Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (L) Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra. Delhi News: Delhi Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra took a ride in a state bus on Saturday to take stock of issues being faced by commuters, a move which was lauded by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot. The commissioner’s bus ride comes days after the Delhi government on Wednesday directed all group A and B officers of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the Transport Department to travel in a bus at least once a week and submit feedback on its condition and staff behaviour.
About 89,801 people availed of free rides on DTC’s electric buses that were launched on May 24. The Delhi government had decided to offer free travel on its 150 e-buses for three days (May 24 to May 26), in a bid to encourage people to use public transport. According to data shared by the Transport department, of 89,801 passengers who travelled for free in these e-buses, 51% were men and 40.96% were women passengers. The remaining were staff and bus pass users.
In other news, ahead of the monsoon season, the Delhi Traffic Police identified 211 waterlogging hotspots and has written to all civic agencies concerned — Public Works Department (PWD), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Irrigation and Flood Control Department — to install pumps and desilt drains on time to prevent flooding.
Delhi reported 442 fresh Covid-19 cases and zero deaths today. While 21914 tests were conducted, city's positivity rate stood at 2.02 per cent. At present, there are 1,641 active cases in Delhi.
Despite the scorching summers the city has witnessed, Delhi is yet to put a heat action plan in place to coordinate its response to heatwaves. Delhi-NCR saw an early start to the summer this year, and temperatures soared in April. The Safdarjung weather observatory has recorded 13 heatwave days so far.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had issued guidelines for states and cities to prepare heat action plans in October 2019. According to the NDMA’s records, Delhi does not have a specific heat action plan, but dos and don’ts are circulated to the health department. Read More
In two separate incidents late Friday night, two wanted criminals were killed during an exchange of gunfire with the Ghaziabad Police, allegedly after they tried to evade arrest.
The accused have been identified as Avneesh alias Billu and Rakesh, residents of Dujana village in Gautam Budh Nagar. According to police, Billu was the prime accused in a double murder case from three weeks ago in Kavinagar.
Both men carried bounties on their heads, police said – Rs 50,000 for Rakesh and Rs 1,00,000 for Billu. Read More
AAP leader Durgesh Pathak will contest the Rajinder Nagar assembly by-election next month, party leader Sanjay Singh said on Saturday, daring Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta to join the fray and defeat the Arvind Kejriwal-led party's candidate.
Singh announced Pathak's name at a press conference at the party headquarters here while claiming that Delhi BJP chief Gupta and other heavyweights of the saffron party have declined to contest from the Rajinder Nagar assembly seat fearing their “imminent defeat”.
A “formal announcement" about Pathak's candidature will be made by the party as well, the AAP MP later told reporters.
A 19-year-old man was shot dead in northeast Delhi's Khajuri Khas area, police said on Saturday.
The incident took place on Friday night, they said.
Information was received at 10.40 PM that a person was lying in a pool of blood at street number-21, B-Block, Shri Ram Colony, following which police reached the spot, a senior police officer said.
On physical inspection, a bullet injury mark was found on his chest. He was shifted to JPC Hospital and was declared brought dead, he officer said. (PTI)
Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur on Saturday termed the incident where athletes training at the Delhi government-run Thyagraj Stadium were being asked to leave early every day so that then Delhi principal secretary (revenue) Sanjeev Khirwar could walk his dog on the tracks as “shameful”.
Hours after an Indian Express report, the IAS officer was transferred to Ladakh and his wife Rinku Dugga, also an IAS officer, was transferred to Arunachal Pradesh. Read More
Delhi Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra took a ride in a state bus on Saturday to take stock of issues being faced by commuters, a move which was lauded by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot.
The commissioner's bus ride comes days after the Delhi government on Wednesday directed all group A and B officers of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and the Transport Department to travel in a bus at least once a week and submit feedback on its condition and staff behaviour.
Kundra took to Twitter and posted his selfie travelling in a government bus. Kejriwal lauded the effort and said it was 'a rare sight'.
'We are a people-centric government. Our officers, ministers and MLAs are working constantly among people. A rare sight to see transport commissioner of a state travelling by state bus to take a first-hand view from travellers on problems being faced by them,' the Delhi chief minister tweeted. (PTI)
Eight months after 914 private data entry operators (DEOs) were hired to man the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) and other police services, the Delhi Police Crime Branch has registered an FIR against the firm that provided the manpower. This comes after police received a complaint from the vigilance branch alleging that the firm had charged Rs 25,000 per applicant for the job.
