The AQI in Delhi on Friday was 357, marginally higher than the 354 recorded on Thursday. (File Photo)Delhi News Live Updates: Delhi’s overall air quality recorded ‘very poor’ on Sunday morning with AQI at 350. Meanwhile, amid worsening pollution levels in the National Capital, the Centre’s air quality panel on Saturday directed authorities in the National Capital Region to immediately implement curbs under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). The restrictions include a ban on construction and demolition activities except for essential projects concerning national security, defence, railways and metro rail among others.
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) also said that the authorities might impose restrictions on the plying of BS III petrol and BS IV diesel four-wheelers in the NCR considering the worsening air quality. Delhi’s 24-hour average air quality index stood at 397 at 4 pm, the worst since January. It was 354 on Thursday, 271 on Wednesday, 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday (Diwali). GRAP is a set of anti-air pollution measures followed in the capital and its vicinity according to the severity of the situation.
In other news, Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena Saturday asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to reconsider the ‘Red light on Gaadi off’ campaign, saying there is no proof that such “ad hoc” measures have proven to be effective against air pollution. He also said these campaigns only put civil defence volunteers at “severe health and physical risk”. The campaign involves deploying 2,500 volunteers at around 100 intersections in the city to get people to turn off their engines at red lights in a bid to reduce vehicular emissions.
ITO ghat along Yamuna river in Delhi is ready for today's Chhath Puja.
A 28-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing a co-worker over a financial dispute, police said on Saturday. The accused, Ajit Kumar Jha, is a resident of Chunna Mandi, Paharganj, they said. On Friday night, information was received that a man was lying unconscious at Udhyan Marg. The man, believed to be in his 50s, was identified as Joginder and had multiple bruises and abrasions on his face, a senior officer said.
He was taken to a hospital but declared brought dead by the doctors, police said. The CCTV footage near the spot was analysed and Jha was seen kicking, punching and beating the man with a stick, police said. The accused told police that he and the victim worked at a tent shop in Udhayan Marg as daily wagers. (PTI)
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said he found Maharashtra better than Delhi, and his experience has been that the people he thought to be "big" turned out to be very small when seen up close. Speaking at an event here, the BJP leader recounted a conversation he had had with a friend.
He had lived in Delhi earlier when he was elected president of his party, Gadkari said, adding with a smile, "Delhi's water is not good." "Maharashtra is very nice. Mumbai is very good,” he further said, evoking laughter in the audience. Gadkari was president of the Bhartiya Janata Party from 2009 to 2013. He was earlier a minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999. Since 2014 he has been a senior minister in the Narendra Modi government. (PTI)
A 77-year-old Non-Resident Indian missing from south Delhi's Sarojini Nagar area was reunited with his family members, police said on Saturday. The person hails from Hoshiyarpur in Punjab but resides in the US, they said, adding that he has difficulty remembering things.
On Thursday, the man's wife lodged a missing report at the Sarojini Nagar police station. She claimed her husband had gone missing from the Leela Palace Hotel in Sarojini Nagar, a senior police officer said. A photograph of the person was circulated among the police stations in the area, they said. (PTI)
The Delhi Police on Saturday lodged an FIR against the news portal The Wire on allegations of cheating, forgery and publishing 'fake stories' against BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya. Malviya, the same day submitted his complaint against The Wire and the journalists in connection with the Meta stories.
Earlier on Friday, the BJP IT cell chief said that he was going to file an FIR against news portal The Wire and its editors for alleged forgery, defamation, criminal conspiracy and cheating and would also take “appropriate civil action” for damages. This was in connection with the portal’s report, subsequently retracted, that Malviya used his special privileges at social media giant Meta to take down over 700 posts.
Despite a categorical denial from Meta that the report had cited fake documents, The Wire published follow-up stories and its retraction and apology did not mention him “despite tarnishing my image”, Malviya said.
The national capital is likely to witness mainly clear skies with shallow fog in the morning over the next three days, the India Meteorological Department said on Saturday. Delhi's maximum temperature settled at 31.8 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal, on Saturday and the minimum at 15.6 degrees Celsius, it said.
