Health workers taking samples for Covid-19 testing. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)Delhi News Highlights: Delhi on Friday recorded 366 fresh Covid-19 cases and zero death, while the positivity rate rose further to 3.95 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department. With this, Delhi’s Covid tally has increased to 18,67,572. The death toll stands at 26,158, according to the bulletin. The daily cases and the positivity rate in the national capital have seen an upward trend in the last few days. Delhi had on Thursday recorded 325 Covid-19 cases and zero death, while the positivity rate stood at 2.39 per cent.
Saffron flags and posters put up by the Hindu Sena outside Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) campus were removed by the Delhi police on Friday morning. This comes in the wake of a recent clash between students that took place on Ram Navami at the Kaveri hostel of JNU. “Today morning it has come to notice that few flags and banners have been put on the road and adjoining areas near JNU. In view of the recent incidents, these were promptly removed and suitable legal action is being taken, said DCP (southwest) Manoj C. Three men have been apprehended by the Delhi Police, he added.
In view of the increasing cases of Covid-19 in the city, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday said his government is keeping an eye on the Covid-19 situation in the city, and will bring in a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for schools if need arises. He said hospitalisation related to coronavirus has not increased and “there is no need to panic”. In view of the uptick in Covid cases in the national capital, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) will hold a meeting on April 20 to discuss measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the city, officials said on Thursday.
Delhi reports 366 fresh Covid-19 cases, 209 recoveries and no death in the last 24 hours.
An FIR has been registered, days after the official Twitter handle of the United Grants Commission (UGC), which has 2.98 lakh followers, was allegedly hacked and 24,000 spam messages were tweeted from it, the Delhi Police said on Friday.
According to the FIR, the Twitter handle of the UGC (ugc_india), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education, was hacked at around 1.30 am on April 10.
"A complaint has been registered with Twitter as well. Twitter has provided regain access and now the handle is being used officially. But the spam tweets, approximately 24,000, have to be deleted manually, as informed by Twitter," the FIR stated.
"An FIR has been registered under sections 66 (whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource, cheats by personation) and 66C (punishment for identify theft) of the IT Act on the complaint of an IT consultant who works with the Swayam project of the UGC," a senior police officer said. (PTI)
The Delhi Police has busted a gang that defrauded people selling them air tickets online only to cancel them later, officials said on Friday. The two masterminds of the operation, identified as Pravin Tiwari, a resident of Bahraich (UP), and Rohit Kumar, a resident of Rewari (Haryana) -- both aged 34 years -- have been arrested.
The officials said they have recovered a gold chain from the accused -- purchased from the cheated money -- and seized Rs 61,267 found in their bank account. The police said the fraud was exposed on March 29, when a Delhi University professor filed a complaint alleging getting scammed by a booking agent online. (PTI)
A 55-year-old woman died after being attacked by a stray bull outside her residence in Noida’s Phase 1. Police said the incident took place Friday morning when the woman, Mamta Sharma, stepped out to buy food for her children.
She was walking towards a shop when a stray bull charged at her and attacked her with its horns. She fell to the ground, and even as locals rushed to help her, the bull attacked her again and Sharma collapsed. She was then taken to a nearby hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries. Read more
Guest teachers of Delhi government schools and the All India Parents’ Association have got together to start a campaign to identify those not enrolled in school and help them with admissions.
The All India Guest Teachers’ Association has identified 472 venues in which to conduct this campaign based on inputs from teachers on where there is likely to be a sizable number of children, mostly slum areas.
Their campaign started on April 14, a school holiday because of Ambedkar Jayanti, and teachers said that they will continue with a door-to-door identification exercise on holidays. Read more
The Delhi BJP has felicitated the eight BJYM members who were arrested and later let out on bail for protesting and indulging in vandalism outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's house.
Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta in a ceremony at the party office here on Thursday welcomed with garland the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha(BJYM) members, attracting the ire of the AAP.
"The eight activists of BJYM who went to jail for protest against anti-Hindu Kejriwal got bail from the court after 14 days. Welcomed these young revolutionaries at the party office today. Each of our worker will keep on fighting anti Hindu forces," Gupta tweeted sharing photos of the event.
Lashing out at the BJP in a press conference, senior AAP leader Atishi said that the BJP has sent a message to its workers all over the country that they too will be felicitated if they indulge in ‘hooliganism and vandalism’. (PTI)
Delhi Metro operations on a section of the busy Blue Line will not be available in the initial few hours on Sunday due to planned maintenance work on the segment, officials said on Friday.
The affected section will be between Rajiv Chowk and Karol Bagh metro stations of the corridor. To undertake the scheduled track maintenance work on the Blue Line, train services on the morning of Sunday on this corridor will be briefly regulated, the officials said.
Train services will be suspended between Rajiv Chowk and Karol Bagh stations from the start of revenue services till 7 am. Hence, two metro stations, namely Ram Krishna Ashram Marg and Jhandewalan, will be closed till the resumption of train services in the section i.e., up to 7 am, they said.
Blue Line connects Dwarka Sector 21 in Delhi to Noida Electronic City/Vaishali.
Metro services will be available between Noida Electronic City/Vaishali-Rajiv Chowk, and Karol Bagh- Dwarka Sec-21, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation said. (PTI)
Hours after cops removed saffron flags and banners reading ‘Bhagwa JNU (saffron JNU)’ near the varsity campus, three men were held in connection with the incident. Three men have been apprehended by the Delhi Police, DCP Manoj C said. (ENS)
The Delhi Congress on Friday demanded that the Kejriwal government ramp up daily testing and intensify the drive for the administration of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines in view of the uptick in coronavirus infections in the city.
