Much ahead of the dengue season, mosquitoes were found breeding at over 90 prominent buildings in NDMC areas including RML Hospital and offices of environment and telecommunication ministries following which the civic body has served notices to them.
Gearing up for the summer season which is conducive to mosquito-breeding, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has formed a surveillance team which is inspecting all buildings falling under its area.
RML Hospital, Paryavaran Bhawan, Meghdoot Bhawan, Sanchar Bhawan, Baroda House, Kashmir House, Shivaji Stadium have been served notices by the NDMC after vector-carrying mosquitoes were found breeding in their premises.
“Our inspection team has already started field visits and surveillance work. A total of 96 notices have been issued so far in the ongoing first phase. The team is reviewing the mosquitogenic conditions and offices are being asked to take preventive measures,” NDMCs Chief Medical Officer R N Singh said.
“We have also started various training programmes for spreading awareness about the disease. In the first phase, sanitation workers have been given training, while in the next phases NDMC school teachers and executive engineers will be trained,” he said.
Last year, NDMC had issued over 125 notices to the Presidents Estate after “heavy” mosquito-breeding was found at various places on its sprawling campus. However, the officials say the situation has improved this year.
“After repeated notices were sent to Rashtrapati Bhawan, a four-member team was formed to work closely for taking precautionary and control measures, and the situation has largely improved. No breeding has been detected so far,” Singh said.
Last year, with over 15,500 cases till mid-November, the dengue outbreak was reported to be worst in the city since 1996, when 10,252 cases and 423 deaths were reported.
While 38 deaths due to the deadly disease were officially reported last year, the unofficial figure stood at 43.
The council staff inspects all buildings in NDMC areas every year to check mosquito-breeding. Notices are issued in the first phase and the defaulters are asked to reply within a weeks time about the measures taken by them. However, if in the second phase breeding is still found in their premises, NDMC issues challans to such violators. PTI

Six persons were killed and 24 others injured, three of them seriously, in separate road accidents here, police said.

Three persons were killed in a collision between a van and truck at Bharol road under Shikohabad police station area today, police said.

The deceased have been identified as Amit (22), Mahesh Chand (35) and Shiv Devi (50), they said.

In another incident, Nitin (30) was killed and 24 were injured when the bus in which they were travelling overturned in the wee hours on Biltighar crossing under Makhanpur police station area, they said.

The injured were admitted to a hospital where the condition of three of them was stated to be serious, police said.

In Mohamadabad under Tundla police station area, Nand Kishore (60) was killed when his motorcycle was hit from behind by an unidentified vehicle this morning, police said.

Dalvir (42) was killed when his motorcycle was hit by a tempo in Nasirpur police station area, police said.PTI

A local court has rejected the discharge application filed by Saquib Nachan, who was recently convicted in the 2003 Mulund train blasts case, in connection with an attempt to murder case against him and others.

Saquib’s son Shamil Saquib Nachan, who was also arrested in the same case, too filed an application for discharge which was rejected by the court.

Thane Additional Sessions Judge A S Bhaisare clubbed the four applications filed by the father-son duo in connection with the cases against them and disposed them in a single order last week.

Saquib, from Padga in Thane, was arrested in connection with attempt on the life of advocate Manoj Raicha, an office-bearer of Bajrang Dal, on August 3, 2012. He was charged under sections 307, 120(B) of IPC and sections 3, 25, 27 of the Arms Act in connection with the case.

In his application in the Thane court, which is trying him, Nachan said that the crime branch had created fabricated false evidence against him and the matter needed to be probed by CBI.

However, the police stated that they had seized certain books, CDs, and computer from the arrested accused which had provocative content.

In his order, the judge stated that the theory of prosecution at this stage cannot be said to be false or fabricated.

“Having considered the facts and circumstances of the matter, in my view, there is no substance in the applications and they all are liable to be rejected,” the judge noted in his order.

Saquib was earlier also arrested in 2002 in connection with the murder of VHP leader Lalit Jain at Bhiwandi in the district. However, he was acquitted in the case in 2006 for want of evidence.RNI

Another FIR was registered today against unknown persons following a complaint by a Delhi-based resident on the alleged gangrape by Jat agitators in Sonipat district of Haryana in February.

An FIR was registered against unknown persons on the complaint of a Delhi-based man by the all-women Special Investigation Team (SIT) which was constituted to look into allegations that women commuters were pulled out of their vehicles and raped during the Jat agitation at Murthal in Sonipat district, DIG Rajshree Singh said here.

Singh said the complainant told police that he was informed by a Himachal Pardesh-based family that women were dragged out of cars and taken to fields.

“We were not provided with any evidence in this connection but on the basis of the complaint, an FIR has been registered under different sections against unknown persons,” she said.

However, “no eye witnesses” have come forward so far, she said.

Earlier, Haryana Police had registered the first FIR on the alleged gangrapes by Jat agitators.

The report was filed when a woman from Narela in north-west Delhi appeared before the SIT comprising three senior women officers, and claimed that she was raped by seven men on the night of February 22.

In her complaint, the woman had alleged that she was travelling with her minor daughter in a van when some goons stopped the vehicle near an eatery.

She had said the miscreants overpowered the male passengers and gangraped her while holding her daughter hostage. She had accused her brothers-in-law and sister-in-law to be involved in the incident.

Haryana DGP, Y P Singhal had said that the inquiry committee, headed by DIG Singh and comprising two women Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs), Bharti Dabas and Surinder Kaur, would probe the reported incidents.

Media reports have stated that gangrapes took place in the early hours of Monday (February 22) and that up to 10 women were sexually assaulted by a group of nearly 40 hooligans during the agitation.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had taken suo motu notice of the media reports that some women who were commuting on the Delhi-Ambala highway (NH-1) were stripped and raped by rioters during the violent Jat agitation for job quota.

However, the government had filed a report in the court stating no gangrapes had taken place during the stir.RNI

Five officials of the company that was building a flyover that collapsed on to vehicles and street vendors here have been detained.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, who paid a visit to the mishap site, told reporters “We have detained a few officials of the construction company. We are taking action against them”.

Kolkata Police has registered a case against the Hyderabad-based construction firm IVRCL under sections 304, 308 and 407 of the IPC and sealed the local office of the company.

According to another senior police official, who spoke to PTI on condition of anonymity, about seven persons, injured in yesterday’s mishap, were in a “very critical condition”.

Asked when would the area be cleared off all the debris of concrete and iron girdles, the officer said, “the clearing at the main crossing (Ganesh Talkies crossings) will hopefully be over by today. But the rest like iron piers, iron pillars, broken concrete parts will be cleared in a step-by-step process.”

The other end of the Vivekananda flyover towards the KK Tagore Street, where the metal pier, holding the bridge, was completely damaged would be cut but “a planned engineering plan is necessary for that”, he said.

“It’s a very very congested area with buildings so close to the flyover. And most of the buildings are very old. So we must keep in mind that in order to remove the damaged portions of the flyover another mishap does not take place,” he said.

Army jawans, NDRF along with city police’s DMG team, special teams of Kolkata Traffic Police, DC Central, DC South, CRP from the Old Mint camp were all engaged in a night-long rescue operations.