The relative humidity was 63 per cent at 5:30 pm. The capital's overall Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 396 at 10 am. It was 357 on Friday, 354 on Thursday, 271 on Wednesday, 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday (Diwali).
An AQI between zero and 50 is considered 'good', 51 and 100 'satisfactory', 101 and 200 'moderate', 201 and 300 'poor', 301 and 400 'very poor', and 401 and 500 'severe'. (PTI)
The need for addressing environmental concerns has been an integral part of Modi government's policy, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri has said. He was speaking at a summit 'The Leaders for Inclusive and Progressive Change' organised by ILead Global Foundation to celebrate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav on Friday. Delegates from 11 countries, renowned think tanks, academic organisations and universities participated in the summit.
'The need to address environmental concerns has been an integral part of govt policy. From announcing an International SolarAlliance in 2015 to the #PanchAmrit strategy in 2021, PM Modi Ji laid out a roadmap for India's energy transition from the day he assumed office,' Puri later said on Twitter. Minister of State for Defence and Tourism Ajay Bhatt spoke on “India, the Cultural Centre of the World”.
He also threw light on India's cultural and historical lineage and emphasized how the country propagates the concept of the whole world as a family. A visit to the Prime Ministers' Museum was organised for the foreign delegates to portray the political and cultural heritage of post-independent India. (PTI)
Amid worsening pollution levels in Delhi, the Centre's air quality panel on Saturday directed authorities in the National Capital Region to immediately implement curbs under stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). The restrictions include a ban on construction and demolition activities except for essential projects concerning national security, defence, railways and metro rail among others.
The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) also said that the authorities might impose restrictions on the plying of BS III petrol and BS IV diesel four-wheelers in the NCR considering the worsening air quality. Delhi's 24-hour average air quality index stood at 397 at 4 pm, the worst since January. It was 354 on Thursday, 271 on Wednesday, 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday (Diwali).
GRAP is a set of anti-air pollution measures followed in the capital and its vicinity according to the severity of the situation. (PTI)
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Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking stronger laws and policies restraining remission and parole of rape convicts. Referring to the release of the rapists of Bilkis Bano and the parole given to rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim, she demanded that they be sent back to jail.
Bilkis Bano was 21 years old when she was gang-raped during the riots in Gujarat in 2002. The rapists not only inflicted utmost brutality on the five-month pregnant Bilkis Bano, but also killed seven of her family members, including her three-year-old child, Maliwal wrote.
Finally in 2008, a sessions court in Mumbai convicted 11 persons for gangrape and murder in her case and sentenced them to life imprisonment. (PTI)
The passenger on the IndiGo flight 6E2131 – which was grounded on Friday night at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport after sparks were noticed on the runway – who had tweeted a video of the sparks from inside the plane, told The Indian Express that for a few seconds when the fire broke out and was visible from the plane, the passengers on board felt ‘scared’ and ‘jittery’.
Recounting the incident on Saturday over the phone from Bengaluru, the passenger, requesting anonymity, said that the plane was on the runway and was about to take off in a few seconds when she saw sparks.
“I was recording a video of the take off since everything around was well lit up. Around 9.45 pm, just as the plane gained full speed and was about to take off, suddenly there were sparks and after many sparks, there was a huge flash/blaze of fire. The plane stopped on the runway. The halt was jerk free and the pilot informed the passengers that the flight had been halted due to a technical issue with the engine…,” she said. (Read more)
Delhi metro rail services will begin at 4 am on October 31 to facilitate people participating in the 'Run for Unity', DMRC officials said on Saturday. 'Run for Unity' is held to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on October 31 — also known as the National Unity Day or the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas.
"To facilitate the participants for 'Run for Unity' on October 31 (Monday), the Delhi Metro train services will start from 04:00 AM from terminal stations of all lines. The trains will run with a frequency of 30 minutes on all the lines till 06:00 AM," the statement said. DMRC officials said that after 6 am, metro trains will run as per the normal timetable throughout the day. (PTI)
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday produced an audio clip of an alleged BJP man purportedly discussing the party's bid to poach AAP MLAs in the capital and demanded Home Minister Amit Shah's arrest if he was involved in the matter.