A senior police officer said the vigilance branch investigated the allegations after one of the applicants, a resident of Burari, approached the Crime Branch. “He alleged that a firm, M/s GA Digital World Web Pvt Ltd, which got a contract from the Delhi Police for providing data entry operators in districts/units, had charged Rs 25,000 from him on the pretext of giving him a job,” an officer said.
The pace of Covid-19 vaccination has slowed down again in Delhi over the last two weeks, with the highest number of shots administered in a day during the period being 35,775. This is because the population has reached a saturation level when it comes to the first and second doses in adults; district authorities are now focusing on the second dose in children between the ages of 12 and 14 years and precaution doses in adults.
Vaccination has been slow in the month of May with the peak seen during the first week of the month at 51,863 doses a day. In comparison, over 83,000 shots were administered in a single day at the peak in April, which was driven mostly by the second dose in young children. Read more
The Delhi Police Special Cell registered an FIR after a city-based advocate filed a complaint alleging that an unknown person – who used Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana’s picture in his True caller and WhatsApp number – was threatening to implicate him in a false case, officers said.
The police received the complaint from Manjeet Singh, who also submitted several screenshots as evidence to the investigation unit of Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO), they said. “In his complaint, Singh has alleged that he was receiving several phone calls from one unknown number and the caller was threatening him to implicate him in a false case,” the FIR stated. Read more
The Faridabad police on Friday said they had arrested a sharpshooter of Kaushal gang, who was accused in at least eight murder cases in Punjab and Haryana, including that of Haryana Congress leader Vikas Chaudhary.
The police said that the accused Sajjan alias Bholu, a native of Bishan village in Jhajjar, was among the accused who had allegedly murdered Haryana Congress leader Vikas Chaudhary in Faridabad in June 2019. Chaudhary, who was involved in property deals, was shot dead at a gym parking lot in Sector 9, Faridabad on June 27, 2019 by armed assailants. Read more
Four months after the eternal flame from the Amar Jawan Jyoti from under the India Gate was “merged” with the immortal flame at the National War Memorial 100 metres away, the symbol of the fallen soldier at India Gate has also been moved to the National War Memorial.
In a ceremony headed by Chief of Integrated Defence to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) Air Marshal B R Krishna Friday, the armed forces moved the inverted rifle and helmet, a memorial to the soldiers who laid down their lives in the 1971 war, from India Gate to the National War Memorial, which was inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi in February 2019. Read more
A new water treatment plant is set to come up at Chandrawal by April 2023, according to Water Minister Satyendar Jain. The plant will have a capacity of 105 MGD (million gallons per day), and is being set up at a cost of Rs 600 crore. The new plant is likely to be able to treat ammonia levels of up to 4 ppm (parts per million) in the water. The Delhi Jal Board’s existing water treatment plants can treat ammonia up to a level of around 1 ppm, while the BIS standard for ammonia in drinking water is 0.5 ppm. High levels of ammonia in the Yamuna have in the past disrupted the water supply. Read more
The maximum temperature in Delhi is set to rise to 41 degrees Celsius on Saturday, going by the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecast. Partly cloudy skies and the possibility of thunder and lightning are also on the forecast on Saturday, on account of a western disturbance that lies over western Afghanistan.
The maximum temperature is likely to increase to 42 degrees Celsius on May 31, and heatwave conditions are on the forecast for June 1. Over the next six days, the maximum temperature in the city is likely to remain at 41 or 42 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature could be around 27 or 28 degrees Celsius.
Ahead of the monsoon season, the Delhi Traffic Police identified 211 waterlogging hotspots and has written to all civic agencies concerned — Public Works Department (PWD), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Irrigation and Flood Control Department — to install pumps and desilt drains on time to prevent flooding. Of the total hotspots, 132 (mostly stormwater drains) are under the PWD as compared to 147 locations last year, showing an improvement, said officials.
“Desilting work has started in several divisions and the first phase will be completed by June 15. We have also identified 15 critical locations where underground sumps, with a capacity of nearly 7-7.5 lakh litres, and permanent pump houses, with more than 500 horsepower, are being constructed to release water immediately,” said a senior PWD official.
Over 35 crates of tomatoes (each crate containing 25 kg), 10 sacks of lemon weighing 500 kg and 15 packets containing over 300 kg of capsicum were allegedly stolen from a shop in Gurgaon’s Khandsa vegetable market, said police on Friday. According to police, the incident took place on Wednesday night around 1 am and was reported to the police on Thursday morning.
