New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday summoned chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad in a defamation case filed by the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and its vice-president Chetan Chauhan.
The court said that prima facie Kejriwal had made "defamatory imputation" that may harm the reputation of DDCA and its officials and Azad had made "disparaging allegation" against the cricketing body. The two leaders had alleged financial irregularities and major wrong-doings in the cricketing body, including a sex racket. "Kejriwal had alleged that sexual favour is sought by DDCA members for selecting a player," stressed the complainants.
"Under the aegis of DDCA, hundreds of players are playing cricket. Such a drastic statement and that too from the chief minister may have a negative impact and leave an adverse impression on the mind of cricketers, officials and public at large, impacting reputation of the body, its organisational functioning and transparency of the selection process," the court observed.
The complainants alleged that Kejriwal had made "scandalous" remarks against them on national television and these were endorsed and repeated by Azad. Metropolitan magistrate Abhilash Malhotra said that a person, especially holding a constitutional post, is expected to exercise sensitivity while making discourses that may tarnish the reputation of an institution working in public domain.
NEW DELHI: North Delhi Municipal Corporation had proposed to construct several underground, multilevel parkingfacilities, but none of them have moved from the drawing board. Perhaps it was too optimistic to think that the cash-strapped civic body, which struggles to pay salaries to its employees in time, could have undertaken such projects. But it has not yet given up on the idea.
Pravesh Wahi, chairman of the corporation's standing committee, said, "We are not financially able to construct multilevel parking facilities, but we are on our way to outsourcing work through a public-private partnership. We are also exploring options on auctioning vacant land to generate extra funds." The north civic body planned to create 19 parking facilities, of which only four were actually announced in 2014. However, work order for the proposed amenities at Pitampura, Rani Bagh, Karol Bagh and Shastri Park is yet to be passed by the corporation. And though commissioner PK Gupta has raked up these projects in every budget speech for three years, not even their blueprints are actually ready.
The underground lots at Rani Bagh and Karol Bagh were to have accommodated over 600 vehicles each. The corporation invited bids for the work, but failed to find any. Sources said these projects had been proposed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. After JNNURM was scrapped, many projects had to be dropped too. "We though earlier that the funds would come from the central government," said a corporation official. "The civic bodies can't take on the projects on their own. Yes, the corporation announced these projects, but we are now struggling with their funding."
Areas under the north civic body have only four functioning multilevel parking lots. Of these, the two in Chandni Chowk are used by car owners, but the ones at Kamla Market and Model Town remain mostly vacant. "We are planning to start an open cafeteria above the underground parking facility at Model Town," disclosed Wahi. "Hopefully, this will attract people and we will be able to utilise the parking lot to its capacity."
NEW DELHI: Police suspect a gang of children has been targeting wedding venues in Lutyens' Delhi for the past few days and fleeing with valuables? CCTV footage of a recently-held function at the India Islamic Cultural Centre on Lodhi Roadshows two kids decamping with jewellery worth Rs 40 lakh. The cops say they are trying to track them down.
In the footage, one of the kids, aged around 10, can be seen playing outside a room where a bag of jewellery was kept. The child keeps a tab on the number of CCTV cameras installed there and then walks behind a column. He is seen entering the room and then leaving with the brown bag within a few minutes. He walks among the guests carrying the bag. Another CCTV footage shows the child walking up to the lobby where he meets his associate—probably slightly older than him. Both of them hurriedly walk out through the main gate carrying the bag on their back.
Police said they could identify one of them. The victim, Dr Saif Hasan Naqvi, who hosted his sister wedding function, said that nobody, including the security guards, had stopped the boys presuming that they were guests. "They wore proper clothes so that we could not distinguish them from others," said an official at IICC.
IICC spokesperson Wadood Sajid said this was the first time that such an incident had taken place. "We are sure that none from the centre had gone to the private function and it was the handiwork of outsiders. We are cooperating with the police in the investigation."
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