The senior AAP leader played the audio tape at a press conference and said the BJP "dalal" (broker) heard in the clip was one of the three people arrested in Telangana over an alleged bid to poach that state's ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLAs. There was no immediate reaction from the BJP or Shah.
"In this audio, the BJP's dalal (broker) can be heard luring a (TRS) MLA to the BJP, saying they were also trying to poach 43 Delhi MLAs and that money had been kept aside for this purpose. He is also saying that he has spoken with Shah and BL Santosh," Sisodia said. (PTI)
Amid AAP's allegations that the MCD is planning new garbage dumping sites in the city while failing to clear "mountains" of filth at existing three landfills, Delhi LG VK Saxena on Saturday asked the civic body to take strict legal action against "elements" misleading people.
In a series of tweets, Saxena said Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has cleared 26.1 lakh metric ton of legacy waste in last four months and height of garbage mounds came down by 10-15 metres. He also said "not a single" new dumping site is planned in the city.
The AAP ahead of the MCD polls expected around December, has sharpened attack on the MCD and the BJP over "lack of sanitation" in Delhi and "garbage mountains" at landfill sites in Bhalaswa, Okhla and Ghazipur.
AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday visited Ghazipur landfill site and claimed that the MCD was planning to develop 16 more landfill sites in the city. (PTI)
AAP protests outside LG residence for not giving approval to 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign New Delhi, Oct 29 (PTI) Several leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday staged a protest outside the residence of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena for not approving the file to proceed with the 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign.
The protesters gathered at Raj Niwas Marg with placards and raised slogans against Saxena. Security presence outside Saxena's residence has been beefed up. Police personnel have been deployed and water canons kept on standby.
The 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign in the national capital was set to be launched on Friday.
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said earlier that the government was postponing the campaign as it was yet to receive approval from the Lieutenant Governor.
"The 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off' campaign has been successful in previous years. The month-long campaign was set to be launched tomorrow for this year but no approval has been received so far. The file was sent to the LG on October 21," Rai said. (PTI)
Days after an apartment in a society in Sohna was gutted in fire, which the flat owner has termed it a “negligence on part of the builder”, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav Friday formed a committee that would be visiting the spot Saturday. It will look into the allegations and submit a report. (Read More)
The government-run Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) in Delhi has asked its officials not to approach media personnel for any matter pertaining to the hospital. Violation of instructions will lead to disciplinary proceedings against the official, a circular issued by Deputy Director R B Kushwaha said. (Read More)
Two juveniles were apprehended for stabbing a 17-year-old boy to death, a week after he had an argument with them for allegedly molesting his sister. The incident occurred last night in Patel Nagar when he was stabbed in front of his house by the two: news agency ANI quoted the Delhi Police saying.
In order to increase public confidence and transparency and reduce corruption in various Delhi government offices, the vigilance department has directed all heads of departments to undertake a ‘brainstorming’ session on the issue and submit an action taken report to the chief secretary, officials said.
According to officials, the first such session at the level of each additional chief secretary, principal secretary and heads of organisations will be held on October 31 on the eve of the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. On November 3 and 4, the session will be held at the level of the chief secretary and the lieutenant governor of Delhi. (Read More)
A Ghaziabad-based tea startup has agreed to change its name and mark after leading chai cafe chain ‘CHAAYOS’ moved the Delhi High Court against the former in a trademark infringement suit.
A single judge bench of Justice Prathiba Singh was hearing Sunshine Teahouse Private Limited, the company which runs tea cafes under the ‘CHAAYOS’ mark in a suit "permanently restraining" MTRM Global Pvt Ltd, which sells tea products through a cafe under the name and style of ‘CHAIOPS’.
Sunshine Teahouse Private Limited, the plaintiff, claimed that it owns the trademark ‘CHAAYOS’ and has been using it since 2012. The plaintiff registered the mark in 2017 and claims to be the leading chain of chai cafes operating in various states, offering customised tea in over 12,000 ways in more than 200 outlets. (Read More)
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday completed an inspection of the Bhalswa Lake ahead of Chhath Puja festival.
"Bhalswa lake was dirty earlier, it has now been cleaned within 10 days. I hope devotees will get to offer prayers in a clean space this time. The lake will be further improved in the time to come," news agency ANI quoted him saying.