Congress inefficient in curbing price rise: Vijender Gupta

New Delhi, May 15 (UNI) A day after his appointment as the president of Delhi unit of BJP, Mr Vijender Gupta today lambasted the Sheila Dikshit government for its inefficiency in controlling the price rise and its insensitivity towards people.

''There is an arrogance in the conduct of the Congress government in Delhi. I would advise them to abandon this arrogance and work for the betterment of the people,'' he said at a press conference here.

Charging the state government of indulging in dirty politics while dealing with the MCD and other local bodies, Mr Gupta asked them to provide support and financial help to the same.

He alleged that the Delhi Government was not giving requisite support to MCD in pursuit of political gains, thus hampering the developmental work in the city.

''The politics of the government in dealing with the MCD has impacted developmental work and provision of facilities to the common man,'' he said.

Talking about his priorities as the chief of the Delhi BJP, Mr Gupta said his endeavour would be fight the war of the common man against the insensitivity of the Sheila Dikshit government.

Mr Gupta warned that if the CM continues with her attitude, the BJP would be forced to come out on streets.

The focus of the BJP would be on price rise of essential commodities in recent months, which he said was the biggest issue today.

Criticising in this context, the Rs four difference in the prices of Diesel in Delhi as compared to the neighbouring state Haryana, Mr Gupta said the hike was reflective of the Delhi government's callousness towards the common man.

Mr Gupta's alleviation to the post of Delhi BJP chief is being seen as an attempt to present the youth face of the party.

''His appointment as the Delhi BJP chief will lend more energy and vigour to the party,'' outgoing Delhi BJP chief O P Kohli said.

Though the decision raised many eyebrows in the party leadership and many senior leaders, including Vijay Goel and Nand Kishore Garg remained absent, it has also been seen by many as BJP's attempt to woo the youth towards the party.

Replying to a question about prevailing fractionalism in the party, Mr Gupta said the BJP always believed in working collectively and followed a democratic path in its conduct.

''I have been given this job only after taking seniors into confidence,'' he said.

''There will be no bossism in the party. I will work as a convenor and try to create a balance between seniors and youths in the party,'' he added.

He also said the women, Dalit, Minority, Backward Classes and other regional groups would be given preference.

Emphasising the need to do result-oriented work for the people, the newly appointed president said the performance of the activists would be the only criteria for giving higher responsibilities to members in the party.

The youth wing of party also welcomed the party's decision to give Delhi's command into the hands of a young leader. Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) president Anuj Sharma and state general secretary Sunil Yadav noted that since the percentage of youths in the country was very high, appointment of a young president would attract youth towards the party.

Due to death of former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the celebration at the party's state headquarters was kept to the minimum.

Hang Afzal, don't insult martyrs: BJP

New Delhi, May 19 (UNI) Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta today demanded that the process of execution of the Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru be expedited as any delay was an insult to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the sovereignty of the country.

''Not hanging the terrorists like Afzal Guru is an insult to the security personnel who sacrificed their lives during the attack to save us and the sovereignty of our country,'' Mr Gupta said, addressing BJP Minority Morcha activists, who staged a protest demonstration at Parliament Street here on the issue.

Braving the scorching heat in the Capital, the activists raised slogans against the Delhi government, accusing it of delaying its reply on the mercy petition filed by Afzal.

He also claimed that it was BJP's 48-hour ultimatum that forced the Sheila Dikshit Government to file its reply.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Vijay Kumar Malhotra expressed concern over government's dilly-dallying on the issue.

He said, ''Giving an excuse that it will affect the law and order situation in the country is shameful.''

''They have lakhs of security personnel in the country to maintain the law and order situation. The only thing they lack
is will to take steps,'' he added.

BJP national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, ''Terrorism has no religion and we should not see a terrorist as a Hindu or Muslim. If Afzal is hanged it will be the death of a terrorist not a Muslim.''

Saying that BJP does not look at terrorism through the prism of religion, Delhi BJP Minority Morcha president Atif Rashid alleged the Congress was sending a wrong message to people that Afzal is a Muslim not a terrorist.

