Relieved by rain, but hit by chaos

NEW DELHI: The rain spread cheer when it started on Saturday morning but when it did not stop even after several hours, Delhiites started realizing the impact of the season's heaviest showers. A little over 100mm rain in 90 minutes from noon and a continuous drizzle for most of the evening took the day's total to 123.4mm till 8.30pm. This is the third highest rain recorded in the capital on a single day in the last 10 years. The city has also recorded 384mm rain against a normal of 277mm for the season from June 1 till 5.30pm on July 20. This is also more than half of the season's total from June to September. During this period normal rainfall is 645.7mm. More rain is expected over Sunday and Monday though Met officials said it would not be of the same intensity as on Saturday.

Heavy showers were almost uniform across Delhi with Lodhi Road recording the highest of 127mm between 8.30am and 5.30pm. Palam recorded 70.9mm during this period while Ayanagar recorded 93.5mm and Pitampura saw 91mm rain.

"The southwest monsoon has been active over UP, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Saturday's high rain in such a small period of time was mainly due to the movement of the monsoon trough from south of its normal position to north which placed it almost exactly over the capital by morning. The trough passed through Ganganagar, Gurgaon, Gwalior, Ambikapur, Paradip and then on to the Bay of Bengal," said RK Jenamani, director in charge, IGI Met.

Delhi Regional Meteorological Center officials said that there were two to three circulations embedded in the trough that had moved in quick succession from north Odisha and adjoining Chhatisgarh and were instrumental in bringing in a lot of moisture from the Bay of Bengal.

The normal rainfall between July 1 and 20 is 211mm of which the city has already witnessed 264mm. Of this, 247mm has been contributed by just four days of rain. Saturday added 123mm to the kitty. June also recorded more than normal rainfall. "Monsoon has been quite active over northwest India but Delhi has received heavy rain on very few days. Otherwise it has just faced very high levels of humidity," said a RMC official. More rain is expected over northwest India, including UP, Delhi, east Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and south of Jammu, in the next three to four days. The more fruitful days for Delhi are likely to be Sunday and Monday.

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Thana floats in Capital

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Man jailed for seven years for raping widow

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has sentenced a man to seven years in jail for raping a middle-aged widow by impersonating as a bachelor and marrying her, terming his act as "most deplorable".

Additional sessions judge Nivedita Anil Sharma held Jahangirpuri resident Raj Kumar guilty of rape, cheating and forgery, saying a substantive and stern sentence is required to be imposed upon him so that it serves as an example for others who might also venture on the same forbidden path.

The court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Kumar, a former Delhi Jal Board employee, and the amount should be given to the victim as compensation.

It directed the state to pay the woman an appropriate sum as compensation under the Delhi Victims Compensation Scheme.

The case was registered against Kumar on the complaint of the woman, a widow and mother of three married children, alleging that he had married her July 22, 2008 at Arya Samaj Mandir, Yamuna Bazar, after posing as a bachelor though he was already married.

She had told the police that after death of her husband, she came in contact with Kumar, father of two children, who showed sympathy towards her and asked her to marry him.

At the time of marriage, he had furnished false affidavit showing himself to be a bachelor, she had said, adding that after the marriage they developed physical relations and her consent was obtained under the impression that she was his legally wedded wife.

She had said when she came to know that he was already married and cheated her, Kumar threatened her with dire consequences if she complained to the police.

To prove the case, the prosecution has produced Kumar and the victim's photographs which were taken at the time of their marriage in Arya Samaj Mandir, marriage certificate, temple's record as well the priest who had performed the rituals.

During the trial, Kumar claimed innocence saying he was falsely implicated and he neither married the woman nor had any relation with her. He said the woman was blackmailing her and trying to extort money from him.

The court, however, turned down his submission saying Kumar had projected himself to be unmarried, executed forged documents to show that he was a bachelor, cheated a widow into marriage with him and had physical relations with her by obtaining her consent on misconception of facts.

"The act of the convict (Kumar) is most deplorable, both legally and morally. It is time for realisation that certain category of sexually depraved behaviour is totally unacceptable in the Indian socio-legal system which seeks to protect the chastity, the first virtue of a woman, and such behaviour can prove to be costly as has happened in this case.

"The victim is a middle aged widow who reposed trust in the convict and on so called marriage, surrendered before him into a physical relationship. The convict then shattered her faith and trust in him since he was already married," the court said.