The daily COVID-19 cases in Delhi have been on the rise over the last few days and the positivity rate has jumped from 0.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent in a week. Delhi reported 325 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, 299 on Wednesday and 137 on Monday, according to health department data.
The health department did not issue a bulletin on Tuesday.
Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar said lockdown and closure of schools cannot be the way to tackle a surge in COVID-19 cases. "The Kejriwal government should ensure that people adhere to COVID-19 protocol in public places instead of taking the easy way out and enforcing another total lockdown," he said. (PTI)
Three juveniles were apprehended on Friday for allegedly stabbing a 45-year-old ice-cream vendor to death in northeast Delhi's Bhajanpura, police said. According to police, the incident took place in Subhash Vihar area on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. Two baton swords used in the crime were also recovered from them.
All the juveniles who were aged between 15 to 16 years had fled to Meerut (UP) after killing Tamkeen and later returned back to their Delhi home, police said. Police said Tamkeen used to be an ice-cream vendor in the morning and would sell vegetables in the evening.
The victim used to taunt and threaten the minors and a day before the murder, Tamkeen had slapped one of them which led to a scuffle between them, the police added. The victim was standing near his house when three juveniles allegedly came on foot and stabbed him. They fled from the spot in a motorcycle.
The injured man was taken to GTB hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, said Devesh Kumar Mahla, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast). A case was registered under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code in connection with the incident, he said. (PTI)
With St Stephen's College announcing that it will conduct interviews carrying 15 per cent weightage for admissions across categories, Delhi University vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh on Friday said the varsity does not want any confrontation and will resolve the issue through dialogue.
In an admission notice posted on its website on Tuesday, St Stephen's College said it will give 85 per cent weightage to Common University Entrance Test (CUET) scores and 15 per cent to interviews it will conduct for admissions for all categories of students.
The college also said that it reserves the right to proceed with admissions as per its own admission policy guaranteed to it as a minority institution.
While releasing DU's admission policy earlier this month, Singh had said that for the general seats, a college should solely take the CUET scores into consideration and for the minority seats, it can hold interviews and assign a weightage of 85 per cent to CUET scores and 15 per cent to interviews. (PTI)
Days after the taxi and autorickshaw unions threatened to go on an indefinite strike demanding subsidy on CNG, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Friday announced that the department will constitute a committee soon to revise fuel prices.
“Due to the rising fuel prices, auto/taxi unions have been demanding revision of fares. Arvind Kejriwal Government understand their concerns. A committee shall soon be constituted by transport department for this purpose, which shall furnish its recommendations in a time bound manner,” said Gahlot in a tweet. Read more
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said a specific wing in schools or classrooms where a COVID-19 case has been detected should be closed temporarily and clarified that the entire school should only be closed in specific cases.
The comments by Sisodia, who is also the Education Minister, came against the backdrop of rising cases of COVID-19 among school children and staff members. A meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has been called on April 20 to review the situation in the national capital.
"We haven't asked them to close schools. Our guidelines say that only a specific wing or classroom where someone was found COVID positive should be temporarily closed. Schools can take a decision to close the entire premises in specific cases where an infected child or staff has been through multiple areas of the school, we have made it decentralised," Sisodia said in response to a question during a press conference.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) issued a fresh advisory for schools in the national capital on April 13, directing them to close the entire premises or specific wings temporarily if any student or staff tests positive for COVID-19. The department also said students and staff must wear masks and maintain social distancing to the extent possible. (PTI)
A fresh heatwave is sweeping across parts of Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) stating that these conditions are likely to continue till April 19.
The Met department also announced on Friday that these regions are experiencing the third heatwave of this season. This comes after a prolonged and severe spell of heatwave abated barely three days ago. The Met department has warned of a severe heatwave sweeping across parts of Rajasthan from April 17 to 19 and over Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana on Monday and Tuesday. Read more
Amid an uptick in daily cases of COVID-19 in Delhi and the positivity rate going beyond two per cent, there has been a rise of nearly 48 percent in the number of home isolation cases here in the last one week, according to official data.
On Thursday, the number of home isolation cases stood at 574 while 325 new coronavirus cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 2.39 per cent.
The daily cases have been on the rise in the last few days while the positivity rate here has been registered in excess of one per cent since April 4 when it had stood at 1.34 per cent.
As the Covid positivity rate in the national capital has jumped from 0.57 per cent on April 1 to 2.39 per cent on April 14, the number of home isolation cases has shown an upward trend in the last one week. (PTI)
In order to make city roads safe and accident-free for commuters, the Public Works Department (PWD) will take up repair and strengthening works on key arterial roads stretching across 254 km, said officials. Read more
Delhi University (DU) Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh said he was not informed of St Stephen’s College’s decision to go ahead with giving 15% weightage to interviews across all categories of students for admission to the academic session 2022-23. Singh said he would meet the principal personally and try to resolve the issue. Read more
The Supreme Court has directed the Central Pollution Control Board and state pollution control boards to conduct surprise inspections at brick kilns in the National Capital Region (NCR) to ensure that the production is carried out in terms of the notification issued by the Environment Ministry.
A bench comprising Justices K M Joseph and Justice Hrishikesh Roy passed a slew of directions for operation of brick kilns in NCR.
The top court said that those units, located in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, which have the consent to operate and have also declared the production capacity are permitted to operate subject to certain conditions. (PTI)
A fire broke out at a corrugated cardboard box factory in Noida on Friday morning. Twelve fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the blaze was brought under control, officials said. No person was injured in the incident.
The cause of the fire, which broke out around 7 am at the factory in Sector 65, is yet to be ascertained. (PTI)