Empty govt land to be made available for sports soon
The Delhi government will soon come up with a policy to earmark all empty government lands in villages as playground in order to provide ample space for budding sports talent in the rural pockets of the city.
“I have been repeatedly requested by the children in rural villages to declare gram sabha land as playground…the government is now planning to come up with a policy under which all empty government lands in villages will be declared as playground. Children will be able to use them for sporting activity. As and when required for any project, the ground will then be used by the government for that purpose,” said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Kejriwal was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of an astroturf hockey ground in a government school on Ghumanhera in west Delhi.
Praising the public works department for completing the ground in record time, Kejriwal said the stadium was one of its kind and only the third astroturf ground in Delhi after national stadium and Shivaji stadium in Lutyen’s Delhi.
“I congratulate the PWD officials for completing this stadium of international standards in one year. I congratulate them for completing the project in ₹4.5 crore as against the sanctioned cost of ₹7.5 crore,” Kejriwal said.
But President Pranab Mukherjee refused to approve it, and referred a private petition in the matter to the Election Commission. Separately, reacting to another private petition, the Delhi high court struck down the posts of parliament secretary in September, 2015.
After this, the 21 MLAs petitioned the Election Commission that it shouldn’t entertain the office of profit case against them because the Delhi high court had already set aside their appointment as parliamentary secretaries.
On Saturday, the EC said its inquiry “survives and is maintainable in respect of all MLAs”, except former Rajouri Garden MLA Jarnail Singh who had resigned to contest elections in Punjab.
The AAP said in a statement that the EC’s order “should not be misinterpreted”.
“High Court of Delhi had declared very order of appointment of 21 parliamentary secretaries as null and void. Therefore, there is no question of hearing a petition for office which never existed as per Delhi High Court,” it said.
The EC order came about a fortnight before chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi demits office. Election commissioner OP Rawat, who recused himself after Kejriwal questioned his impartiality, did not sign the order.
Police also transferred Sajad Khaliq Bhat, the superintendent of North Srinagar. Nowhatta, the locality where Pandith was killed, falls under the North Srinagar area.
“We have identified 12 persons in connection with the case and five of them have been arrested,” director general of Jammu and Kashmir police SP Vaid told media. Two of the arrests were on Friday.
Vaid told HT the officer was on duty in the area where thousands of people had gathered for nightlong congregational prayers.
Pandith, 57, a deputy superintendent, was with the security wing of state police. He was killed outside Jamia Masjid during the celebrations of Laylat al Qadr, or night of power, which commemorates the night the Quran is believed to have been revealed to the Prophet Mohammad.
Saturday’s killing of the CRPF officer added to the 42 deaths since May 28, when the holy month of Ramzan began. This year’s Ramzan is one of the deadliest in recent years, underscoring the unrest in the region that has seen bouts of violent civiliansoldier clashes and terror attacks. and his involvement in the attack,” Government Railway Police superintendent Kamaleeep Goyal said.
The victim’s brothers have identified two attackers among the people detained. The police are yet to formally name anyone in the stabbing of the brothers but added the charge of hurting religious sentiments to the FIR. The weapon too is yet to be recovered.
To identify witnesses to the crime, a police team took the same train from Okhla to Ballabhgarh along with Hashim and Moin on Saturday.
“The police have asked us to identify even the onlookers and the men who were encouraging the attackers to beat us and kill us,” Hashim said.
“We were shocked at the apathy of fellow passengers. No one has come forward to register a statement on the attack. That day we kept shouting for help but they all looked away. They saw the men slashing my brother’s body, stabbing me and my other brother but did nothing.
“There was blood spattered all over the floor and the passengers just moved away as they dragged Junaid on the floor.”
MDR was suspended shortly after the November decision by the government to scrap 500-and 1,000-rupee notes, a move that led to a severe cash crunch after 86% of the currency was taken out of circulation.
The demonetisation exercise was targeted at weeding out fake currency and ‘black money’ — cash hoarded illegally to evade taxes. The government subsequently announced a push for digital payments, which leave a trail and make it harder for people to hide dodgy cash.
