New Delhi, July 4
Food and Supply department of the Delhi Government today sold moong and urhar pulses at a control rate of Rs 39 per kg. The pulses were sold in 70 places in various areas of the national Capital to give relief to the poor who cannot afford to pay Rs 50 and Rs 60 per kg.

An official of the department said that 1,500 kg pulses were sold from each outlets.

The department will continue selling pulses at control rate till the month-end. By the end of July, the Central government will import pulses and the prices will be stabilised, he said.

However, president of the National Akali Dal Paramjeet Singh Pamma has been selling pulses at the rate of Rs 20 per kg for the last two days. First he sold the commodity in Gole Market, the Chief Minister’s constituency.

Today he sold it at Hanuman Mandir and Connaught Place areas.

He alleged that the policies of the Delhi government are anti-people. The Chief Minister should change them to give respite to the masses, he said. 

New Delhi, July 4
Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Prof Jagdish Mukhi has held the Union Government responsible for the rising prices of cereals and pulses.

“The UPA government has brought gram, urad, urhar, wheat and gawar into the list of forward trading which is the main reason for rising prices of these commodities. The government has also brought potato in this list,” he said.

Addressing a press conference, he claimed that there were fluctuations of Rs 150 to Rs 200 per quintal in one day in the market prices of serials and pulses. Some big who are managing the forward trading in the country are taking full advantage of the artificially created fluctuations in the market prices, he said.

He has written letters to the Prime Minister to take out gram, urad, urhar, wheat and gawar from the list of forward trading to normalize the prices.

“These commodities were put in the list of forward trade in the months from April 2004 to July 2004. If not removed from trading, the prices will rise more and poor people will not be able to survive,” he said.

Comparing forward trading with single digit lottery, Prof Mukhi said that result of the trading was that one item of cereal or pulses was sold and purchased worth rupees thousands of crores in one day whereas the actual value of the production of the item in whole year was less than that. In such a situation only companies who are engaged in forward trading will get benefit, he said, while traders and customers will be loosers.

The government had put theses commodities into the list of forward trading to benefit the farmers. But they are the losers because these companies do not purchase cereals from the farmers, he alleged. The government is playing in the hands of multi national companies which have an eye on the vegetable and the fruit market. If fruits are also brought in the list of forward trading, the economy of the country will be doomed, he said. 

Noida, July 4
The power cuts continue unabated for 7 to 8 hours in Noida and Greater Noida. Inverters and gen. sets have also been rendered ineffective. There is so much overload on power infrastructure in the area that 400 transformers have reportedly been gutted in one year so far. As a result, traders, industrialists, common man all are extremely upset.

So much so that even the district hospital in Sector-30 Noida is without power supply which affected its routine operations. Production in industries has virtually ground to a halt for lack of power supply to industrial units.

It being a first day in schools, students looked quite harassed. Sectors 11, 12, 21, 22, 23, 19, 27, 37, 39, 50 and 52 had been worst hit. In Khora Colony, Bhangel and Sadarpur, light had been switched off at 5 am for five hours and again in the evening for 5 hours.

According to UPPC officials, breakers in 132 KV transformers in Sector-20 Noida substation had burst plunging the whole area into darkness. It had jeopardized the whole system.

In the residential sectors, transformers subjected to overloading have been gutted. In Sector-23, a transformer of 250 KV was gutted on Monday causing a 10-hour power cut. The residents had requested UPPC engineers to put up a 400 KV transformer, in view of the increased load.

A few days ago a transformer of 33 and 44 KV had been gutted. Even these had caused a loss of Rs 1.50 crore.

The UPPC officials said Noida Authority had set up this transformer where no provision for earthing had been made.

The substation in Sector-19 too had caught fire five days ago and a sector-10 transformer had also met the same fate. In rural areas of Noida, some 400 transformers are reported to have been destroyed by fire. Power department staff feel rendering of these transformers ineffective is the cause of increasing power crises in the area. But the residents and professionals do not know who to blame, politicians, planners or UP Power Corporation for this crisis. 

New Delhi, July 4
The Delhi government has decided to set up a designated 2000 MW power plant for Delhi at Chhatisgarh with an estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore to overcome the shortage of power.

This has been decided in a cabinet meeting held today.

The Cabinet has also approved a proposal to constitute a joint venture between DIMTS and IDFC to plan, implement and operate the ‘Integrated Multi-modal Transit Network’ for Delhi. Besides the two major decisions, three other decisions were taken in the meeting presided over by the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit.

While briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister said that Delhi had a peak demand of 3900 MW which is likely to grow to 6000 MW by 2011 and would continue to grow as the pace of urbanization went up and the demand for power also increased. Delhi currently generates only 1350 MW of power.

Besides, Delhi is committed to providing sufficient power during the ensuing Commonwealth Games 2010.

The Chief Minister said that the Cabinet has given green signal to set up a 2000 MW pit-based power project in District Champa Janjgir, Chhatisgarh after receiving the consent of the state Chief Minister. It is estimated that the cost of generation at Chhatisgarh would be around Rs 1.80-1.90 per kwh and the landed cost for Delhi would be around Rs 2.50-2.80 per kwh which would be much cheaper than the current cost of power.

Ms Dikshit disclosed that a joint venture company would be set up with 50 per cent equity participation in DIMTS Ltd by IDFC to implement and operate the Integrated Multi-modal Transit Network for Delhi.

It may be recalled that the Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System Ltd. was incorporated as a Public Limited Company on 19th April, 2006 as per a decision of Cabinet held in February.

It has also been decided that Chief Secretary will be the ex officio Chairman of the joint venture company.

In view of the size of the project in terms of amount involved Rs 15,000 crore, it has been decided that the Managing Director would be designated as President of the JVC. The Cabinet has also given its formal approval to the implementation of the HCBS Project as approved by the EFC at a cost of Rs 153.05 crore for road re-engineering to facilitate HCBS from Ambedkar Nagar to Delhi Gate.

The Cabinet has given its nod for constitution of a Specialized Education Tribunal to exclusively deal with legal matters relating to hearing of grievances of teachers and employees of recognized private schools in Delhi.

Eight posts, including a post of Presiding Officer of Tribunal equivalent to Additional District and Session Judge have also been approved to make functional the Specialized Education Tribunal. 

Faridabad, July 4
The project report regarding the proposed financial aid of about Rs 2,064 crore from the Union government under National Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (NURM) for upgrading the civic infrastructure of Faridabad city is ready and likely to be approved by the government.

This will pave way for release of the massive grant in aid from the government which would be used to renew and upgrade the basic civic amenities to meet the requirements of year 2035.

This was stated by the Commissioner, Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF), Mr Mahtab Singh Sehrawat while inaugurating the work on development of a mini Rose Garden-cum Park near Piyali Chowk of NIT are here last evening.

He claimed that there were no doubts about the clearance of the project, which after implementation would change the picture of the city and would provide the most modern and proper civic infrastructure to the residents here, who had been complaining of a defunct sewerage network and shortage of other such facilities.

Stating that there was no scope of any confusions or apprehensions about the proposed scheme, he said Faridabad had been placed among some of the selected cities across the country to get such a project being launched very soon. 

Gurgaon, July 4
The Haryana government is considering a proposal of the state police to provide 110 more PCRs for Gurgaon and Faridabad districts.

The state’s Director General of Police, Mr Nirmal Singh, who was here today, said that the proposed PCRs would be divided between the two districts as per their requirements.

During his visit, the police chief held meeting of the police officials of Gurgaon and Mewat districts. A number of issues were raised by him in the meeting. He stressed healthy police-public interface and also laid stress on improving the image of the force.

His visit was part of an initiative to club two contiguous districts for such meetings in the state. Tomorrow, he will visit Rewari and hold meeting with police officials of Rewari and Narnaul.

Besides, he is trying to home in the necessity of rooting out corruption from the police force during his meetings.

In fact, in the meeting today he lamented on reports of corruption on the part of personnel.

With regard to increasing the vigil and presence of the force in Gurgaon, he sanctioned 26 vehicles for patrol duties. Already the district has 16 PCRs and 30 motorcycle riders. His brief to the force here was that greater vigil should be maintained on roads linking with the national Capital.

Although it could not be confirmed, Mr Singh referred to reports of personnel of a police station here engaged in manhandling of a Vigilance officer who had gone to pursue a case of alleged corruption against them. Recently, there had been reports of corruption on the part of the personnel in Bilaspur Chowki in this district.

The DGP also issued stern directive to the force to keep an eye on the gang wars that have increased in Gurgaon. The fiat was that those indulging in it should be pursued with greater vigour.

Also, traffic problem came under the scanner in the meeting. In order to deal problems and crime relating to vehicular traffic, the Haryana police has created 22 separate police stations in the state. There are two in Gurgaon.