Sandeep Singh, a driver at the shop where the theft was reported, said that he had kept the vegetables including a crate of tomatoes, sacks of lemon and polythenes containing capsicum at the shop on Wednesday night. “In the morning, we noticed that the vegetables had been stolen. We do not lock the door. The shed remains closed in the night and there is no security guard. This is the first time a theft has taken place since I have been working here. We have suffered a loss of over Rs 50,000-Rs 55,000,” said Singh. Read more
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Over 21,000 private vehicles have been challaned for violating designated bus lanes within two months of the launch of an enforcement drive by Delhi government's Transport department, officials said on Friday.
Nearly 391 DTC buses and 328 cluster buses were penalised under the drive that started from April 1.
Between April 1 and May 26, 21,820 challans were issued while there were 819 violations recorded on the part of bus drivers.
The violations by bus drivers also included 100 instances of violations by other kinds of buses. As many as 21,001 private vehicles were penalised for lane violation while 359 vehicles were either lifted or towed away by authorities. (PTI)
Delhi's maximum temperature rose marginally on Friday, but settled within the comfortable range.
The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi's base station, recorded a maximum temperature of 39.3 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal for this time of the year. It was 36.7 degrees Celsius on Thursday and 34.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.
The minimum temperature settled at 25.5 degrees Celsius.
The mercury is predicted to rise up to 42 degrees Celsius over the next four to five days but there is no forecast of a heatwave for another week.
Delhi's 24-hour air quality index (AQI) stood at 206. It was 204 on Thursday. (PTI)
A Nigerian national staying in Delhi has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police on the charge of cheating at least 300 women and duping them of crores of rupees on the pretext of marriage, officials said on Friday.
The accused befriended women through social media and matrimonial websites, where he introduced himself as a non-resident Indian (NRI) settled in Canada and a prospective groom, the officials said.
Garuba Galumje (38), who hails from Lagos in Nigeria, was staying in the Kishan Garh area of South Delhi and has been arrested by officials of the Cyber Crime police station in Noida, they said.
"The accused has been arrested in connection with a complaint from a woman who lives in Meerut district of UP. She claimed that she had registered herself on Jeevansathi website for marriage. A man approached her through the website and introduced himself as Indo-Canadian NRI Sanjay Singh," Inspector Reeta Yadav, in-charge of the Noida Cyber Crime police station, said. (PTI)
Coke Studio, the popular music franchise, may be transcending borders with its songs but its recent note to a food blogger hasn’t been as melodious – the owner of ‘Cook Studio’ has taken The Coca Cola Company to court for sending him notices asking him to desist from using the name.
Justice Pratibha M Singh of the Delhi High Court has ordered Nikhil Chawla, the owner of ‘Cook Studio’, and The Coca Cola Company, which owns ‘Coke Studio’ trademark, to appear before the Mediation Centre to resolve the trademark-related dispute.
“It appears to this court that an attempt ought to be made to amicably resolve this dispute through mediation in the first place. Accordingly, both parties are referred to the Delhi High Court Mediation and Conciliation Centre on May 31, 2022 at 4 pm,” said the court. (Read More)
The Delhi High Court Friday asked the Delhi Police to respond to the bail plea of an accused in the Jahangirpuri violence case, who has argued that he was not even present at the spot when communal clashes broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession last month.
Justice Yogesh Khanna listed the plea for hearing on June 6 after the accused’s counsel, K C Mittal, submitted that his client remained around his shop and home at the time of the incident and is not seen in CCTV footage produced by police.
The trial court on May 25 had denied bail to the accused, Babuddin, saying that he has been identified on the basis of CCTV footage and material investigation is still underway in the case. (Read More)
At least 96 residents, including children and senior citizens, living in Westend Heights condominium in Gurgaon’s DLF 5 have reported falling sick with symptoms of nausea and vomiting in the past two days, prompting the health department to look into complaints of suspected contamination in the water supply. Health department officials said that they have taken samples for examination and a report would be out soon.
Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), Gurgaon, said, “We received 205 complaints from the society. A total of 96 people, who had nausea and vomiting related symptoms, were given medicine. A two-year-old child was admitted to the hospital. We have taken samples of water from the society and a report will come out on Monday.”
Priti Anand, the residents’ welfare association secretary, said she and her domestic help fell sick on Wednesday and initially assumed it was due to food poisoning. (Read More)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday called the Ladakh road accident "unfortunate" and prayed for the speedy recovery of the soldiers injured in the crash.