“When I refused to pay the additional charge, the shopkeeper refused to accept my debit card and asked me to pay in cash... I did not have cash and so I agreed to pay the additional fee,” said Nitin Sharma, a resident of Gurgaon’s DLF Phase V, who was out buying ceiling fans from a store at Sikanderpur market.
Traders defend the practice, saying the charges eat into their profits.
“Say, a shopkeeper keeps a margin of 5%. If he or she has to pay 2%, it is a dent on the income. Therefore, the government needs to frame a scheme to ensure that the banks do not charge this money,” Khandelwal said. He also called for a policy of incentives such as tax breaks for businesses that switch to digital payments.
A senior executive of a private sector bank said they can do little about it.
“It is not a problem of the bank... it is a matter between a shopkeeper and a customer... We are not involved... the issue has come to our notice but there is little that the banks can do about this,” the executive said.
Bejon Misra, consumer policy expert and founder of Consumer Online Foundation, said the issue must be addressed quickly.
“The problem is due to ambiguity from the government... there must be a clear guideline from the government outlining the penal action that can be taken against retailers who indulge in this kind of unfair trade practices,” Misra said. is expected to reach 91 million by 2020 and 109 million by 2024. That would be the saturation point for the IGI Airport. So, the region will require a second airport in the next seven to ten years,” said civil aviation minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju.
The Delhi airport, the busiest in the country with 70 flight movements per hour, was visited by 55.6 million passengers in 2016. With the number expected to cross 60 million this year, the authorities are planning to decongest the facility by building a new terminal and runway.
The Uttar Pradesh government’s proposal for the Jewar airport was approved on the basis of recommendations issued by the Steering Committee on Greenfield Airports. Sources said that while the GMR Group – which operates the IGI Airport – will be given priority for building and operating the Jewar facility, airlines will be allowed to decide which airport they want to run their services from.
A contract signed with GMR mandates that it should get top priority if a new airport comes up within 150 km of IGI Airport.
The Uttar Pradesh government and YEIDA will jointly bear the cost of land procurement for the new airport.
“The airport is important not only for the NCR region but also western UP. Cities in this part of the state have immense potential in terms of air traffic...,” said Jayant Sinha, the minister of state for civil aviation.
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was the last to journey in the saloon in 2006. It was in the same year that the regal carriages – complete with a conference hall, lounge, study rooms and a cabin for the President’s military secretary – were declared unsafe for train operations.
The Railways – in its 2007-08 budget – sanctioned ₹6 crore for manufacturing a new presidential saloon. But, President Pranab Mukherjee’s secretariat cited security concerns – in addition to possible disruption of passenger traffic – to reject the plan in 2008.
“If the new President desires, the Railways can build the new saloon soon,” Arun Arora, chief mechanical engineer at Northern Railways, said.
The Railways has 62 air-conditioned and 222 non-AC saloon coaches that can run on broad gauge tracks, and two AC and 24 non-AC saloons meant for metre gauge tracks.
These are maintained for the railways minister, ministers of state, senior railways officials such as railway board members and railway zone general managers.
Railway officials say the maintenance costs of these saloons – called reserved accommodation carriages – are “marginal” because they are rarely used. “But they can be used as inspection carriages to reach accident sites and remote railway lines not connected by road or air. They are also utilised to train fresh employees,” an official said.
The railway minister and ministers of state used these saloons to travel 162 times in the five years leading up to September 2016, the Railways said in response to an RTI query filed by activist Subhash Agrawal last year. While minister of state Manoj Sinha travelled the most (40 journeys), former railway minister M Mallikarjuna Kharge spent the maximum number of days in a saloon (53) despite having undertaken fewer journeys (32), it added.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu undertook 25 journeys in saloons until last September, with a total travel time of 32 days.
Agrawal believes the saloon facility is no longer relevant in modern India. “The Railways are unnecessarily shouldering a colonial burden. The saloon facility must be abolished,” he told HT..