The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces. Earlier today, the Division bench of the Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea filed by WhatsApp and Facebook challenging the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order for a probe into the messaging app's new privacy policy. Last month, tech giant Meta termed the competition regulator’s actions as intrusion in its business and said that there was no material to prove it was abusing its market dominance. Later on, the court will hear JNU student Sharjeel Imam's plea seeking interim bail in 2020 northeast Delhi riots case involving allegations of sedition.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will inaugurate 97 more electric buses in Wednesday 12 pm from Rajghat depot -1. With this, the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC’s) electric fleet will increase to 249 buses, said officials. Currently, there are 102 electric buses running under DTC. Each one of the buses is estimated to cut 0.33 million tonnes of PM 2.5 and PM 10 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) each in its life span of 10 years,said officials. According to officials, the electric buses will be a state of the art buses with modern technologies, no noise, pollution, passenger safety features such as air conditioners, CCTV cameras for women safety. It will also have facilities like bus kneeling with ramp facilities, panic buttons, and space for wheelchairs. The new buses will also have dedicated pink seats for woman passengers.
In other news, Kamal Dev Sharma is a proud principal. Recently, two of his students at Swaran Jayanti Utkrisht Senior Secondary School at Thathal in Una district of Himachal Pradesh did well in the Class 12 results of the state education board. While Tanisha Bhardwaj secured first position in commerce stream on the state merit list, Shubham Atri bagged sixth position in science stream.
Meanwhile, pulling up Delhi Police for putting unmanned mobile barricades on the roads in the city, High Court Tuesday said policemen do not apply their minds, and block roads during rush hours. The division bench of Justice Mukta Gupta and Justice Anish Dayal in this regard summoned Delhi Police’s Special CP (Law & Order) to court, and listed the matter for hearing in September. “Please let me tell you, they just don’t apply their mind. In the evening hours when there is so much rush, they will have those intersections. They would be standing on the side, not looking at one vehicle. Why are they blocking the roads?” said the court, while addressing a counsel representing the Delhi Police.
The Congress on Tuesday signalled that the schedule for the election of the party president will be announced in a few days even as senior leaders remained apprehensive about the prospect of Rahul Gandhi not contesting the election.
A day after he argued that the Congress was “unanimously” in favour of Rahul taking over the reins of the party, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met party president Sonia Gandhi. Gehlot, however, remained tightlipped about the details of the meeting.
In other updates: From a boxer to a school teacher, about 11 women drivers will be seen at the wheel of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses from Wednesday. This will be the first time that the city’s public transport fleet will see these many women drivers.
Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot Tuesday issued letters of appointment to the 11 women drivers who will be deployed at various DTC depots such as Nangloi, Mundka, Peeragarhi, Nand Nagri and East Vinod Nagar.
A Delhi court Tuesday granted bail to Poonam Jain who was accused in an alleged money laundering case along with her husband and AAP leader Satyendar Jain.
Poonam’s lawyers told Special Judge Geetanjli Goel that they will submit her passport on the next date of the hearing. Poonam was earlier granted interim bail in the same case on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh with surety of like amount.
AAP MLAs, led by CM Arvind Kejriwal, at Rajghat on Thursday.
As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers waited outside Delhi Chief Minister and party supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s residence with a pen and paper in hand on Thursday morning, there was only one question doing the rounds there – how many party MLAs had reached?
On Wednesday, the AAP alleged that four of its Delhi MLAs had been offered Rs 20 crore each to defect to the BJP and Rs 25 crore to bring other MLAs along to the saffron camp. While the BJP denied these charges, asking the AAP to provide its proof, the latter held a meeting of its nine-member Political Affairs Committee, its apex body, and then scheduled a meet of all party MLAs at 11 am the next day at Kejriwal’s house as a show of strength. Read more
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's weekly meeting scheduled for Friday has been called off owing to the Vidhan Sabha session.A special session of the Delhi Assembly will be held Friday to discuss central probe agencies' action in the excise policy issue and the AAP's allegation that the BJP was trying to buy its MLAs.The Assembly session is scheduled to be begin at 11 am on August 26."The weekly meeting of Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena will not be held tomorrow. The meeting of the CM & LG has been put off for tomorrow owing to the Vidhan Sabha session," a government statement read.Saxena and Kejriwal meet every Friday to discuss matters pertaining to the development of Delhi. --PTI
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday alleged that the BJP had set aside Rs 800 crore to topple the Delhi government. “They have kept 800 crores to bring down the Delhi government – 20 crores per MLA,” tweeted Kejriwal. “The country wants to know. Whose are these 800 crores, where are they kept? None of our MLA ‘s will take the bait. The government is stable. All the good work going on in Delhi will continue.”