Seven Army soldiers were killed and 19 others injured in the Tuktuk sector of Ladakh on Friday when the vehicle they were travelling in skidded off the road and fell into the Shyok river, Army officials said.
The accident took place at around 9 am at a place that is around 25 km from Thoise, they said.
"The bus accident with the Army personnel in Ladakh is very unfortunate. I salute the martyrdom of the martyred soldiers. I pray to God for the speedy recovery of the soldiers injured in the accident," Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi. (PTI)
The AAP government has asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to initiate action against project proponents which have registered their construction and demolition sites on the DPCC's portal for self assessment of dust control norms but have not uploaded fortnightly reports, officials said.
The self-assessment portal was launched on October 7 last year as it was difficult to monitor compliance with dust pollution control norms at all construction and demolition sites manually.
The project proponents were asked to mandatorily register on the web portal, self-audit their compliance with dust control norms and upload a self-declaration on the portal on a fortnightly basis. (PTI)
The Delhi High Court has asked the Delhi government to examine imposing on-the-spot fines to create deterrence in the minds of the people concerning allowing mosquito breeding in their premises and increasing the quantum of fine imposed upon erring institutions from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000.
A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi, which was hearing its suo motu case concerning large-scale mosquito breeding in the city, asked the city government to examine these aspects at the highest level and state its stand.
The court observed that the efficacy of the system of imposition of fines as a deterrent would be completely lost if fines are not imposed on the spot and mere challaning the violators would only lead to the explosion of such cases in the courts. (PTI)
Inspired by Hollywood flick 'The Fast and the Furious' three men stole over 40 luxury cars using hi-tech tools, including scanners and GPS jammer, police said on Friday after arresting them.
The accused have been identified as Manish Rao (42) and Jagdeep Sharma (43), both residents of Uttam Nagar here, and Aas Mohammad (40), a native of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, they said. Rao and Sharma were nabbed when they came to strike a deal for a stolen car. The car was found stolen from the Paschim Vihar area, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southwest) Manoj C said. (PTI)
With the St. Stephen's College refusing to do away with the interview process for admissions, the Delhi University (DU) on Friday said it is "firm" on its decision to declare "null and void" all admissions made by the college in violation of the Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) guidelines.
The college, asserting its minority institution character, has said it will accord 85 per cent weightage to the CUET score and 15 per cent to physical interviews for all categories of candidates, a stand strongly opposed by DU, which wants interviews to be conducted only for the reserved category students.
On Thursday, St Stephen's College principal John Varghese had written to DU, conveying that the college will retain its "tried and trusted" interview process during admission and asked the varsity to "avoid creating an unpleasant situation" for students seeking admission in the college.
However, DU Registrar Vikas Gupta said the college will have to follow the admission guidelines issued by the university. (PTI)
A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala to four years in jail in a disproportionate assets case.
Special Judge Vikas Dhull, who passed the order, also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on Chautala and ordered the seizure of four of his properties.
During the hearing, Chautala’s lawyers had requested the court to pass a lenient sentence considering his medical condition. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) opposed to it and pushed for maximum punishment for Chautala stating that it would send a message to the society. (Read More)
BJP MP and former Union health minister Harsh Vardhan walked out of the Delhi L-G’s swearing-in ceremony on Thursday after he was allegedly made to wait and asked to switch seats.
After a video of the Chandni Chowk MP leaving the ceremony went viral on social media, Vardhan explained what transpired at Raj Niwas in a tweet: “Wrong reports are doing the rounds in the media on how I left the L-G’s swearing-in ceremony, claiming that I did not get the desired seat. While one officer sat where I was seated, another asked me to vacate after telling me the seat was reserved. I waited for 15 minutes to see if I would be allotted another seat. I left because none was.”
In the video, he is heard saying: “Arre Parliament members tak ke liye inhone ek seat nahi rakhi (They haven’t even provided a seat for Parliament members)… I will write to (L-G) Vinai Kumar Saxena ji about this.” Read more
After failing to get a good response to its drainage master plan project, the Public Works Department (PWD) has given a fresh push to it and re-issued tenders. Only two bidders came forward and they too did not meet the eligibility criteria, said an official.
