Delhi

The Arvind Kejriwal government has declared that it will table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi assembly today, ignoring Union Law Ministry’s view that the Centre’s prior approval is required.

The Union Law Ministry has held that the rules governing Delhi government’s legislative business were constitutional where Centre’s consent was required before its passage.

The Law Ministry has held that the Transaction of Business Rules (TBR) make it mandatory that the Lt Governor refer to the Centre every legislative proposal which may necessitate additional financial assistance.

A 33-year-old man was injured Tuesday when a car from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s convoy hit his motorbike, police said.

The incident took place around 2 p.m. near Gate No.2 of the Delhi Secretariat in central Delhi area.

Computer mechanic Kashif Zaidi was hit by a car belonging to Kejriwal’s convoy, police said.

Zaidi, who stays in Yamuna Vihar area of east Delhi, received minor injuries on his leg, shoulder and teeth.

He was rushed to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital from where he was discharged after first aid.

Police is yet to register any case.

Two youths from Manipur were beaten up here late Sunday, police said Monday, just a few days after an alleged racial attack led to the death of a student from Arunachal Pradesh.

The youths were attacked by a group of motorbike riders in Ambedkar Nagar area of south Delhi around 8.30 p.m. Sunday.

One of the victims, reported to be in a serious condition, was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, police said.

The AAP government is planning to give scholarships to 10,000 students with what it says is Rs.21 crore lying unutilized for years by the previous Sheila Dikshit government.

Improving the standard of education in the national capital has been declared as one of the top priorities of the over one-month old Aam Aadmi Party government, led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Former Additional Solicitor General K N Bhatt today said he was not consulted on the Jan Lokpal Bill but only on the validity of some rules.

Bhatt was reacting to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s statement yesterday that the government had taken opinion of four lawyers including Bhatt and all of them were of the view that the Home Ministry order was “unconstitutional”.

The Home Ministry order says that Delhi government has to take permission from the Centre before enacting any law.

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has informed the National Green Tribunal that 33 restaurants in the capital’s upmarket Hauz Khas village area have been given consent to operate.

The DPCC, in an affidavit placed before a bench of NGT judicial members justices P Jyothimani and M S Nambiar, has said the eateries had applied for consent to establish and operate by providing all relevant documents and hence they were given the requisite approval.

German President Joachim Guack met Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and both leaders are said to have discussed the role of civil society movements in politics in both countries.

During the 25-minute-long meeting, both leaders discussed the ombudsman bill, Kejriwal”s government policies and his party’s plan to contest the coming parliament elections.

Guack had talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and inked of two pacts under which Germany will provide loans worth 900 million Euros to India.

Solicitor General of India Mohan Parasaran on Thursday said that they have given their opinion regarding the status of the Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill based on the Constitutional.

“I am not bothered about politics. We have only given our opinion based on the Constitutional position. Therefore, it is for the Governor to consider that and possibly act as he thinks fit,” he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Parasaran noted that the Lieutenant Governor ‘s prior approval is mandatory to enact the Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill, and added that it would be illegal if enacted without the consent.

In the wake of recent criminal incidents involving Africans and other foreigners, Delhi Police is going to launch a 24-hour helpline for foreign nationals in distress in the Indian capital.

There will be a dedicated helpline number +91-8750871111 for foreign nationals which will be handled by a senior officer at the Delhi Police headquarters.

According to an order, a copy of which is with IANS, Joint Commissioner of Police
(New Delhi Range) Mukesh Kumar Meena will be responsible for supervising this helpline and keep a record of all calls received and take steps to
resolve them.

The Delhi government has asked anti-corruption bureau to probe a number of cases of corruption relating to alleged irregularities in Commonwealth Games projects.

It has sent files related to Street Light scam worth 92 crore rupees in CWG to Anti-corruption branch.

Also, the Delhi government, Monday, wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking action against Sheila Dikshit for allegedly trying to gain political mileage by granting regularisation certificates to unauthorised colonies in the Capital.

A petition was filed Tuesday in the Delhi High Court seeking its direction to appoint doctors in government hospitals, noting that due to the vacancies, patients were not getting treatment and some were dying in absence of medical assistance.

The public interest litigation (PIL) said the condition at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here was very poor as the vacancies are not being filled due to negligence of the hospital director.

Delhi government today expressed its readiness to take over power distribution in the city to control the “ugly situation” even as Anil Ambani Group discoms attacked it for recommending to power regulator DERC to revoke their licenses, terming the move as “arbitrary” and “illegal”.

In a letter to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal justified his government’s decision to recommend to DERC to revoke licenses of two BSES discoms if they fail to pay dues to power generator NTPC and resort to long outages in large parts of the city.

Seeking to revamp the state’s healthcare system, Delhi government today transferred medical superitendents of 13 hospitals run by it.