JP MP Parvesh Verma slammed the AAP, accusing them of ‘polluting Rajghat’. “Our karyakartas will have to cleanse it with Ganga jal,” he said. Earlier today, AAP MLAs, led by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, went to Rajghat to ‘pray to Gandhiji’ for the failure of the saffron party’s Operation Lotus.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said Thursday that 12 of its MLAs have been contacted by leaders in the BJP to break away from AAP and help topple the Delhi government. AAP national spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said there was no danger to the Delhi government and all AAP MLAs had reiterated their commitment to the party and the people.
All 62 MLAs were called to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house at 11 am on Thursday. Seven of them, including Manish Sisodia and Assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel, did not attend as they were not in the city. While Satyendar Jain is in jail in a case related to alleged money laundering, Amanatullah Khan could not reach because of traffic congestion but spoke to the CM on video call, Bhardwaj said. Read more.
Speaking to reporters at Rajghat, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said that nothing was recovered during the CBI raid at Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s residence earlier this week. "BJP sent a message to Manish Sisodia and asked him to leave AAP and Arvind Kejriwal. They wanted him to join BJP along with some other MLAs and they offered him (Manish Sisodia) Delhi CM post, also offered that all cases against him will be withdrawn," he said. (ANI)
Soon after AAP MLAs met at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence this morning to formulate a strategy to counter alleged efforts by the BJP to “buy MLAs”, the party leaders went to Rajghat to ‘pray to Gandhiji’ for the failure of the saffron party’s Operation Lotus. During the meeting, 12 AAP MLAs said that they had been contacted by someone from the BJP to break away from the AAP. “All MLAs have said they will stay with the party till our last breath,” said AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj. Ahead of the meeting, several party leaders were unreachable, sources told The Indian Express. However, all MLAs expected to attend the meeting were present.
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BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Thursday accused the Delhi CM of sticking to the “same old script” and failing to address the concerns surrounding the state government’s now-scrapped liquor policy. “You have to speak on liquor policy, people want to know your reply. Due to your silence people are understanding that you have got the money and are now busy diverting the issue,” he said.
During the meeting, 12 AAP MLAs said that they had been contacted by someone from the BJP to break away from the AAP, Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Thursday. "All MLAs have said they will stay with the party till our last breath," he added. All the MLAs, including Kejriwal, are now headed to Rajghat to "pray that Gandhi ji saves the country from the BJP's operation lotus", Bharadwaj said.
All MLAs that were expected to attend this morning's meeting at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence have been accounted for. This comes after sources earlier told The Indian Express that some of the party's MLA's were unreachable right before the meeting.
So far, 52 AAP MLAs have arrived for the meeting at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's residence. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj has been stationed outside Kejriwal's official home, to keep count of each MLA arriving. Take a look.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to stay the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the armed forces. Further, the court directed the Centre to file a separate reply copy on various pending recruitment processes in the armed forces before the introduction of the Agnipath scheme.
Ahead of the meeting at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's residence on Thursday morning, AAP leader Atishi said she was certain that all MLAs will be present at the meeting. "We are absolutely certain that all AAP MLAs are with the party and will remain with the party," she told reporters. (ANI)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's meeting has commenced and 46 MLAs have arrived so far, according to MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Ahead of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's meeting, several AAP MLAs were unreachable, sources told news agency ANI. The party has been accusing the BJP of luring its leaders in a bid to topple the AAP government in Delhi.
The Division bench of the Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea filed by WhatsApp and Facebook challenging the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order for a probe into the messaging app’s new privacy policy. Last month, tech giant Meta termed the competition regulator’s actions as intrusion in its business and said that there was no material to prove it was abusing its market dominance.
A 31-year-old man was beaten to death by four men in North Delhi’s Timarpur on Thursday. The victim, identified as Sunil, was a registered criminal in the area. He had approached the culprits after they assaulted his brother, but they attacked him. All four men have been arrested, says DCP (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has convened an emergency meeting of its Political Affairs Committee at 4 pm on Wednesday to discuss and formulate a strategy to counter efforts to “buy MLAs”. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said some of his MLAs have approached him alleging that they have been threatened and offered bribes to break the party. “Some MLAs have approached me and told me that they have been threatened, offered bribes to break the party. This is a very serious matter. We will have a political affairs committee meeting over the issue at 4 pm today to take stock of the situation,” he told reporters.
The meeting is slated to begin at 11 am today. Read more.
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Wednesday saw opposing student groups taking out protests on campus. While some slogans were against each other, both had one common complaint – scholarships not being disbursed on time.
During its march in the evening, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protested against the JNU administration with regard to violence at the scholarship section Monday – clashes had broken out between students from the outfit and security staff during their protest to demand the release of scholarships and fellowships, which led to injuries on both sides.
Their primary demand was that administration apologise to students and staff for the violence. Read more.