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Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 23, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Briefly

BJP demands CBI inquiry

NEW DELHI JULY 22. The Leader of the Opposition in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Subhash Arya, today demanded a CBI inquiry into the civic body's proposal to hand over all community toilet complexes in the city to Sulabh International, a non-government organisation.

In a statement here, Mr. Arya alleged that a blacklisted NGO with a poor track record with the MCD was being handed the task of managing and operating toilet complexes for 30 years on lease.

Arguing that such a large contract was being given without following tendering process, he alleged that this was a big scandal in which several senior Congress leaders in the MCD were involved.

Mr. Arya claimed that when the BJP was in power in the civic body (from 1997 to 2002), the Congress had opposed the proposal to handover the toilet complexes to Sulabh. In his statement, Mr. Arya asked why tenders for allotment of contracts for this was not floated.

Coffee Home lovers up in arms

NEW DELHI JULY 22. The Action Committee of the Consumers of Coffee Home has demanded withdrawal of the decision to shift the Coffee Home on Baba Kharak Marg and construct a new car parking in its place. The Committee has threatened to launch an agitation if the decision was not withdrawn by Friday.

The Action Committee convenor, Ram Gopal Sisodia, said demolishing of the Coffee Home, which was constructed by spending huge amounts of public money, was anti-people and illegal.

Summer vacation extended

NEW DELHI JULY 22. Owing to flooding in Assam, the Assam Valley School (AVS) will re-open after the summer vacation on August 1 instead of July 25. According to an AVS release issued here today, pupils are expected to report to the school by 5 p.m on August 1.

Move to promote tourism

NEW DELHI JULY 22. The Mission on Economic, Cultural, Tourism and Sports Promotion of Japan, led by Mr. Toshihiro Nikai, and the president of the Indo-Japan Global Partnership Forum, Suresh Prabhu, on Monday agreed to lend political support for promoting cooperation between the two countries in the field of tourism.

They also decided to establish a forum for exchange of views by tourism experts of both countries in the private as well as the public sectors. They agreed to promote the exchange of information relating to tourism and to ensure proper human resource development in the tourism industry.

Also, it was decided to simplify the visitor visa procedures to encourage tourist visitations between the two countries.

Function organised

NEW DELHI JULY 22. A function was organised by the Animal Husbandry Department of the Delhi Government in collaboration with the Animal Welfare Vet Club (AWVC), Delhi, and the Animal Welfare Society Doctor's Forum, Gurgaon, to celebrate the World Zoonoses Day this past fortnight.

The Director of the Animal Husbandry Department of Delhi Government, K.L.Khurana, inaugurated the function and said zoonotic diseases were still considered as threat to humans and animals. He further informed that there were about 300 zoonotic diseases such as rabies, anthrax, tuberculosis, bird flu and others. On this occasion, Dr. Khurana also released a special issue of the NCR Vet-Newsletter, which was brought out by the AWVC general secretary, J.D.Verma.

More than 70 dignitaries graced the occasion. Eminent among those present were the former Vice-Chancellor of Chander Shekhar Agriculture University, Haryana, D.C.Kulsheshtra, and the former Officer on Special Duty at Animal Husbandry Department in Haryana, G.P.Grover, among others.

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