The number of active cases stood at 2,008 on Friday. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)Delhi News Highlights: Delhi on Friday reported 655 fresh Covid-19 cases at a positivity rate of 3.11 per cent, taking the total number of infections to 19,11,268. The city reported two more deaths taking the toll to 26,218. The number of active cases stood at 2,008 on Friday. Delhi had on Thursday logged 622 cases at a positivity rate of 3.17 per cent. City doctors say they have seen an increase in Covid-19 cases reporting for out-patient consultations, however, hospital admissions remain stagnant.
Protest erupted outside Jama Masjid here after the Friday prayers demanding the arrest of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammed, police said. Scores of people, carrying placards, shouted slogans against Sharma. A senior police officer said that while some of the demonstrators left the site after some time, others continued to protest.
A Delhi court order on JNU student Sharjeel Imam’s interim bail plea has been adjourned until July 7, news agency ANI reported. The matter was adjourned as the courts are on vacation from today.
Delhi's Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain on Friday conducted surprise inspection at Burari circle office and directed officials to strictly follow the first in-first out (FIFO) mode while processing new ration card applications, an official statement said.
During the visit, the minister enquired about the pending ration card applications pertaining to the circle office and also about the verification status of the pending applications.
The minister issued instructions to the concerned officers to promptly deal with pending applications and to resolve the cases at the earliest in the interest of beneficiaries and applicants. (PTI)
The Delhi Transport Corporation has decided to change the timings and route of the Delhi-Kathmandu Maitri bus service with an aim to increase the number of travellers and reduce the journey time.
"At present, the bus for Kathmandu departs at 10 am from Dr Ambedkar Stadium Terminal, Delhi Gate via the Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow Highway," Sanjay Saxena, deputy chief general manager, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) said.
According to the approval of the competent authority, decisions have been taken for increasing passenger occupancy and decreasing travelling time of the bus service from Delhi to Kathmandu, he said in a statement. (PTI)
Delhi High Court will pronounce its judgement on Monday on CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat’s petition against a lower court order declining the prayer for registration of FIR against Union Minister Anurag Thakur and MP Parvesh Verma for their alleged hate speeches connected to the Northeast Delhi riots.
The lower court, while dismissing the complaint, had said the complainants had not obtained the previous sanction from the competent authority to prosecute Thakur and Verma under sections 153A, 153B, 295A, 298, 504, 505 and 506 of the IPC.
As per Section 196 CrPC, prior sanction from the state is required for prosecution of offences punishable under Section 153A, 153B, 295A and 505 of IPC.
Amid protests over controversial remarks made by two now-suspended BJP leaders against Prophet Mohammad, the apex child rights body NCPCR alleged on Friday that children were used in many of these "violent demonstrations" and that it would take strict legal action in the matter.
Protests erupted in several parts of the country, including outside Delhi's Jama Masjid, with hundreds of people demanding the arrest of Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal over their controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad.
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chief Priyank Kanoongo has claimed that children were used in many of these "violent demonstrations". (PTI)
Delhi government will hire an agency to test mid-day meals served in its schools to ensure that the meals meet the prescribed standards of quality and nutritional value, according to officials.
The midday meal or PM-POSHAN scheme, under which hot cooked meals are served to address the nutritional needs of children, covers government and government-aided school students of classes I-VIII, as well as pre-primary classes. During closure of schools due to the pandemic, the food security allowance was continued through the distribution of dry ration kits.
"The government will hire an agency which will pick random samples from schools as well as the kitchens and godowns. Samples of both the cooked food as well as raw materials will be tested at regular intervals," an official of the Directorate of Education (DoE) said. (PTI)
Around 12,000 residents across the national capital have signed up for free daily yoga classes under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s ‘Dilli Ki Yogshala’ programme launched in January this year, officials said, adding that the classes are being conducted in around 500 Delhi parks.
“At present, the Yogshala programme started by the Delhi Government is running in around 506 parks of Delhi. And around 12,000 people are practicing yoga and meditation every morning,” Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had tweeted recently. “The Arvind Kejriwal government has made yoga a mass movement in Delhi.”
The Yogshala programme was announced by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in December 2021 and the free classes started from January with 400 instructors. The main aim of this ‘Dilli ki Yogshala’ scheme was to make people lead a stress-free and healthy life. Read more.