The police authorities took stock of the allegations from various quarters that policing in Gurgaon was not at par with that in bordering state of Delhi. The feeling in the meeting was that the structure of police force in Gurgaon was in keeping with the structure of the police in other districts of the state.

As Gurgaon was functioning within the parameters of the existing structuring in others districts, the only way possible to make it fit was to pump in more personnel and create more posts for officers, especially of the rank of DSPs.

New Delhi, July 4
The third cut-off list of marks for admission to various undergraduate programmes released by Delhi University indicates a ray for hope. Although the list has very little on offer, it has left open a little window for students disappointed by not making it to colleges on the basis of the first two cut-off lists.

Although most top colleges have already wound up admissions in several streams, there are still openings at some.

The cut-off BA Programme in Hansraj College is75 per cent aggregate, in Aditi Mahavidyalaya, it is 62 per cent, it is 63 per cent in Deen Dayal Upadhaya College, 64 per cent in Deshbandhu and 84 in Hindu.

The cut-off for BA Hons. Economics is 84 per cent in College of Vocational Studies, 86-91 in Ramjas.

Admissions to BA Hons. English is 77-80 in DCAC, 71 in Deshbandhu, 75 in Kalindi and 81.75- 89 in Sri Venkasteswara.

Cut-off for BA Hons. History is 55-60 in Bharti College, 60-62 in Deshbandhu, 52 in Janki Devi.

For B. Com. Hons. the cut-off is 81 in Bharti, 82.5-84.5 in Deshbandhu and 90.25 in SGGS College of Commerce.

B.Sc. Physical Sciences has a cut-off of 67 in Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, 65 in Dyal Singh and 77 in Hindu.

B.Sc. Hons. Computer Science has a cut-off of 77-82 in College of Vocational Studies, 83-88 in Deen Dayal Upadhyay College and 85 in PGDAV College. 

New Delhi, July 4
A Delhi Court has ordered registration of a criminal complaint against Delhi Police officials for tampering with evidence in the Lalit Suneja murder case.

Additional Sessions Judge Rajinder Kumar, who sentenced underworld don Babloo Srivastava and Mumbai-based businessman Nitin Shah to life imprisonment yesterday for the 1992 murder, found prima facie evidence against the officials of Nizamuddin police station who allegedly fabricated certain entries in the Daily Diary (DD) to strengthen their case in a wrongful manner.

“I think a prima facie offence is made out under Section 194 and 195 of the IPC for giving false and fabricated evidence with an intention to secure conviction against the accused by the Delhi Police officials,” said ASJ Kumar.

The court ordered that a proper complaint be separately sent to the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Karkardooma, Delhi for taking cognizance of the offence.

Four days before his murder on August 2, 1992, Suneja had lodged a complaint with the police apprehending danger to his life as he was getting threat calls from Srivastava—a close friend of his employer Shah who owed money to him..

Fearing acquittal in the case as 18 public witnesses out of total 32 turned hostile, the Delhi Police lodged the same complaint by fudging DD records.

“Register no 12 (DD) maintained in Nizamuddin police station, New Delhi, was tampered with and the same was produced before this court in evidence,” the ASJ noted.

The inability of Delhi Police to recover the weapon used in the offence also came in for sharp criticism from the court which asked the Police Commissioner to take legal action against the erring officials.

“The IO (Investigating Officer) appears not to have investigated the case properly from that angle and did not try properly to recover the weapon of offence,” the court said.

Ghaziabad, July 4
The body of a 15-year-old girl has been recovered from the jungle of village Basatpur under Dholana police station in Ghaziabad. The girl been strangulated.

The father of deceased has filed a report against three youths who used to harass. A month ago, a report of harassment of the minor had been lodged but the police did not take it seriously.

The police have denied that the victim was raped before murder. SO Dholana Pankaj Lavaniya said the body of the girl had been identified by Vijender as his daughter. The girl had been strangled by putting a noose around her neck. Vijender in his report has named Uday Raj, s/o Mahipal, Anil, s/o Durga Pal and Ram Karan, s/o Anand Pal of village Basatpur as accused in his report.

SO said a complaint of harassment of the girl had been lodged in the police station six months ago, but at that time a mutual agreement had resolved the dispute amicably.

Now police have not specified the cause of murder. Rape is also ruled out.

The police SO said the murder could have been linked to a romantic alliance, but it is not clear which of the three boys was having a love affair with the deceased. Police have not yet arrested the accused.

Faridabad, July 4
In a heart-rending incident, all the five members of family of an armyman, committed suicide in Ballabgarh town here last night. The deceased include the jawan who had come on a leave and had been staying in Subhash Colony here with his wife and three minor children, including two daughters.

