last year. Barring nine MLAs, all others have almost exhausted their development funds with less than Rs 50 lakh balance left in the total amount sanctioned to them in the current financial year.

Out of six cabinet ministers of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, four have spent more than Rs 4 crore.

The highest amount spent was by its controversial minister, Somnath Bharti, Rs 4.05 crore; Rakhi Birla, Rs 4.63 crore; Saurabh Bhardwaj, Rs 5.09 crore; and Girish Soni, Rs 4.05 crore.

However, Manish Sisodia and Satyender Kumar Jain spent Rs 3.41 and Rs 2.94 crore respectively.

Six members still have more than Rs 1 crore as balance in their MLALAD fund. They are: Rajesh Garg from Rohini, Harish Khurana from Timarpur, Vandana Kumari from Shalimar Bagh, Satyender Kumar from Shakurpur Basti, and Ashok Kumar Chauhan from Ambedkar Nagar. Garg had differences with Kejriwal's style of ruling the party.

He had written an open letter to Kejriwal, accusing him of promoting 'rich and corrupt' people in the party.

AAP had also expelled rebel legislator Vinod Kumar Binny within two weeks of coming to power for misbehaviour, leaving its total tally of MLAs to 27.

New Delhi, November 20
To woo women voters for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party will bat for CCTV network across the national Capital and focus on their safety, especially in public transport.

The party will also look into the problems of working women like easing the process of renting houses to working and single women.

The AAP is holding "Delhi Dialogue", its bid to connect with masses and to know what to incorporate in its manifesto, will cater to the issues of women in its next meeting on November 26.

"Ensuring safety of women in public transport, including safety in bus shelters would be our priority," said party leader Atishi Marlena.

She added the aspect of last mile connectivity also needs to be pondered upon. "What about the safety of a woman after she gets down from Metro or a bus till the time she reaches her destination.

The government has stopped services like share-auto services and e-rickshaws, which can be helpful in solving the problem. We also need to ensure that streets are well lit" she said.

Scribe turned politician Ashish Khetan, who is heading the "Delhi Dialogue" initiative said, the party will look into several aspects and focus on the problems of working women.

"There are many young women, students and professionals, who come to the city for work and study. Single women face the problem of renting houses. We will look into this issue. Harassment of women will not be tolerated," Khetan said.

He added that the party will look at ways to empower women and promote entrepreneurship. — PTI

New Delhi, November 20
Reminiscing his meeting with India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Dalai Lama today said he sought his advice on the Tibet-China conflict and Nehru had then told him that the best way to keep the Tibetan issue alive is to educate the younger generation.

He remarked that things are changing in the approach of China. There is move towards mutual understanding, he said.

The Dalai Lama was delivering the Nehru Memorial Lecture on "A Human Approach to World Peace" organised to mark Nehru's 125th birth anniversary at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) wherein he also called for establishing a culture of humanism and social and religious harmony.

He empathised cultural exchange between Buddhist knowledge and modern science while noting that Indians too have to preserve the richness of ancient Indian psychology and science. In this context, he gave the details about an ongoing pilot project on Buddhist science and modern science in the US while noting that in India, some universities are working on a curriculum on 'secular concept and secular ethics'.

"In a year the draft should be ready," he said.

On the Tibet-China tension, the Tibet's exiled spiritual leader called the Chinese government and President Xi Jinping's latest stand strange though realistic.

He stated, "We are adopting a mutually beneficial approach and not seeking independence, separation but genuine support. Tibetans should look at their interests and let the Chinese government take more concern about spending on infrastructure and development for them."

"Pt Nehru was one of the great leaders with a vision for Asia. You got Independence under him who later became the first Prime Minister. India stands for religious harmony, democracy and ahimsa-something seen in the historic Non-Alignment Movement," he said.

He recalled his first meeting with Nehru during the Beijing Peace talks in 1954 followed by subsequent such occasions when he discussed the deteriorating political situation in Tibet. 

New Delhi, November 20
The bodies of two men from Manipur were found in south Delhi during the last two days. A 32-year-old man was allegedly murdered, his throat slit with a knife, at his rented accommodation in south Delhi's Kotla Mubarakpur locality on Wednesday night.

The victim has been identified as Kashung Zingran Kengoo. He was a PhD scholar from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai. He had been staying at his rented accommodation alone since the past month. He was searching for a job and writing articles for an academic journal.

The police are probing the murder on the angles of personal enmity. They have not found any clue as yet to the alleged murderer.

According to the police, Kengoo stayed in a single room on the second floor of an apartment F27/481 at Krishna Gali in Kotla Mubarakpur. On Wednesday night, one of his neighbours noticed his door ajar. He discovered his body lying in a pool of blood and reported the incident to the landlord, who later called the police at around 10.10 pm.

The police informed Kengoo's brother, who is staying at Chirag Delhi, about the incident.

In a separate case, a 22-year-old Manipuri student was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his rented house in south Delhi's Malviya Nagar on Thursday, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Vihrill Shunni, a BA second year student of English (Honours) at Sri Aurobindo College in Malviya Nagar.

The police believe it to be a case of natural death even as they are waiting for the victim's autopsy report.