Delhi News Updates: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to skip Singapore event after failing to get LG clearance

Shortly after a tempo traveller carrying 21 schoolchildren caught fire in Delhi, the Directorate of Education ordered safety audits of vehicles used for transporting students to schools.

Concluding his arguments in the appeal for bail in the alleged case of larger conspiracy behind the Northeast Delhi riots, activist Umar Khalid’s counsel Thursday argued that completely unconnected incidents have been put together in the chargesheet to show a conspiracy.

A 26-year-old man has been arrested, while a teenage relative was apprehended, for allegedly stealing cash and jewellery worth Rs 10 crore from his employer’s house at Punjabi Bagh. Police said the complainant, a businessman, was in the United States when the duo allegedly committed the burglary and left with his car.
Police caught the duo in Bihar’s Sheohar district and recovered a total of 111 pieces of gold and diamond jewellery.

Contending that it has serious doubts as to whether the Lok Nayak Jaiprakash (LNJP) Hospital or even GB Pant Hospital would be able to independently assess his medical condition, the Enforcement Directorate has sought constitution of an independent board consisting of a panel of doctors of central government hospitals for “verification” of AAP leader Satyendar Jain’s condition.

Delhi High Court directs trial court to not consider any medical report of LNJP on health condition of Delhi minister Satyendar Jain till next date of hearing, August 17. The trial court is currently hearing Jain's application for interim bail on health grounds in the money laundering case. ED has approached the HC seeking that he be examined by doctors of a central government hospital.

Power cuts lasting hours and drains in desperate need of maintenance have emerged as key concerns during the rainy season in Noida, with resident welfare associations (RWAs) urging authorities to intervene and address the crises. 

Just last week, on July 23, more than 75 RWAs under the umbrella body of Federation of Noida Residents Welfare (FONERWA) held a meeting in sector 52 with the officials from the discom PVVNL to press for their demand for uninterrupted power supply.

“Power outages are an everyday issue in Sector 62 – it goes out even after a little drizzle. Even generators cannot be depended on because if we cross the particular load given to us – the 220 V assigned for domestic usage – we are levied a fine,” said B S Mathur, vice-president of the federation of RWAs of Sector 62. Read more

On August 4, thousands of children will gather in Delhi to make the world's largest flag (tiranga). They will resolve to make India the best country in the world, Delhi Chief  Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.

Administration of the third precaution dose against Covid-19 has continued at a slow pace in the national capital despite Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urging all adults to get the shot 10 days ago. The coverage of the third dose in Delhi has remained at 11.7% among the total number of people who received the first shot. The third dose has been administered to 21.38 lakh people in Delhi, according to data from CoWIN, against 1.8 crore people who received the first dose in the city. 

The numbers have not increased significantly despite the government’s door-to-door campaign and vaccination starting in mohalla clinics close to peoples’ homes. There were 1.28 lakh precaution doses administered on average over the last three weeks, as compared to 1.16 lakh the week before. The numbers stood at 76,390 doses in a week at the end of May. Read more

Light to moderate rainfall is likely in Delhi on Thursday, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). 

The maximum temperature is likely to settle at around 33 degrees Celsius. The maximum temperature recorded on Wednesday was 34.6 degrees Celsius, which is around the normal for this time of the year. The minimum temperature recorded early on Thursday was 26.7 degrees Celsius, a degree below the normal. At 8.30 am on Thursday, the temperature was 28.6 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity was 84%. Read more

Tension gripped Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh area late Wednesday night after hundreds of residents started quarrelling and pelting stones at each other and the police, leaving 8 police personnel injured, police said on Thursday. More than 27 people were booked for rioting after an argument escalated and residents threw bottles, attacked police personnel and police vehicles, and disrupted traffic movement in the area. 

According to the police, the incident took place at Prem Bari Pul in Northwest Delhi. Clashes broke out after a man fought with 2-3 local boys over drugs, police said. Within minutes, both parties allegedly called the residents they knew, who then started raising slogans and fighting, blocking the roads.

Videos of the incident show a group of young men and boys running on the main road and stopping cars. Police personnel are seen trying to control the crowd and disperse them. Other videos show men pelting stones and police chasing them with lathis. Read more

A Delhi court has asked the father of two minor children to explain if he recorded an in-chamber deposition relating to their custody, after the daughter of the man told the court that a mobile phone was used to record their depositions because of which she made a statement out of fear. 

