DDA moves SC over underground parking lots at sports facilities
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to approach Supreme Court seeking a go ahead for creation of underground parking at its sports complexes.
The authority wants to use surface parking area for expansion of infrastructure and providing better facilities to accommodate more users at its sporting centres, and plans to build underground parkings instead.
“Though no restrictions have been imposed on us, we have decided to move the Supreme Court so that the work can be started soon,” said DDA vice chairman Udai Pratap Singh.
The decision came after the National Green Tribunal (NGT), in July last year, refused to give its nod for demolition and redevelopment of Siri Fort sports complex. The green court also asked the land owning agency not to disturb the area covered by tiles until the high powered committee set by the tribunal is apprised.
More than 50,000 people use DDA’s sporting facilities on a daily basis. The first sports complex was opened at Siri fort in 1989 and thereafter, 14 similar facilities were developed.
Of the 15 complexes, five are located in the south zone, four in east zone and three each in north and west zones. Apart from these, the agency runs three mini sports complexes at Munirka (south), Kanti Nagar (east), Pratap Nagar (west). The DDA also maintains 17 swimming pools, including allweather pools, 18 fitness centres in these complexes, including one exclusively for women, 21 open gyms, including one exclusively for women, and 10 mini football grounds.
“There is a huge demand for membership. Residents of nearby colonies and sportspersons keep requesting for membership. Hence, it was decided to enhance capacity by converting surface parking into underground parking at existing complexes,” said a senior official.
It said if they fail a fresh inspection the colleges will be banned for two years and they will forfeit their deposits.
An HT investigation last September found at least two colleges allowed by the panel with locked operation theaters, zero faculty and no patients. Two other colleges, however, had good infrastructure.
Following this, a joint fourmember inspection team of the Oversight Committee and MCI visited these colleges between November and December and found them “grossly deficient in basic facilities”.
The MCI recommended banning 32 colleges. However, just a day before the court panel’s mandate was to run out on May 15, it reversed the MCI recommendations, permitting 26 colleges to admit students and suggesting fresh inspection of the remaining six.
HT has reviewed a copy of the Oversight Committee’s May 14 memo sent to the health ministry.
In at least two instances, the committee overruled staff deficiencies by accepting the colleges’ plea that the staff had gone to exchange old banknotes after demonetisation.
In defence of its decision, the panel cited “numerous instances of violation” of inspection guidelines by the joint team.
The MCI dismissed the allegation.
“It will be unfair to say that MCI did not adhere to the OC guidelines. The MCI has engaged the assessors from the OC panel and OC recommended institution in every team,” said Jayshree Mehta, president of the MCI.
The court panel members didn’t respond to HT’s email about the ministry’s decision.
“We looked at the inspection report of the MCI and the OC’s comment on that and made a decision,” Singhal said.
Most of the private colleges called the ban discriminatory and illegal.
“Last year, the OC allowed 34 colleges to admit students and put in place a proper mechanism to inspect the facilities, but the MCI has grossly violated that process. It failed 32 colleges deliberately. It is witch-hunting,” a promoter of a private college said.
Students said they felt victimised.
“If the government thinks that these colleges don’t have facilities then we should be shifted to approved colleges immediately,” a student from a private college said.
They fear the ban will discourage colleges from improving facilities, impacting their studies. ley peaked after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July.
“We have named Pak-based LeT patron Hafiz Saeed, Hurriyat leaders (without specifying their names) and leaders and persons associated with three terror outfits Hizbul Mujahideen, LeT and Dukhtaran-e-Millat as accused in the FIR,” said an NIA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“The names of accused Hurriyat leaders have deliberately been kept unspecified to keep the probe open-ended,” the officer said, referring to an umbrella group of separatists.
NIA sources said more than Rs 85 lakh was recovered from raids in Srinagar alone. They did not reveal details as raids were still on.