Last winter, air pollution forecasting systems for Delhi “picked up the pollution trend but could not predict high pollution episodes,” according to a case study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).
To reduce high air pollution episodes further during the next winter, forecasting systems would need to provide more accurate predictions of PM2.5 concentration levels, according to the study. Since short-term emergency measures were introduced based on the forecasts, the systems helped “prevent extremely severe air pollution episodes”, the study stated.
“The first set of restrictions was put in place on 16 November 2021, and all were lifted by 20 December 2021, save the one on industrial operations. During this period, all the forecasts except AQ-EWS (3-day) (Air Quality Early Warning System) underpredicted PM2.5 levels,” the study said. Read more.
Private schools running on government land in Delhi can submit proposals for a fee hike for the 2022-2023 academic year but cannot increase fees without prior approval of the Directorate of Education (DOE).
“All the pending fee hike proposals submitted by the private unaided recognised schools running on the land allotted by the DDA (Delhi Development Authority)/other land-owning agencies… for session 2020-2021 have become infructuous…such schools may submit their fee hike proposals, if any, for the session 2022 23,” a circular issued by Director of Education Himanshu Gupta reads.
The schools can submit their fee hike proposals for the current academic year between June 12 and June 27. Read more.
The New Delhi district has been performing well consistently when it comes to Covid-19 vaccination, with 93.7% coverage of second dose and 14.7% of precaution dose among those who have received the first one.
If the number of people who have received their first dose so far is considered to be the total eligible population in Delhi, 83.9% on average have received their second dose, whereas 7.05% have received their precaution dose, according to data from the government’s CoWIN portal.
The total number of first doses administered in the city also includes children between the ages of 12 and 17 years who are not yet eligible for their precaution doses. Even among adults, there is likely to be a section of people who haven’t yet completed their nine-month gap between second and precaution doses. Read more.
A Delhi court order on Sharjeel Imam's interim bail plea has been adjourned until July 7, news agency ANI reported. The matter was adjourned as the courts are on vacation from today.
The Interpol has issued a red-corner-notice (RCN) against Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar (28), who has taken responsibility for the murder of singer-politician Sidhu Moosewala on May 29.
The Delhi University has written to colleges asking them to ensure there is no caste-based discrimination on the campus, saying officials or faculty members should desist from any such act against SC/ST students on grounds of their social origin.
The varsity’s assistant registrar on May 25 wrote to colleges attaching several letters from the University Grants Commission (UGC) on the prevention of caste-based discrimination in higher education and requesting them to take necessary action in the matter.
The UGC, in this direction, has requested to take four actions, including constitution of a committee to look into the discrimination complaints received from SC/ST/OBC students, teachers and non-teaching staff. (PTI)
Two labourers were killed while another suffered injuries after the three fell off an under-construction building at Sector 65 in Gurgaon Thursday evening.
With instances of students using unfair means coming to light during Delhi University’s (DU’s) ongoing offline examinations, some teachers have argued that the university should avoid a punitive approach in these cases. According to Dean Examination Diwan Rawat, as of June 7, the university had recorded a total of 115 unfair means cases, which he stated did not signal any kind of increase from previous years. The examination will continue till June 18.
However, some teachers said that as these examinations have been conducted under trying circumstances, the university should consider approaches other than penalising the students. These are the first fully offline examinations being conducted by the university since the start of the pandemic in 2020, and they started a little over three months after the university reopened physically in February. Read more
Heatwave conditions are likely to persist in parts of Delhi-NCR on Thursday, with the maximum temperature likely to be around 44 degrees Celsius at the Safdarjung weather observatory.
Parts of Delhi-NCR recorded heatwave conditions on Wednesday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The weather observatory at the Ridge in North Delhi recorded a heatwave when the maximum temperature was 44.9 degrees on Wednesday, 4.7 degrees above the normal. The highest maximum temperature in the city on Wednesday was recorded at the CWG Sports Complex in East Delhi – 46.6 degrees Celsius. The weather stations at Najafgarh and Mungeshpur also recorded temperatures above 46 degrees, settling at 46.3 degrees and 46.2 degrees respectively. Read more
Three men were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly murdering a grocery shop owner on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway after stealing his valuables. Police said that the accused had been involved in a spate of robberies across the Manesar area in the recent months.
