'Barber shops and salons will be allowed to open, but spas will remain closed'
This is the first "Green budget" of the government for effective containment of pollution in the city, the deputy chief minister said in the budget session of the assembly in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Addressing a press conference a day after the CBI raid against him, Sisodia expressed apprehension that the agency or the Enforcement Directorate (ED) may arrest him in the next 3-4 days, while Chief Minister Kejriwal, who has been aggressively taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party in Modi's home state, announced on Twitter that he will be touring Gujarat with Sisodia from Monday.
"It is a victory of all and every family who considered me their son and gave us a huge mandate. In the country today, Delhiites have given birth to a new kind of politics, which is called 'kam ki rajniti' (politics of works)," Kejriwal, who won the New Delhi seat, said.
Addressing an election rally in Dwarka three days before the February 8 assembly elections, the prime minister said the national capital also needs a government that will give direction and not resort to blame games.
Kejriwal urged AAP members to strengthen the party at grassroots level.
He also claimed that the Central Bureau of Investigation has filed an FIR on the setting up of the 'secret unit'.
"You vote thinking that you are voting to make Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister (of Punjab). Your vote is for Kejriwal," Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.
Unsurprised by the rising numbers, epidemiologists are concerned about the virus reaching rural and tribal areas where the health infrastructure is weak, reports Ruchika Chitravanshi.
Fandom of Kejriwal, who led the AAP to a scintillating win in the February 8 polls bagging 62 of the 70 seats, was visible as people chose innovative ways to express their sentiments at the venue that was transformed into a sea of colours as the crowd waved party flags and the tricolours.
'Delhi voters have liked the politics of performance over noisy rhetoric and empty promises,' points out Vijaya Pushkarna.
'Traders have been the worst hit because of the government's policies, but for some unknown reason, many continue to support the BJP.'
'Mr Kejriwal is almost exactly the package that Mr Modi offers: Personal aggrandisement, the building of a personality cult through full-page newspaper ads day after day, populist schemes involving subsidies (whether affordable or required), abandonment of secular principles, exaggerated claims and no checks on leadership,' points out T N Ninan.
'The main reason being Kejriwal's working style is very centralised.' 'And if you don't form a team and work, take bureaucrats into confidence, take doctors and hospitals into confidence, this problem was surely going to evolve.'
The states were advised to conduct surveillance and report district-wise severe acute respiratory illness and influenza-like illness cases on a daily basis and also to send these for genome sequencing to the mapped INSACOG laboratories.
The decision was taken to prevent crowding at shops and marketplaces amid the lockdown to contain the coronaviruspandemic, a statement from Thackeray's office said.
'It is almost certainly wrong in assuming that the Modi government will use its strong mandate to undertake some serious reform measures.' 'For it is fairly clear that the government's priorities lie elsewhere, in the powerful home minister's domain,' notes T N Ninan.
AAP will have to learn to be patient as such electoral changes do not happen in a hurry, asserts Ramesh Menon.
The Delhi high court on Wednesday said it appeared that the Centre wanted people to die as according to the new protocol on use of Remdesivir for Covid-19 treatment, the drug was to be given only to those on oxygen support.
Given the sheer size of the state, achieving a similar turnaround in Punjab as promised could be a different ball game altogether, reports Sai Manish.
'Mr Kejriwal has played it cool in distancing himself from Delhi's hotspots, adroitly pandering to the BJP's Hindu vote.' 'He neither visited the scene of JNU violence nor has he dropped by at Shaheen Bagh,' notes Sunil Sethi.
The politics of hate does not pay. The people are too sensible to fall for such a ruse, says Amulya Ganguli.
Kejriwal's new jobs promise comes days after he assured free electricity up to 300 units per month if voted to power in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state where polls are due by the year-end.
The Delhi CM in a video message on Friday on the fifth day of the sit-in, he and his ministers are holding at the Lieutenant Governor's office, also attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party, alleging the bureaucrats' strike was to "throw roadblocks" in the working of the Aam Aadmi Party government.
'Kejriwal has given not only Modi and Shah some food for thought, but also to jaded Opposition leaders who must now wonder whether taking on the BJP's majoritarianism by the horns, as they have been doing so far, is the appropriate strategy in such extraordinary times,' notes M K Bhadrakumar.
A party leader said the AAP will resort to what it did during the 2015 Delhi Assembly polls-- a "positive campaign".
Manish Sisodia's elevation as Delhi CM would set Arvind Kejriwal free to take up a significant role in national politics, or he could return to activism, says Sudhir Bisht.
As the issue becomes increasingly politicised and accusations are traded on national television, the average Delhi resident suffers debilitating blows from viral fevers, writes Manavi Kapur.
'As we reach 2022 we are creating a very new, different India where the Citizenship Amendment Act will be passed, NRC will be pushed through, Article 370 scrapped...'
Rickshaw pullers and construction workers are the worst hit.
There are two hotspots each in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala and Maharashtra and one each in Gujarat and Rajasthan
'The Aam Aadmi's prophet is out of touch with both the city and his own flock.'
The unprecedented move came under severe criticism from the party's opponents, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress.
The chief minister dug out appointments of parliamentary secretaries by the Congress and the BJP governments in the national capital in the past and said many of them including Ajay Maken, who had held the post, even had his own staff and access to important official files.
Attacking the Election Commission, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said that people have started doubting the credibility of the EVMs in a "big way".
The manifesto, on the lines of the party's promise in Delhi in 2015, also says the AAP government will set up Aam Aadmi canteens at sub-division and district levels where one time meal will be available for Rs 5, and reduce the power tariff to half for usages up to 400 unit.
'Eventually the law of averages has to play catch up with Modi and the BJP, sooner or later,' says Rajeev Sharma.
Kejriwal was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.
Kejriwal believes in good governance and takes pride in his Hindu identity, points out Sudhir Bisht.
'Modi and the BJP don't want Delhi to function.' 'The LG is like a puppet of the BJP.'
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