Those raided included businessman Zahoor Watali, Shahidul-Islam, spokesman of Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Raja Mehrajuddin, the district president of Hurriyat (Geelani) and separatist leaders from both factions of the Hurriyat Conference and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, said sources. Separatists Naeem Khan and Dar were also raided.
Watali is the brother of former DIG Ali Mohammad Watali. Officials were searching his home in the upmarket Sanat Nagar area late into Saturday night.
The man was allegedly angered by Rathour’s refusal to restart their lost friendship.
She asked Yadav to meet her in the morning on May 31. “He came prepared and shot her dead when she refused to continue her relationship with him,” an officer said.
Police said the poor CCTV video shows Yadav holding something to his ears, like talking over the phone. It was his pistol. He allegedly tried to kill himself, but the pistol locked.
The weapon was found inside a park in the area.
The CPI-M, however, told HT that it was convinced by the exercise. “We held an hour-long discussion with technical experts of the poll panel,” said Bappa Aditya Sinha, an IT professional representing the party. “We had already said we were attending the event only for academic purposes.”
The NCP’s Vandana Chavan said while the poll panel’s announcement that all future elections would be held through VVPAT or paper trail machines has come as a “big relief”, doubts about EVMs remain. “We knew it would not be possible to tamper with the machines in four hours. We were not provided details and serial numbers of the ballot and control units, which were needed for taking up the challenge. We also wanted to know if the people who burnt the programme into the EVM chip were above suspicion. The challenge is not to confront the poll panel but to ensure a fair democratic process,” the Rajya Sabha member added.
Chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi said the poll panel has offered the NCP another opportunity to take up the EVM challenge or study it as an academic exercise. “Our technical team treated them to a detailed demonstration of the entire process. They sought an interaction with our technical experts, and after expressing complete satisfaction, suggested that the commission proactively hold demonstrations and awareness sessions with the technical community to allay doubts like these in the future,” he added.
Zaidi said the poll panel could not provide the NCP with the EVMs’ memory (card) and battery numbers because the machines were sealed. “We told them that the party can access these numbers at the time of the challenge by opening the machines.”
The NCP and the poll panel also had a disagreement over the voting machines chosen for the challenge. The party representatives, in a letter, objected to the last-minute change in the EVM selection protocol by asking them to pick one from a list of 14 machines. When they told the election commission that their suspicions were related to EVMs used in the Maharashtra municipal elections, the latter clarified that it does not provide machines for urban local body polls.
Zaidi said using VVPAT machines along with EVMs at polling stations in future elections would bring transparency into the voting system. “The audit trail will enhance the confidence and trust of voters. Using VVPATs with EVMs must put to rest all doubts and misgivings regarding the machines,” he said.
The Communist Party of India, meanwhile, criticised the poll panel for not allowing it to witness the EVM challenge. Questioning the motive behind denying its request, the party said the poll watchdog’s “approach of secrecy” went against the spirit of the election commission’s invitation letter – which sought the cooperation of all political organisations.
In a related development, Zaidi said the poll panel would take action against anybody who indulges in “unhealthy criticism” of the poll panel’s EVM challenge because doing so would constitute violating a judicial order. The Uttarakhand high court court had dismissed a petition challenging the constitutionality of the EVM challenge on Friday, stating that there was no scope of doubting the “fair working” of the machines.
For the first time in five years, boys outperformed girls by 0.9%.
The pass percentage for boys across India was 93.4 while for girls it was 92.5, CBSE said.
The number of boys scoring a perfect CGPA was also higher than that of the girls. While 105,188 boys scored a perfect 10 CGPA, 100,950 girls achieved the feat.
A perfect 10 CGPA indicates scores between 91-100% in all five subjects.
The Thiruvananthapuram region notched up the highest overall pass percentage at 99.85. The Chennai region came in second with 99.62% and the Allahabad region third with 98.23%.
The central government-run Kendriya Vidyalayas continued to improve their performance, climbing one percentage point in overall number of successful candidates. Their success rate stood at 99.73%.