In this matter, a woman filed a case under Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act against her husband and moved an application for interim relief seeking custody of both her minor children. The application was filed by advocate Pravesh Dabas, who appeared for the woman.

Metropolitan Magistrate (Mahila court) Deepika Goyal Shoukeen on July 20 passed an order directing the father of the two children to appear before her and explain whether he recorded in-chamber proceedings or not on August 24. Read more

A majority of primary and pre-primary class students in Delhi government schools will now move on to regular teaching-learning after over three months of focused foundational learning, with the latest round-up of assessments showing them to be at a ‘desired learning level’.

Since schools in Delhi reopened physically in full capacity on April 1 this year, the focus in government schools has been on foundational reading, writing and numeracy for students up to class IX with assessments conducted every week. These are uploaded for the education department approximately on a monthly basis.

After the latest round-up, students in each grade up to class V have been divided into level 1 and level 2 based on their abilities, and students categorised in level 2 will resume regular classroom teaching and learning with grade-appropriate curriculum, with a reduced syllabus of the Delhi SCERT. Read more

According to Raj Niwas officials, the L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena has conveyed to Delhi Legislative Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel that even after 14 months of the GNCTD (Amendment) Act, 2021 coming into effect, the Delhi Assembly has kept necessary amendments pending in its ‘Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business’, and asked Goel for “Constitutional compliance”.

The GNCTD Act, 2021, which was approved by the central government last year, gives an upper hand to the L-G over the elected government. As per the legislation, the “government” in Delhi means the “L-G”.

The Speaker’s office said, “The amendment to the GNCTD Act made by Parliament has been challenged by the Delhi government on the grounds that it violates Article 239AA. This amendment has made the committee system of the Assembly nonfunctional. The amendment prohibits the Assembly and its committees from making an inquiry into administrative decisions. Then what will the committees look into, the affairs of the United Nations? Committees of legislature look into administrative decisions and ask the government to fix responsibility of individual officers if found guilty by the committees.” Read more

The Supreme Court Thursday is set to hear a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party challenging the postponement of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls. Appearing for the party, A M Singhvi on Tuesday had told the court that the terms of the three MCDs — now unified — expired in mid-May this year. The party has urged that post-unification, the polls cannot be delayed.

Stay tuned as we bring you the latest updates!

Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Wednesday alleged that a portion of a balcony and a ceiling in two separate hostels collapsed following the recent spells of rain.

An immediate reaction was not available from the university. JNU Dean of Student Sudheer Pratap Singh did not respond to calls and texts from PTI seeking a response.

In a statement, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said roofs collapsing has become a common sight in the university. The incidents took place on Monday at Periyar and Kaveri hostels of the university. No one was injured in the incidents.

The students, however, expressed concerns over the dilapidated condition of the hostels. A portion of the balcony collapsed at the Periyar hostel. (PTI)

The suspected patient of monkeypox, admitted to the LNJP Hospital here, had travelled abroad over a month ago, sources said on Wednesday. A resident of Ghaziabad, the man had fever and lesions for the last one week while his reports from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, are awaited, they said.

A suspected case of monkeypox was also reported in Uttar Pradesh's Noida, adjoining Delhi, but the patient's laboratory results turned out to be negative, health department officials said.

According to officials, the patient, a 47-year-old Greater Noida resident, approached the health department on Tuesday, after which her samples were taken. (PTI)

Delhi reported 1,066 new Covid-19 cases and two virus-related fatalities on Wednesday. The positivity rate has now reached 6.91 per cent.

Meanwhile, as many as 687 patients recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

Currently, there are 3,239 active cases in the national capital.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday deferred a hearing till September on a batch of petitions challenging the 2021 privacy policy of the instant messaging application WhatsApp.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was informed by the parties that similar issues were pending consideration before the Supreme Court.

The high court also adjourned on similar grounds hearing till September on pleas by Facebook and WhatsApp challenging the new IT rules for social media intermediaries requiring the messaging app to “trace” chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of the information. (PTI)

The Delhi High Court Wednesday granted the Delhi Police four weeks’ time to file a response to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s petition seeking the return of devices and documents seized by the investigation agency during the probe of the case alleging that he hurt religious sentiments through a tweet made by him in 2018.