Delhi's air quality plummeted to alarming levels on Tuesday after 24 days, with many areas witnessing a significant spike in pollution despite the strictest measures, including a ban on construction activities and the entry of trucks into the city, coming into force.
Delhi cabinet ministers have written a letter to Prime Narendra Modi and urged him to resolve the water crisis in the national capital on a priority basis, Environment minister Gopal Rai said on Monday.
Asserting the AAP MLAs will not leave the party, Jha escalating his attack on the BJP said that Operation Lotus has begun again.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who was sent to Tihar Jail after a court remanded him in judicial custody till April 15 in the excise policy case, will remain under 24x7 watch with CCTV cameras in his cell and could watch TV and read books, officials said.
Pollution levels in the national capital entered the "severe" zone for the first time this season on Thursday, with scientists warning of a further spike over the next two weeks.
A building collapsed in north Delhi's Bawana area on Friday afternoon, killing four people, including a woman and a nine-year-old girl, the police said.
Authorities in New Delhi intensified security arrangements on Tuesday to stop the farmers' march from entering Delhi as the Singhu and Tikri borders were shut while the Red Fort complex was closed temporarily after peasants on their way to the national capital clashed with the police at the Shambhu border between Haryana and Punjab.
Ahead of the crucial Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House meeting on Friday, Aam Aadmi Party councillor Pawan Sehrawat joined the Bharatiya Janata Party alleging that he felt 'suffocated' due to 'corruption' in the party led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In all, the girl, Sakshi, was found to have 34 wound marks on her body and her skull was ruptured. The final autopsy report is awaited, the police said.
Areas in the National Capital Region -- Noida and Gurugram -- recorded an AQI of 529 and 478 respectively both in the highly toxic 'severe'.
The wrestlers protesting at the Jantar Mantar, about two kilometres from Parliament, said that they will go ahead with their 'Mahila Mahapanchayat' near the new building at any cost.
Heavy rains and thunderstorm on Monday brought Delhiites a much-needed respite from the lengthy spell of sweltering heat, but it also affected road and air traffic during the morning rush hours, and brought down houses and trees, leaving at least eight people injured.
Those covered under the raids also included gangsters involved in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.
A few days ago, the Crime Branch had taken jailed gangster Tillu Tajpuriya -- one of the prime conspirators -- in its custody to grill him about Gogi's killing.
Soon after realising his mistake, Surender Kumar apologised and corrected himself and said, "Priyanka Gandhi zindabad".
Jain, 57, is the minister for health, power, home, PWD, industries, urban development, flood, irrigation and water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.
The dead include 10 women and seven men, another fire official said, noting that a man and woman were injured.
In terms of casualties, Friday's fire at the commercial building was the largest since the blaze at a factory in the Anaj Mandi area and the second largest since the Uphaar Cinema tragedy in 1997.
No major glitches in electronic voting machines were reported and the voting passed off peacefully with high security observed at the 3,360 critical booths in 493 locations where more than 25,000 police personnel, nearly 13,000 home guards and 100 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed, officials said.
Over 50 employees of the company whose office was located on the first floor were rescued while 27 bodies have been found.
Rajendra Pal Gautam, who is social welfare minister in the outgoing government, retained the Seemapuri seat by a whopping margin of over 56,000 votes against LJP's Sant Lal.
Dilip Pandey, Atishi and Raghav Chadha, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, will also contest the assembly elections to be held on February 8.
The civic body's horticulture department fears some of the uprooted trees might be among those tagged as 'heritage trees' by the NDMC, but the team is yet to compile a damage report and ascertain the facts.
The Bawana MLA said that he would also resign from the assembly and other government-run bodies.
It was crucial for the BJP to bag the two seats as it does not enjoy a majority on its own in the 40-member assembly.
Heavy rains accompanied by strong winds damaged many cars, brought traffic to a grinding halt, left trees uprooted and led to power outages in various parts of the capital on Monday.
Tractors from Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan have also reached on Tikri border between Delhi-Haryana as the farmers sit in for protest for nearly two months. The move comes as Delhi Police formally granted permission for the rally on January 26, assigning them routes for the same.
Farmer leaders on Sunday appealed to those participating in the Republic Day tractor march to carry enough ration for 24 hours and ensure that the rally remains peaceful.
Amid reports of simmering tensions in some parts of the national capital ahead of Muharram on Tuesday, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi assured that all security measures have been taken, especially in sensitive areas and warned that those found involved in spreading rumours will be dealt with strongly.
A fire broke out in a slum cluster in outer Delhi on Friday afternoon gutting several hutments, fire brigade officials said.The blaze was reported at the slum in Bawana area at around 2.15 pm and around 20 fire tenders were pressed into service.
Around 1,200 protesters demanding scrapping of the amended citizenship act were detained on Thursday when they defied prohibitory orders imposed by the Delhi Police in Red Fort area. Internet, voice and messaging services by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance Jio were suspended in parts of Delhi-NCR, in perhaps for the first time that the national capital experienced such restrictions.
Delhi Police on Sunday claimed that over 300 Twitter handles have been generated from Pakistan to disrupt the tractor rally proposed by protesting farmers on Republic Day.
Farmers protesting the Centre's three farm laws on Saturday blocked the six-lane Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway at some places in Haryana to mark the completion of 100 days of their agitation at the Delhi borders.
Delhi, reeling under high temperatures and an acute electricity shortage, will get additional gas supplies from the National Thermal Power Corporation and Dabhol to increase power generation and help meet demand in the national capital.
Atishi, Raghav Chadha and Dilip Pandey are among the first-time MLAs. Atishi, who was fielded from Kalkaji, won the seat by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dharambir Singh by a margin of 11,393 votes. Chadha, who had also registered victory from Rajinder Nagar, defeated his BJP rival Sardar R P Singh by a margin of 20,058 votes.
The weekend curfew, aimed at breaking the chain of spiralling coronavirus infections, was clamped at 10 pm on Friday and will continue till 5 am on Monday.
Five persons, including a defence ministry staff and a constable of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, were arrested for allegedly molesting a woman and trying to forcibly take her in their car on Sunday, police said on Wednesday.
22 of the 37 air quality monitoring stations across Delhi recorded the air quality in the severe category on Thursday morning.
The national capital is expected to continue receiving moderate rainfall with some isolated intense spells for the next 24 hours, the India Meteorological Department said on Monday.
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