Record visitors at Mughal Gardens

New Delhi (PTI): A record 1.2 lakh people visited the Mughal Gardens in Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday, the highest-ever number of visitors in a single day since it was thrown open for public viewing.

The garden was open to the public for about a month for the first time during the tenure of the first President Rajendra Prasad and since then it has been a big attraction for people in Delhi and other parts of the country.

?This time it has received (an) unprecedented number of visitors since it opened on February 11. So far about 2.5 lakh people have visited the garden,? a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said.

He said the Mughal Gardens and its adjacent herbal garden are open for public viewing until March 13. The garden is closed on every Monday for maintenance.

Cheque bounce cases

Mumbai (PTI): Forum for Fairness in Administration, a non-government organisation, has written a letter to the chief justice of Bombay High Court saying that in spite of its order to expedite the disposal of cheque bounce cases, no steps have been taken.

The forum has filed a petition before the court against the large number of pending cases of cheques bouncing. On February 1, the high court had directed the Maharashtra government to set up additional courts in the state to expedite the disposal of such cases.

A bench of Chief Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice D. Chandrachud also asked the chief secretary to appoint 100 more magistrates to deal with such cases and asked the state to provide them adequate staff within two months. The forum in its letter, however, said not a single magistrate has been appointed even after two weeks of the passing of the order.

It alleged that different metropolitan courts had shuffled their duties, resulting in a chaos. They also alleged that courts assigned to handle cheque bouncing cases had been given remand cases, thus making it difficult for them to take up cheque bounce cases.

CBI to oppose gutka bail

Mumbai (PTI): The CBI and the Mumbai police would oppose in Bombay High Court on Monday the plea made by gutka barons Rasiklal Manikchand Dhariwal and Jagdish Joshi for quashing non-bailable warrants against them for their failure to appear in a case of alleged links with underworld.

Earlier, the court had extended till February 21 their order restraining police from executing warrants issued by a special court against them.

Tortoises seized

Varanasi (PTI): Police seized 300 tortoises worth Rs 4 lakh being smuggled to Bengal and arrested four persons in this connection in Phoolpur area. Acting on a tip-off, a police team intercepted a car near Khalishpur railway station and recovered the tortoises from the vehicle on Saturday.

Fake licences

Chennai (PTI): Six persons have been arrested in connection with preparing and selling fake driving licenses. Police nabbed a real estate owner, Sekar, while investigating reports on sale of fake driving licences. On the information given by him, they arrested five of his accomplices, police said adding that a team would be sent to Delhi to find some others involved in the case.

Shops gutted

Pune(PTI): Five timber shops were gutted in a fire in Bhavanipeth area on Sunday. Nine shops were partially burnt. However, no casualties were reported in the fire that broke out around 5 am, fire brigade sources said. The damage caused was estimated at Rs 30 lakh.

Diarrhoea deaths

Ramanathapuram (PTI): Two persons, including a four-year-old child, died and 27 were taken sick after an outbreak of diarrhoea in Therkukattur village in this Tamil Nadu district. A team of doctors has rushed to Therkukattur while another team was treating the sick at the general hospital here, official sources said. Seventeen people were treated at a private hospital on Saturday night.

The Punjab forest department is supplying quality seedlings at subsidised rates to owners of private land to encourage plantation under a farm forestry plan.