According to police reports, the incident took place around 8.30 last night after the couple had a fight over some issue. It is learnt that the woman identified as Bhagwati, wife of Babu Ram, presently deployed near Jammu, left her house along with her son Pravin (11) and two daughters after the quarrel and jumped before a running train.

Her husband, after learning of the incident also committed suicide. — TNS

New Delhi, July 4
The CBI arrested four persons, including an architect and a builder for their alleged involvement in fraudulently reviving the Janpriya Coopreative Group Housing Society and accommodating their family members in it through forged documents.

They later submitted the list to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies for forwarding it to the DDA for allotment of land. The architect was an employee of M/s S.M. Jauhri Private Limited and the builder was secretary of the society. — TNS

New Delhi, July 4
A constable posted at Gujarat Bhawan here was seriously injured today when he shot himself with his AK 47 service rifle in an apparent suicide attempt, police sources said.

Arat Singh Bariya, a Gujarat State Reserve Police (SRP) official, suffered serious injuries in his face when he placed the nozzle of the gun near his chin and fired thrice, the sources said.

His nose and chin were blown off in the incident which happened in the wee hours of the day.

He was rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). His condition is serious. A resident of Godhra in Gujarat, Bariya came to the national Capital four days ago on a three-month deputation at Gujarat Bhawan.

New Delhi, July 4
After the MCD, it is now the International Amusement Ltd-run Appu Ghar, which is the cause of the Delhi Metro’s woes. The DMRC attempt to take possession of the Appu Ghar land today took an ugly turn with both sides trading charges and levelling counter-allegations.

The situation now is that while the DMRC has requested the Delhi Police to provide it with adequate security so that it can peacefully take possession of the 6,202 sq m of the land in Appu Ghar, transferred to it by the Union Urban development Ministry in May, the Appu Ghar authorities are planning to take a legal recourse on the matter.

According to International Amusement Ltd spokesperson S.C. Malhotra, the DMRC’s approach in trying to take over possession of the land forcefully is a move that will be treated accordingly through a legal recourse.

The DMRC’s point of view, however, is that the lease for the land, which has been in possession of the Appu Ghar authorities since the past two decades now, had ended way back in 1999. Delhi Metro officials say that the land was transferred to the DMRC by the Land and Development Officer under the Union Ministry of Urban Development for the construction of a ramp between the Pragati Maidan station on Line 3 and the Pragati Maidan exhibition area in May on government rates and as per rules and regulations.

The DMRC also alleges that when its officials went to the site to take possession of the land today, they had to face “100 to 150 violent Appu Ghar employees and their accomplices, who resisted the Delhi Metro officials’ efforts to take the possession of the land”.

“Considering that this stretch has to open in September, we gave Appu Ghar authorities adequate time to vacate the land, which had been planned as per our designs to build a ramp between the Pragati Maidan station and the exhibition area, besides a road,” they say. They said since the DMRC did not want an “ugly scene at the site”, its officials pulled back and approached the police to provide them with adequate security the next time they go to take possession of the land.

Wg Cdr Malhotra, however, shot down all these as mere “propaganda and allegations by the DMRC”.

According to him, the DMRC was trying to take possession of the land for which it had no legal sanction.

New Delhi, July 4
Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri today expressed his displeasure to MCD officers about the situation of desilting of 1,296 drains in the Capital and instructed them to complete the desilting work of the rest of the drains till July 8.

He directed the agencies concerned to de-silt all the drains soon as the rains are round the corner.

The minister said that flood-like situation may occur in the Capital if drains are not desilted. The meeting was attended by senior officials of the MCD, NDMC, DDA and Cantonment Board.

After the meeting, Dr Yoganand Shastri said that till 30 June, 17 cases of cholera were reported whereas in total 520 cases of cholera have been reported this year in the Capital. Out of this, 157 cases were reported from unauthorized colonies, 86 from urbanized villages, 83 from JJ clusters and slums, 87 from regularized colonies, 8 from re-settlement colonies, 73 from other states, four from Railways, six cases from the NDMC areas and 16 were untraced.

He said during the current week, 34 cases of malaria were reported in the Capital.

He informed that 16,911 blood slides were collected and 10,611 houses were sprayed.

In the Capital, 181,907 houses were inspected for domestic breeding, out of which 936 houses were found positive for breeding, whereas during anti-malaria operations, 918 legal notices were issued and 305 cases were launched for prosecution.