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Cloudy morning in Delhi, more rain in store

NEW DELHI: It was a cloudy morning in the national capital today, a day after a torrential downpour saw thousands of commuters stranded and many areas flooded. The Met office has forecast more rains later in the day.

"The sky will remain cloudy and rains are expected later in the day," said an official of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

From Saturday 8.30am till 8.30am Sunday, the city had recorded 123.4 mm rainfall.

Humidity remained high at 94 per cent at 8.30am. The maximum temperature is likely to hover around 32 degrees celsius.

The national capital saw the heaviest spell in the last 10 years Saturday. Rains flooded roads, uprooted trees and broken down vehicles added to the heavy traffic jam.

A total of 384.5 mm of rain has been recorded in Delhi since the outbreak of the monsoon in June, which is 98 per cent above the normal.

The rains Saturday had brought down the maximum temperature to 31.3 degrees celsius, three notches below average. The minimum temperature recorded was 23 degrees celsius, four notches below average for the season.

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Eight prisoners injured in Tihar Jail clash

NEW DELHI: Eight prisoners in high security Tihar jail here were today injured in a clash between two groups, jail officials said.

"Two groups of inmates, mostly repeat offenders who were lodged in jail number 3, had a fight today during the day," said Tihar Jail spokesperson Sunil Gupta.

Eight persons sustained injuries and were rushed to the Deen Dayal Upadhayay hospital, he said.

He said the two groups clashed for establishing supremacy. Most of these prisoners had been in jail for committing offences repeatedly, he added.

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Govt order to ease sale of property

NEW DELHI: With the stamp of approval from LG Najeeb Jung, the Delhi government has decided to reverse the directive that put a stop to registration of all general power of attorney (GPA)-based property transactions. The earlier order was issued by the revenue department in April 2012.

The fresh orders will open the door to registrations based on GPA but with a rider that these can only be legal transfers and cannot be construed as transfers of title that enables mutation of property.

The move will enable GPA-based sales and registration of properties in areas like unauthorized colonies, where there is no documentation to execute a clear sale deed with transfer of title. For the poll-bound Delhi government, it is a move to woo the lakhs of voters in these colonies, which are growing into a potential ground for real estate dealers.

Before the 2012 orders came into force, around 20 percent of registries were done through GPA transfers—a common way of selling leasehold properties and those that don't have a clear title. Bankers said the proportion of GPA transfers were even higher in sales involving bank loans.

The final order on allowing registration of GPA-based registrations has got the sanction of the LG and final orders are likely to be issued on Monday. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit was quick to capitalize on the decision and made the announcement at a public meeting in Nangloi late on Friday evening.

The government hopes to see its revenue spiral if such registrations are enabled through a fresh circular which, it says, is a clarification following a high court order last month which quashed the Delhi Government's April 24, 2012, circular. The revenue department says that the circular has been drafted keeping in mind the spirit of the Supreme Court's 2011 judgment.

The broad contours of the circular that is set to reverse the previous orders states that nothing stops a registered property owner from executing a General Power of Attorney or Special Power of Attorney in the name of spouse, relative or any person of trust to manage his property or empowering him or her to execute any further deed of transfer including sale gift deed on behalf of registered owner.

It is clarified that it is also legally tenable if the registered property owner enters into a land development agreement with a builder and executes a registered power of attorney. Also, the registered power of attorney holder is competent to execute further the deed of transfer like gift deed and sale in accordance with the terms of the GPA.

All this is said with a rider. Properties can be transferred only by registered sale deed. GPA-based transactions cannot be the basis for a mutation to enable transfer of the property's title. The department had maintained that the order was required as GPA transfer transactions left no evidence of how many times a property changed hands. The order aimed at cleaner transactions with clear title deeds and higher revenue for the government.

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Woman jumps before train, hurt

NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old narrowly escaped death after jumping in front of a moving metro in a bid to commit suicide at Janakpuri (east) metro station in west Delhi on Thursday afternoon. She however lost both her legs in the incident.

No suicide note was recovered from her possession and cops are waiting for her statement to know the reason of her extreme step.

The woman lives in Janakpuri with her husband. The incident took place around 1pm. Witnesses told police that the woman was standing quietly in a corner close to the edge of the platform. The woman suddenly jumped off onto the tracks as the train approached the platform. However, the driver applied emergency brakes but she had suffered with grievous injury.

