Book fair opens with 2,400 stalls

With the much talked about Commonwealth Games fast approaching, the opening day of the 19th New Delhi World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan here on Saturday saw the release of “An Annotated Rights Catalogue compiled from International Rights of Books on Sports: Reading our Commonwealth” by Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal.

The idea behind the catalogue is to have a consensus among publishers about the need to disseminate wider information about sports. Containing copyright and bibliographic details of over 500 titles of books, the catalogue seeks to facilitate an exchange of copyrights about books on sports among publishers.

The Organising Committee of Commonwealth Games has given permission to the National Book Trust (India) to use its special logo for its catalogue and exhibition.

At the book fair’s theme pavilion this year, the country’s legendary athlete Milkha Singh, former Indian hockey captain Zafar Iqbal and badminton player P. Gopichand would also be delivering talks on the sports they represent. The idea behind organising the talks is to generate interest in sports among bibliophiles.

Some institutions and non-government organisations including Nehru Museum and Library and Katha have been roped in by the National Book Trust to organise morning activities for children.

To promote public interest in books, school children will be allowed free entry if they visit the fair in their school uniform and are accompanied by a teacher. “But they can come only on weekdays and would have to leave by 1 p.m. This has been decided by the India Trade Promotion Organisation,” said an NBT official.

Spread over 42,000 square metres with nearly 2,400 stalls and stands representing 1,200 Indian and foreign publishers and exhibitors, the eight-day book fair has English language publishers in Hall Nos. 1 and 2, publishers of books on science and technology in Hall No. 6 and surrounding open area, foreign participants in Hall Nos. 7-A and B, publishers of educational books in Hall No. 7-C and Hanger, publishers of books on social sciences and humanities in Hall Nos. 7F, G and Foyer B, Indian regional publishers in Hall No. 12, Hindi language publishers and distributors in 12A and children’s books in Hall No. 14.

Cong concerned over 'slow' pace of MCD's Commonwealth projects

The opposition Congress in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) today voiced concern over the "slow" pace of some Commonwealth Games projects undertaken by the civic body, especially those related to construction of under-bridges and parking lots.

Participating in the debate on the civic agency's 2010-11 budget at a meeting of the MCD House, Leader of Opposition JK Sharma said the infrastructure projects are lagging far behind.

"Work has not started at 11 road under-bridges. Out of 21 multi-level parking sites, work has been initiated only at four sites. The construction of the proposed 1,000 waterless urinals has not started," he said.

The Congress leader also opposed the proposed hike in property tax rates and demanded its roll back.

"Instead of exploiting MCD's own resources, BJP chose to burden the common man...we are receiving property tax only from 30% of the properties in city and we need to exploit the remaining 70%," Sharma said.

He also alleged that the Property Tax department is the "most neglected".

Nearly one-third of the posts are lying vacant. The property returns are not being fed into the computer. There is no record available with the department," he said.

Sharma also said as per the Master Plan for Delhi, there is need for 140 night shelters but at present only 64 night shelters are operating.

Central Bank of India mulls mobile ATMs for Commonwealth Games

Central Bank of India plans to come up with mobile ATMs at various locations of the Commonwealth Games to be held in the Capital later this year. “As the official banker of the Games, we are planning a slew of initiatives including new branches and ATMs,” Mr B.N.S. Ratnakar, General Manager, in charge of Delhi zone told Business Line here. The State-owned lender will soon have a new branch at the office of the Commonwealth Games organising committee here. Mr Ratnakar said that steps would be taken to provide all banking related services to the visitors and Sportspersons at the games venue itself.

In the next few months, the bank plans to add another 100 automated teller machines (ATMs) in the Delhi zone, taking the total number of ATMs to 149,Mr Ratnakar said. Of the new 100 ATMs, about 60 will be located in New Delhi city, he added.

Meanwhile, Central Bank of India has rolled out a mobile van facility in the Capital for exchange of soiled and mutilated notes by general public.

Tourism Ministry all geared up to meet CWG demands: Selja

Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja has said her ministry was all geared up to meet the demands of the coming Commonwealth Games.

''All arrangements pertaining to the security are being looked into at a larger level, particularly of the tourists,'' she said.

Ms Selja, while interacting with the newspersons here today, said the proposals for the uplift of many tourist spots in Haryana had also been received and the Union government was in the process of developing some of them.

Lambasting the incident of rape of the Russian girl, she said these kind of incidents needed to be dealt with strictness and stopped with an iron hand.

On the defeat of the ruling Congress in the Ellanabad byelection, she remarked,''The seat was not with the Congress, so It has not lost anything.'' Suggestion from the state governments had been invited for the speedy implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojna which was aimed at providing houses to the poor in the urban areas, she added.