Following the failure of the first tender, the PWD has invited a new tender with a change in requirements and cleared objectives for appointing a consultancy service to provide solution for storm water systems and to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) to resolve the waterlogging problems in Delhi. Read more
The Noida police have identified 699 hotspots under the state government’s Safe City scheme meant to provide safer spaces for women and girls, officers said. The police, along with administrative agencies including the Nagar Nigam, are preparing an integrated plan as part of the policy.
In the first phase of the scheme, the police will install 298 pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras and 1,299 fixed cameras across 450 identified points, they added. The camera coverage will give access to several areas and enable monitoring these spaces to check instances of eve-teasing and harassment of women. The cameras will be equipped with facial recognition, number plate recognition and other analytical features, the police said. Read more
Following a court order granting four-hour custody parole to Sharukh Pathan, the man who had allegedly pointed a gun at a policeman during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, to meet his 65-year-old ailing father, videos have surfaced showing Pathan being welcomed by a crowd near his home.
“A team of police personnel of the third battalion picked him from jail and after his meeting with his parents, again lodged him in jail,” a senior police officer said. Read more
For the first time in weeks, guards at the Delhi government-run Thyagraj Stadium didn’t start blowing whistles at 6.30 pm for athletes to leave the arena, cutting short their training.
On Thursday, after The Indian Express reported on how the arena was being cleared early, by 7 pm, so that Delhi’s Principal Secretary (Revenue) Sanjeev Khirwar can walk his dog on the tracks later, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal issued an order for all sporting facilities in the city to remain open till 10 pm. Read more
Days after the department of town and country planning (DTCP) cancelled the licence granted to Mahira Infratech Private Limited (formerly known as Sai Aaina Farms Pvt Ltd) for the development of an affordable housing colony in Gurgaon’s Sector 68 citing “grave violations” by the developer, the DTCP has recommended that the developer be restricted from demanding payments from homebuyers who have invested in its other projects till a final decision is taken.
On May 17, the DTCP had blacklisted the developer, its directors and other stakeholders for allegedly submitting forged and fabricated bank guarantees and forged signatures on collaboration agreements at the time of obtaining licence for the project in Sector 68. The Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority (HRERA) in Gurgaon had also frozen accounts pertaining to licences granted to the firm. Read more
Delhi’s Covid-19 positivity rate – the proportion of tested samples that return positive – continued to remain below 2 per cent for the second day in a row, suggesting a steady decline in the number of infections. As many as 403 fresh cases of the infection were reported in Thursday’s health bulletin.
This is the first time in 44 days that the positivity rate in the city remained below 2 per cent for two consecutive days. With the positivity rate reflecting the spread of infection in an area, the World Health Organization (WHO) had initially said that a rate of 5 per cent or less for a period of two weeks meant Covid-19-related restrictions could be lifted in that particular area. Read more
The Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University has signed an MoU with Tihar Jail to introduce skill-based courses for inmates to support their rehabilitation.
Under this programme, the university will offer different skill-based courses at the prison and award certificates on completion of the courses. It will deploy trainers for these courses for identified groups within the prison.
According to university officials, it is proposed that a detailed assessment of existing skills and market requirements will be conducted before launching the course, to customise these to the needs of the inmates. Read more
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is set to meet the newly-sworn-in L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena at 4 pm Friday.
Cloudy skies with the possibility of very light rainfall, brought by a western disturbance, are on the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast for Delhi on Friday. A western disturbance lies over Iran and Afghanistan.
The maximum temperature on Friday is likely to be 38 degrees Celsius, going by the forecast. On Thursday, the maximum temperature settled below 40 degrees Celsius for the fifth consecutive day. The maximum temperature recorded at the Safdarjung weather station was 36.7 degrees Celsius, four degrees below the normal. Read more
Two fire incidents were reported at Safdarjung Hospital in south Delhi and at Makkar Multispeciality Hospital in the eastern parts of the city on Friday morning but there was no casualty, officials said.
Four fire tenders were rushed to Makkar Multispeciality Hospital in east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar after a fire on the terrace of the facility was reported at 8.10 am, they said. The blaze has been brought under control.
At Safdarjung Hospital, a fire was reported at 8.45 am. The stabiliser of an elevator had caught fire on the second floor of the building, the fire department said. Seven to eight fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the flames were brought under control, the officials said. (PTI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday will inaugurate the Bharat Drone Mahotsav, touted as the country’s “biggest drone festival” at the Pragati Maidan in Delhi.
According to a press release by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Modi is set to interact with kisan drone pilots, witness open-air drone demonstrations and interact with startups in the drone exhibition centre.
Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates from Delhi-NCR!