Health Minister Satyendra Jain said “the decision is majorly to revamp the entire healthcare sector of the city.

“Many of the medical superitendents were holding the same post over the past many years, which had led to corruption and laxity of work. Thus, it was necessary to shift them and give them new work.”

Jain also said the initiative is driven by the feedbacks received from the patients for the last one month.

Delhi Police today suspended several of its personnel after they were shown accepting bribes in a sting operation by a private TV news channel.

The policemen shown accepting bribes in the sting have been identified as Inspector Madan Pal, Inspector RS Naruka, Sub-Inspector Anil Kumar, Head Constable Digambar, Giriraj Meena, Sohanveer and Constable Dharamveer.

All those shown accepting bribes have been suspended and we are registering corruption cases against them, police said.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers on Tuesday protested outside the residence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley and alleged that he is trying to destabilize the AAP-led Delhi Government.

“The BJP is trying to bribe our MLAs. They have stooped so low. They are trying to defame a popular person like Kejriwal,” said a protestor.

The security outside Jaitley’s Kailash Colony residence was tightened earlier, taking in view the protest.

Security personnel and barricades were placed outside Jaitley’s residence.

Delhi has emerged as the most competitive city-state in a new report that has done an in-depth assessment of states in India according to different stages of development on the Manufacturing Competitiveness Index. The Manufacturing Competitiveness Report 2014 found that Delhi has done well on all the 4 factors of manufacturing competitiveness. The aim of the report is to measure manufacturing competitiveness and suggest ways to significantly enhance it for various sub-national regions in the Indian context.

After reports of three Ugandan women being held hostage by a drug mafia came to light, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Ashutosh on Tuesday said this reflected that the party was right about the drug and sex racket, and had rightly conducted the raid in South Delhi some weeks ago.

“These three women have clearly mentioned that there was a drug and sex racket going on. What more proof do you need now?” asked Ashutosh.

Opening a new front against outside supporter Congress, AAP government today recommended to President Pranab Mukherjee to issue an advisory to former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit based on a Lokayukta order for alleged wrongdoings in grant of provisional regularisation certificates to unauthorised colonies.

“We endorsed the Lokayukta order. We have recommended that guilty should be punished as per the Lokayukta recommendation,” PWD Minister Manish Sisodia said.

The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Friday announced a hike in the power tariff ranging from 6-8 percent applicable from February 1 onwards.

According to press statement issued by the DERC, rates of BSES Yamuna were hiked by 8 percent, of NDPL by 7 percent and of BSES Rajdhani by 6 percent.

“The hike in power rates will be applicable for three months starting from February 1,” the statement added.

Slamming Delhi Police for the death of the son of an Arunachal Pradesh MLA here, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today said that “as far as accountability of Delhi Police is concerned, this is very condemnable”.

“Whoever is responsible for it (the incident), must be given stringent punishment so that a strong precedent is set.

“This (the incident) underlines the lawlessness that we have always been questioning. As far as accountability of Delhi Police is concerned, this is very condemnable,” said party spokesperson Dilip Pandey.

The Delhi Government is working on an ambitious health plan for the city to boost its medical infrastructure and provide better facilities to public.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made this announcement today at a press conference, stating that details of the plan is being worked out.

Kejriwal, at the same time, also hinted at scrapping a few hospital projects which have been lying in the cold storage for many years despite being granted approvals long back.

Reliance Infra-backed power distribution company BSES Yamuna Power Ltd has informed Delhi Government that areas in Central and East Delhi may face eight to 10 hours of power cuts from Saturday as the company was facing serious fund crunch to buy electricity.

In a letter to Delhi’s Power Secretary Puneet Goel, BYPL sought immediate financial assistance from the government to deal with the “difficult” situation as it was not being able to make payments to various state-run power generators including NTPC and NHPC.

A group of Delhi University students has decided to stage a demonstration outside the Delhi Secretariat tomorrow to press for their demands of affordable education, transport and accommodation before the Chief Minister.

“The Delhi University students today suffer from massive problems of transport, absence of hostels and unbridled rent in private accommodation and of course, the mounting problem of infrastructure in colleges,” said Sunny Kumar of All India Students’ Association (AISA).

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday justified proposing the name of writer Maitreyi Pushpa for the post of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), stating that the current chief Barkha Shukla Singh, who belongs to the Congress Party, would not be able to perform her duties in an unbiased way.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Najeeb Jung on Thursday said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been asked to send a proposal for a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

” Arvind Kejriwal met me, and he discussed the issue. I told him to send me a proposal if he wanted SIT probe in 1984 riots,” he told media here today.

Earlier on Wednesday, Kejriwal said: “”I have met the L-G and talked to him about SIT probe into the 1984 riots case. He is very positive towards this issue,” Kejriwal told media here after his meeting with the L-G.”