''We will not give an inch of land for the burial of Afzal. His body will be sent to Pakistan, where he belongs to,'' Mr Atif stated.

Police was forced to use water cannons on the aggressive protestors as they tried to cross the barricades and detained many people for violating restrictions.

Govt school teacher clears IAS exam against all odds

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) Monica Rani, a school teacher who hadto balance between taking care of her three-year-old child and her job, now finds that she has cleared the Civil Services examination.

It is all the more commendable as she did it without any special coaching and took care of her child single-handedly asher husband is posted in Kolkata.

''It is amazing. It was a difficult journey for me. I have athree-year-old child to take care of. I did not take coaching,despite that the result is amazing,'' Ms Rani told UNI. It was her third and last attempt for the prestigious civilservices.

''Many a times it had come to my mind that I should abandon mypursuit as it was too demanding for me. But I continued and finally with god's grace I succeeded,'' she said.

A Commerce graduate and a Masters degree holder in Economics, MsRani teaches Economics to 11th and 12th standard in a GovernmentGirls School in Bijwasan here. She took up History and Philosophy as her subjects of preference for the Indian Administrative Service(IAS) examination.

''Actually I used to teach History to students of sixth to tenth standard till 2008. It consolidated my base for the history. So Idecided to take up History as one of the two subjects,'' Ms Rani stated.

And about the second subject she said, ''I got interested in Philosophy during my pregnancy. I used to read Philosophy books and found them very interesting. So this way I decided on Philosophy as second subject,'' she added.

The success was hard earned for the 29-year-old woman as she started her day early in the morning. After coming back from school in the afternoon, she took care of her child. After completing all her chores, she hardly got 3-4 hours to study in a day.

''Before the exams, I sent my child to my mother's place, took leave from school and studied for 12-14 hours a day,'' Ms Rani said.

Her husband works in an IT company and has been posted in Kolkatafor the last three years.

She was ranked 70 in the Civil Services examination but it hardlyshows the efforts and sacrifices she had put in her pursuit of success.

Discoms say running into losses, demand 'cost reflective tariff'

New Delhi, May 6 (UNI) The discoms today denied reports of their earning profit in the year 2009-10 and demanded from the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) to provide them 'cost reflective tariff' so that their losses can be minimised.

A day after the reports of discoms (private power distributioncompanies) earning 'healthy surplus' emerged in the media, NorthDelhi Power Limited, BSES Yamuna Power Limited and BSES RajdhaniPower Limited today called upon a press meet to clarify how it wasbeing misinterpreted as the truth was that they were actuallyrunning into losses.

NDPL CEO Sunil Wadhwa explained, ''The figures were based on the accrued accounting system which included the yet to be recoveredrevenue through future tariffs to be fixed by DERC.''

The Rs 716 crore profit by NDPL during '09-10 included Rs 671 crore which were yet to be recovered. Thus, only Rs 45 crore is available with us to meet other expenses including employee costs and arrears paid for sixth pay commission, repair and maintenance expenses incurred, repayment of loans, interests and income tax, Mr Wadhwa said.

Replying to a question that what they want to communicate to the government, Mr Wadhwa stated, ''It is my duty to tell people that these could be the consequences and I would be grateful if you could tell me how to run this company at current tariff.''

Saying that due to non-completion of power projects on time, BYPL CEO Ramesh Narayanan said, ''We are buying expensive power from other distributors so that we can provide 24 hour power supply to our consumers.'' ''And we had a clear-cut instructions from DERC to buy power at higher rate,'' he added.

''The cost of purchasing of power for us was Rs 3.19 per unit but the tarrif given to us by the DERC was Rs 2.45 per unit. Based on Rs 2.45 per unit they are saying we have earned profit but we have actually spent Rs 3.19 per unit,'' Mr Narayanan said.

Demanding that the tariff should be cost reflective, he said ''if the government pay us on the basis of cost incurred by us then there would be no problem.''

''We have no money. We have it only on papers and the generator of power would not supply power on the basis of papers,'' the BYPL CEO stated.

Saying that it is difficult to run companies on present tariff, he asserted optimism that the government would definitely hear their plea and something would certainly be done in this regard.

