Distressed family members and relatives of the victims of Delhi’s Gokulpuri fire incident. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)Delhi News Highlights: Seven people, including a 13-year-old boy, died and around 35 shanties were gutted after a fire broke out in Northeast Delhi’s Gokulpuri area on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. Following his visit to the affected area, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the kin of adult deceased persons, Rs 5 lakh in case of minor deceased and Rs 25,000 to those whose shanties were gutted. President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed their deep condolences at the deaths.
Delhi on Saturday logged 161 fresh Covid-19 cases with a positivity rate of 0.44 per cent and one death, taking the total number of infections to 18,62,802 and toll to 26,141. The number of active cases stood at 792. On Friday, the city had recorded 174 infections and zero fatalities.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday alleged that the BJP government at the Centre is “blackmailing” the State Election Commissioner into keeping on hold the announcement of schedules for civic polls in the national capital for an “indefinite period”. Keeping up the heat over the issue, the party alleged that the Centre has kept “a file of corruption” against Delhi State Election Commissioner S K Srivastava ready to make him follow its instructions as the BJP is set to suffer a “miserable defeat” in the civic polls, if conducted.
Two men were arrested for allegedly abusing and attacking a police constable with beer bottle in north Delhi's Gulabi Bagh area, police said on Saturday. The accused have been identified as Ashok (22) and Yash Pratap Singh (22), both residents of Sarai Rohilla, they said.
On Thursday, constables Pradeep, Rikhil, and Vijay were on foot patrolling the Old Rohtak Road near Kishan Ganj Railway Station where they saw three men inside a car playing very loud music, police said. They signalled the car driver to turn the volume down, who in turn confronted them with abuses but moved from the spot, a senior police officer said. When they got to know that their car number was noted down, they took a U-turn and tried to run over the police staff but missed them and continued driving, the officer said. (PTI)
The Gurugram police has arrested 38 people, including nine women, allegedly doubling as loan recovery agents without lenders' permission and blackmailing and extorting money from defaulters in paying credits taken through some Chinese and other lending apps.
Police also raided a call centre run by them at a commercial complex in Udyog Vihar - Phase 1 here and seized 27 laptops and 44 mobiles used to run the racket.
A sum of Rs 1.70 lakh too was seized as the crime proceed, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Preet Pal Singh Sangwan said, adding an FIR in this connection has been registered at the Cybercrime police station. (PTI)
A petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Centre to facilitate the continuation of studies of Indian medical students who have returned from war-hit Ukraine in domestic colleges.
The petition by Pravasi Legal Cell, likely to be listed for hearing on March 21, has demanded that the central government should permit such students to complete their education in Indian medical colleges as an emergency and one-time measure.
The petition has submitted that presently, there are no norms and regulations in place to accommodate these rescued medical students in Indian medical colleges and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has the potential of disrupting the careers of Indian students who have already gone through the trauma of being in the war zone. (PTI)
The maximum temperature in the national capital settled at 31.2 degrees Celsius, two notches above the season's average, on Saturday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
The minimum temperature settled at 15.6 degrees Celsius, normal during the season, it said. The relative humidity oscillated between 70 per cent and 42 per cent.
Delhi's air quality was recorded in the "moderate" category. The 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) read 160 at 4 pm, according to the Central Pollution Control Board. (PTI)
DMRC Chairman Manoj Joshi on Saturday visited the Delhi Metro Bhawan and took stock of the progress of ongoing works on the three priority corridors being built under its Phase-IV network, officials said.
Janakpuri West-RK Ashram Marg, Majlis Park-Maujpur, and Tughalakabad-Aerocity are the three corridors which are under construction under this phase.
Joshi, who is also secretary, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, visited the corporate office of Delhi Metro (Metro Bhawan), after having assumed charge as DMRC chairman December last year, the DMRC said in a statement. During his visit, he interacted with the senior officials of the Delhi Metro in the presence of Mangu Singh, Managing Director of DMRC. (PTI)
The Delhi High Court has dissolved a marriage between a Hindu couple, saying that the wife filed a false criminal complaint against her husband which caused him immense mental cruelty and agony.
A bench headed by Justice Vipin Sanghi said that false allegations in the present case amounted to “a clear and categorical character assassination” of the husband, as well as his family members. It said that the wife did “everything to get the appellant and his family entrapped in the criminal case.”
The bench, that comprised Justice Jasmeet Singh, set aside a family court order that refused to grant divorce to the couple, stating that the family court ignored that visiting a police station must have caused mental harassment and trauma to the husband who did not know when a case would be registered against him and he would be arrested. (PTI)
President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday said the news of casualties in the fire accident in Delhi was extremely sad, and offered his condolences to the bereaved families. “The news of many casualties in the fire accident in Gokulpuri, Delhi is extremely sad. I express my condolences to all the bereaved families and wish the injured a speedy recovery,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday expressed deep condolences at the deaths in a fire tragedy at Gokulpuri in the national capital. In a tweet, he described the incident as heart-rending while conveying his condolences to the families of victims.
The replacement of Rajendra Paul Gautam as Woman and Child Development Minister is an indication that the Delhi government is starting to worry about the anganwadi agitation that shows no signs of abating, with civic polls on the horizon.
Gautam’s removal was a quiet move, coming a couple of days after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had already carried out a Cabinet reshuffle to work out other problem areas.
Anganwadi workers and helpers have now been protesting since January 31, seeking a raise in their monthly honorarium.
Sources said that the main reason behind Gautam’s removal was that the anganwadi protests have got plenty of media attention and the minister has not been able to handle the situation and address the problem. Read More
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal posted a cryptic tweet on Saturday, asking if Lakshadweep Administrator Praful K Patel is being made the next Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. Anil Baijal is the current Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
'Is Mr Praful Patel, Administrator of Lakshdweep, being made the next LG of Delhi?' Kejriwal tweeted.
Baijal, a 1969-batch UT cadre officer, was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in December 2016. Patel, who served as the home minister of Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the chief minister, took charge as Lakshadweep administrator in December 2020. (PTI)
The Delhi government has approved a budget of Rs 35.99 crore for the renovation of the offices of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his other Cabinet colleagues at the secretariat, a government order said.
According to government officials, the Public Works Department (PWD) has been given the task of renovation of these offices located inside the Delhi Secretariat. The PWD has also issued an order in this connection.
“In pursuance of the proposal of Engineer-in-Chief PWD titled renovation of offices of CM and ministers at Delhi Sachivalaya at an estimated cost of Rs 35,99,44,400, I have been directed to convey administrative approval and expenditure sanction for carrying out the above work,” PWD Deputy Secretary (Works) Anil Bhola said in the order. (PTI)
After seven people were killed in a slum fire in northeast Delhi's Gokulpuri area on Saturday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the kin of adult deceased persons, Rs 5 lakh in case of minor deceased and Rs 25,000 to those whose shanties were gutted.
The announcement came during the chief minister's visit to the spot. Many people were injured in the fire that broke out in the early hours of Saturday. Kejriwal took stock of the situation and interacted with the affected people, before announcing the compensation.
During his visit to the affected area, announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for adults who lost lives, Rs 5 lakh for deceased children and Rs 25,000 for those whose huts have been burnt.
Most of the people in the shanties are labourers with roots in Kanpur and Lucknow, who've been living here for many years. They would earn a living by fixing zips on jackets and jeans, as well making and selling nimbu-mirchi to shops etc, which is meant to ward off evil. The fire has so far taken the lives of seven people and has destroyed at least 60 huts.