Delhi-NCR news live: Man stabbed to death at birthday party, 4 arrested

A cover of "moderate" fog enveloped Delhi on Friday morning, with the city recording a minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius, MeT officials said. The air quality in the national capital was recorded in the "very poor" category. The air quality index (AQI) was 331 at 9 am, real-time data of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) showed. (PTI)

South Delhi Municipal Corporation has finalised its budget for 2021-22. With municipal elections scheduled for next year, all taxes that were proposed were rejected by the civic body, even as it also rolled back the tax hikes for commercial properties enforced through the 3rd Municipal Valuation Committee last July. The allocation for discretionary funds for councillors and chairpersons of committees and zones has been raised, while Rs 50 lakh has been set aside for every ward for repair of roads and back lanes. Each ward will also get Rs 5 lakh for streetlights.

Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) has started a web-based application software for recruitment of contractual bus drivers to make the process faster and hassle-free.

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) plans to extract 55 million gallons per day (MGD) of additional groundwater through tubewells inside its water treatment plant complexes to augment the supply in summer months, water minister Satyendar Jain has said.

Although the number of healthcare and frontline workers who turned up for the Covid shot on Thursday touched the single-day highest mark at 15,807, the turnout percentage was just 62.4% as against 80.5% on Wednesday. The number of adverse events was 12, all of them minor.

Facing an unprecedented financial crisis, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has urged the central government to revise the Covid-19 safety protocol to allow its trains to run with at least full seating capacity to tide over the revenue crunch. DMRC resumed train services from September 7 last year after being closed for 169 days. It reopened with a new set of travel protocols to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus as finalised by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs. This protocol mandates regulated entry into stations, a gap of six feet between passengers on the platforms and while standing inside the coaches and leaving every alternate seat in the trains vacant. As a result, only 50-60 passengers can now travel in a coach, which, before the Covid-19 outbreak, carried 300-350 people during the peak hours.

Expect a warm week ahead as India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted the daytime temperature to remain 5 to 6 degrees above normal for the next seven days. Delhi’s maximum temperature may hover around 30 degrees Celsius. Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at IMD and head, Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said, “There will be a gradual increase in both minimum and maximum temperatures. The winter chill is over and there is no prediction of cold wave or cold day conditions.” He added there might be slight variation in the temperature on some days but the weather was predicted to remain comfortable in the month.

Delhi has been built and rebuilt over centuries, Delhi High Court said on Thursday, declining to stop the near-complete East Kidwai Nagar revamp project as it had all the mandatory approvals in place.

With strict social distancing measures, a cap on the number of visitors and no on-the-spot entry, the famed Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan will kickstart its annual “Udyanotsav” amidst the pandemic. The iconic garden at the Rashtrapati Bhavan will be opened for public by President Ram Nath Kovind from February 13.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation, in partnership under Su-Dhara sentinel project on urban waste management, has initiated a move to convert temple waste and floral offerings into compost and manure. The civic body on Thursday said compost generation started in Ward 38-E and 50-E. Women in these two wards are being trained to make gulal from flowers, it added.

Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has allowed vacant land in the city earmarked for nursery schools to be used for other purposes, including healthcare facilities, spas, guesthouses, banks, coaching centres and parking and residential purposes.