On May 21 night, Ashish Kumar (22) was found murdered in IMT Manesar area. In the police complaint, his brother had said that around 10 pm, Kumar had left his grocery shop and was returning to his house in Bilaspur on his motorcycle. He was talking to his fiancee over the phone. Around 10.20 pm, his fiancee told the family that some unknown persons had intercepted him. She said that she had heard Kumar tell the accused to take what they wanted but to spare his life before the call was disconnected. Read more
The number of fresh Covid-19 cases in Delhi crossed the 500-mark for the first time in 18 days, with 564 infections recorded Wednesday being the highest in 24 days. The positivity rate—the proportion of samples tested that return positive—stood at 2.84 per cent on Wednesday, which was also the highest in 22 days, barring this Monday’s bulletin (which records cases and tests from Sunday) when it shot up to 3.4 per cent because very few tests had been conducted. Read more
Ten more bodies of the Mundka fire victims have been identified through DNA matching by the forensic teams, officials said Thursday. With this, 20 of the 27 people who died in the massive fire at a commercial building in Outer Delhi’s Mundka on May 13, have been identified.
The remaining seven are being processed for sample extraction and testing at the forensic lab in Rohini, said officials. The ten victims identified are Pooja, Madhu Kumar, Preeti, Poonam, Mushrat, Geeta Chouhan, Sonam, Amar Nath Goyal, Asha and Bharti Negi, said officials. Read more
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi named in FIR registered by the IFSO unit of Delhi Police Thursday over alleged inflammatory remarks yesterday. Swami Yati Narasimhananda's name also mentioned in the FIR.
A Delhi court Thursday extended the Enforcement Directorate’s custody of AAP leader Satyendar Jain till June 13 in connection with a money laundering case. Jain, whose nine-day custody ended Thursday, was produced before Special CBI Judge Geetanjli Goel. The ED had sought his custody for five more days, submitting that they needed to confront him with documents that were recovered in the searches that have been conducted by the agency.
The Enforcement Directorate has recieved further custody of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain till June 13, who has been arrested in an alleged money laundering case. Jain has filed a bail application through his lawyer in court.
A fire broke out at a five-storeyed residential building in Southeast Delhi’s Batla House area Thursday morning. Officials said more than 20 people were trapped inside and rescued in time. A call about the fire was made around 8.48 am, according to fire department officials. Read more
On the anniversary of the 1857 Siege of Delhi on June 8, few will remember the Mughals who saw their reign end. The Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli is a monument that reflects this aptly. The last palace built by the Mughals, the huge red sandstone gate impresses from a distance.
But on closer look, mounds of garbage are strewn around the parking lot. Within the palace, walls and pillars crumble and seem to be at the point of collapse. The graves of three Mughal emperors are somewhere within the decaying Mahal. Before he was exiled to Rangoon by the British, Bahadur Shah Zafar wished to be buried here beside his forefathers. His grave lies empty. Arnav Chandrasekhar writes
The use of coal as a fuel will be banned across the National Capital Region (NCR) with effect from January 1, 2023, according to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). For regions where infrastructure for and supply of piped natural gas (PNG) is already available, the ban on the use of coal will come into force from October 1, 2022, the CAQM said in a statement Wednesday. Read more
Three buses caught fire around 10 pm Wednesday night at the Sunehri Bus Depot near Dayal Singh college. Three fire tenders were dispatched to contain the fire. According to Delhi Fire Service officials, no casualties were reported.
After services on Delhi Metro’s Blue Line were delayed Thursday morning due to a technical snag, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said that the servcies had been resumed.
Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Wednesday said gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently in Tihar Jail, is the mastermind in last month’s murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, while Pune Rural police claimed to have arrested a close associate of the suspected main shooter in a previous murder case in Maharashtra. Special CP (Special Cell) H S Dhaliwal told the media in Delhi that his team identified five men involved in Moosewala’s murder and will soon make arrests. Read more
Services on Delhi Metro’s Blue Line were delayed Thursday morning due to a technical snag. Blue Line connects Dwarka Sector-21 in Delhi and Noida Electronic City, along with a branch line to Vaishali. Three days ago, a large number of commuters on the Blue Line had faced hardship as services across the corridor were impacted for nearly an hour and a half due to a technical snag. On Thursday again, the DMRC tweeted to alert commuters.