She was rushed to the nearby Deen Dayal Upadhyay ( DDU) Hospital, where her condition is stated to be critical.

Police said that they were analysing CCTV footages to ascertain the sequence of events and determine if it was a suicide attempt or an accident. Further investigations are on.

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DU to release 8th cutoff on Tuesday

NEW DELHI: DU has notified that it will issue an eighth cutoff list on Tuesday . Apart from the cutoffs for OBC, SC and ST categories , there is also a possibility of cutoffs for the general category candidates.

Delhi University generally exhausts the seats for general category students by the fifth cutoff. This year, however, admissions continued till the seventh list, includng those for commerce; the subject was open in as many as 14 colleges . According to the notification issued by the registrar on Friday, more seats are likely to be available for general category candidates.

The notification says that a sizeable number of seats reserved for SC/ ST and OBC categories are still vacant in various courses of different colleges . The university reiterated that colleges will ensure that all seats reserved for SC/ ST and OBC students are duly filled by suitable candidates by lowering the cutoff for admissions to the minimum level. The eighth cutoff is to be notified on Tuesday and admissions will begin the same day. In case the seats for the SC/ ST category are going begging, colleges will notify the conversion of vacant SC seats to those for ST and vice versa on July 26.

After the conversion of seats, admissions will take place from July 26 to July 29. No admissions will be made by colleges after July 31.

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Woman hurt in row over list at education office

NEW DELHI: The office of the Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board was the site of a pitched battle on Friday morning. Dozens of candidates had shown up for admission based on a nonexistent third list of cutoffs—NCWEB had closed admissions after the second.

Angry students stood outside the gate while an injured mother sat on the pavement with her daughter. "I went in to speak to someone about the third cutoff that was promised but police dragged me out. When I protested, they threatened to slap me," she said.

A waiting student said, "We were told that the third list will come out at 10am on July 19, but when we came to the college we were turned away. We were not even allowed into the building despite being told on July 16 that there would be a third cutoff." Several doors and windows of the board's building were broken.

Aarati Saxena, director, NCWEB, however, denied that the board had promised a third list. "Admissions through the second cutoff were over on July 16 and we had said that, if necessary, we'd put up the third cutoff list on July 19. But we had admitted enough people and decided to close admissions . We put the notice up on the board on July 18. Still these girls came and fought with the guards .There was a mob outside ," she said. NCWEB has received about 22,000 applications this year but has only 5,993 seats available.

Students waiting outside said two girls were allowed in and given admission as they had paid bribe. One of them said, "When I went to the guard and questioned him about the two girls, he said that, if I paid bribe, I would get admission, too." "They may have gone in for MA admission," said Saxena , "It is foolish to imagine that every student who enters the office is taking UG admission."

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Heavy showers throw traffic out of gear in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Heavy rain lashed the national capital on Saturday, causing massive traffic jams due to waterlogging as vehicles had to negotiate flooded streets which exposed the civic bodies' lack of preparedness.

Waterlogging was reported in several low-lying areas of the city while in some parts, rainwater is said to have flooded the basements of flats.

Within an hour of the showers, there was chaos on almost all arterial roads as traffic signals did not function properly and choked drains flooded the streets.

Trees in some parts of the city were uprooted in the heavy rainfall, causing disruption in power supply in some areas.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic was witnessed at major intersections such as ITO, Laxmi Nagar, Moti Bagh, Kashmere Gate, Munirka, Dwarka and Dhaula Kuan.

"There are reports of traffic jams from various areas in the city, we are collecting the data. Traffic jams have been observed due to water-logging in areas like South Delhi, South Extension and New Delhi," said DCP (Traffic) Bharti Arora.

Commuters had a hard time navigating the roads in most parts of the city as visibility also dropped a bit. Pedestrians were seen wading through streets flooded by rain water and overflowing drains.

"It took me 40 minutes to reach the Akshardham metro station from my home, a distance which I cover within five minutes every day. Traffic was moving very slow," said Ridhi Chouhan, who works at a private bank in Noida.

People were stuck at metro stations and bus stops waiting for the showers to subside while autorickshaw and taxi drivers had a field day charging hefty sums from those in a hurry to reach office.

"I had to shell out Rs 180 (for an auto) from my home in Munirka to my office at Connaught Place today. On normal days, the fare is not more than Rs 100," said Ashok Ojha, who works at a telecom company.

The weather office, too, said they were collecting data about the rainfall.

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