Prithvi Raj Sawhney new Mayor; CWG, clean & green Delhi priority

New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) BJP councillor from Janak Puri (South) ward Prithvi Raj Sawhney today became Mayor of Delhi after defeating Congress' Tulsi Ram Sablania by a huge margin of 90 votes in a one sided contest.

Mr Sawhney secured 178 votes out of 275 total votes polled in the election while his nearest rival Mr Sablania managed only 88 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Hari Chand Kardamwithdrew his nomination just before the commencement of the election procedure.

Mr Sawhney will replace his party colleague, the incumbent Mayor Kanwar Sain at the coveted post.

Mr Sawhney, a former teacher, has been holding the post of Chairman of Education Committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi since his re-election in 2007.

He also remained Member of the MCD from 1997-2002 and heldvarious important posts including that of Chairman, Standing Committee,Conservancy, Sanitation and Engineering and Health Committee.

Before entering into politics, he had taught in Jammu College and in different schools of Directorate of Education for 30 years.

Addressing mediapersons, Delhi's first citizen MrSawhney said, ''I have been elected in a very important year not only for Delhi but also for the whole nation as Commonwealth Games will be organised in the Capital.''

Saying that the successful organisation of CWG is a question of prestige for the country, he urged the Delhi government to be more supportive.

''If needed, we will meet Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and LtGovernor Tajendra Khanna for their support to make the Gamessuccessful. Seventy per cent of the workin Delhi is to be done by the Corporation for which we expectsupport from the Chief Minister,'' he stated.

The Mayor also kept clean and green Delhi on top of his priority list as he asserted that it was the responsibility of the civic body and ''we will fulfill our responsibility.''

Congress-led UPA more interested in IPL than BPL: BJP

New Delhi, Apr 21 (UNI) Continuing its tirade against the murky IPL dealings, the BJP today criticised the Congress-led UPA government for ''being more interested in Cricket than the problems of commons''.

''The Congress-led UPA is more worried about IPL than BPL (Below Poverty Line). Their ministers are more interested in looking after Cricket than working for the uplift of poor in the country,'' Former BJP president Rajnath Singh said while addressing a huge gathering of people at Ramlila Ground here.

The government has become ''Incompetent Political League'', he added. Former Union Human Resource Minister Murli Manohar Joshi also took the government to task on the issue of involvement of itsleaders in the IPL.

''The leaders of the UPA government are busy in the game instead of necessary things which have direct relation with the lives of people,'' Mr Joshi said.

UPA's wrong policies, bad governance led to price rise: BJP

New Delhi, Apr 21 (UNI) Calling the UPA a synonym of ''high inflation rate'', the BJP today held the wrong economic policies and bad governance of the Congress-led UPA Government the main
reasons for spiralling prices.

The party organised a massive opposition rally at the huge Ramlila Ground here in which more than two lakh people from across the country participated and registered their anguish towards rising prices of essential commodities.

Claimed by the BJP to be the biggest rally organised by any party in the country, the protest saw presence of people from all walks of life, including farmers, workers, labourers andex-servicemen, raising slogans and placards of ''Mehangayi rok do ya gaddi chod do'' (Stop inflation or quit).

The rally resulted in huge traffic jams in many parts of the city. Thousands of policemen were deployed to ensure it passes off smoothly.

Various senior leaders of the party including Nitin Gadkari, Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu, Anant Kumar, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, addressed the rally.

Party Chief Gadkari said the country's political history proves that whenever there had been Congress-led government, people have suffered the problems of price rise and high inflation rate.

''Although the Congress' slogan claims ''Garibi Hatao'' (remove poverty) the latest data by Planning Commission proves that the number of BPL people has risen to 41 crore. In addition, 75 per cent of this number includes the people from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes about whose welfare the government has given many assurances,'' he said.

He stated that the data obtained from nations all over the world showed that in other countries the inflation has increased by less than two per cent while in India it has crossed 11 per cent. ''It is the wrong economic policies and bad governance of the Congress-led UPA Government at Centre which are responsible for the woes of the common man,'' he said.