New Delhi, April 1
The protest by northeast students of Delhi University against the imposition of Hindi/MILs (Modern Indian Languages) under the four-year undergraduate programme today turned violent.

The protesters blocked Ramjas Chowk and even broke the gate of Proctor's Office during the agitation.

The compulsory language course is part of the foundational course of the four-year undergraduate programme. Today was the third round of protest on the issue over the last 10 days.

"This being an issue that concerns all the students of the northeast and other marginalized communities of our country, we took the initiative to organize a joint protest of all these communities. This afternoon, we gathered at Vivekanand Statue, Faculty of Arts and held a public meeting," said Chinglen Khumukcham from NEFIS (North-East Forum for International Solidarity).

"Speakers from different communities of the northeast spoke to the gathering and condemned the linguistic chauvinism of the university administration. This was followed by sloganeering and a procession taken out throughout the campus. The students' procession blocked Ramjas Chowk for nearly half an hour before proceeding towards the Proctor's Office," said Khumukcham.

He added that on reaching the main gate of the Dean Students' Welfare/Proctor's Office, the students found that it had been barricaded by the university's private security and the local police.

"Even after hours of sloganeering, nobody from the administration came to speak to us. This attitude of the administration enraged the crowd which then broke the gate and rushed to the Dean's Office," Khumukcham said.

The enraged students went on to burn a copy of the proposed syllabus that is going to be introduced in the next academic session. This was followed by a public meeting in which it was decided that the next round of protest would be at the Human Resource Development Ministry.

New Delhi, April 1
Scores of supporters of the Aaam Aadmi Party (AAP) today were stopped by the Delhi police today while they were on their way to the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit's residence to hand over letters of protest against "inflated" power bills in Delhi.

Since morning, there was a heavy deployment of police personnel on Bhairon Marg and when the party workers and volunteers led by Manish Sisodia, Kumar Vishwas and Sanjay Singh peacefully made way towards the Chief Minister's residence in autorickshaws, they were bundled and ferried on buses away from the spot.

The AAP activists said they were assured by the police that they will be taken to her residence, but were instead dropped at the Indraprastha Metro station while the police maintained that party workers from 272 wards wanted to meet the Chief Minister which was not feasible.

However, later some representatives reached her residence to deliver a few letters that according to them were declared as fake. "The Congress, which has failed to make any headway in scams that have rocked the nation or get a CAG audit of Discoms who are looting the people in Delhi, could barely in 15 minutes not only go through the letters but also declare them fake," protestors added.

AAP volunteers said the Delhi government, which has 49 per cent, stake in the DERC, has, however, failed to listen to people's woes and by refusing to accept protest letters written by nearly 8 lakh people of Delhi to register their resentment on the issue of inflated bijli-pani bills the Sheila Dikshit government has made its insensitivity more clear.

According to the AAP, until last night, the support for non-cooperation campaign called by Kejriwal is swelling with each passing day with more than 7.92 lakh people pledging their support to it.

Kejriwal, who has been fasting for the past 10 days, today in response to volunteers' request to call off fast, said that he is determined not to give up. This opportunity to fight against the corrupt has come after many decades. "We may not get another one in many more years to come. Are you tired? This fast will continue long," he added.

Despite extreme weakness, Kejriwal's health parameters are in normal range. His blood pressure is 109/74, pulse is 76, sugar 128 and ketones between 2+ and 3+, said a party statement.

New Delhi, April 1
Deputy Mayor of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Azad Singh of the BJP is all set to become the new Mayor of the corporation as he filed his nomination today for the coveted post with no other candidate in the fray.

He announced his plans to focus on development of rural areas during his year-long tenure while filing his nomination.

BJP leader Poornima Vidhyarthi is also the only unopposed candidate for the seat of Deputy Mayor. She filed her nomination today. Ram Kishan Singhal and Mohan Bharadwaj of the BJP filed their nomination for the Standing Committee Chairman and Deputy Chairman, respectively. Mukesh Goel of the Congress also filed his nomination for the post of the member of the committee.

Today was the last day for filing of nominations for the NDMC elections which will take place on April 8. As the filing of nominations came to a close, the election of BJP candidates seemed certain as no other councillor filed his or her nomination for the posts in the 104-member House where the BJP enjoys the majority.

There are three vacancies of members of the Standing Committee from in the NDMC after Mukesh Goel, Surinder Kaur and Vijay Prakash Pandey retired from the posts.

New Delhi, April 1
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi-UK) today warned the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) that the party would launch an agitation if the committee failed to fulfil the promises it had made during the gurdwara committee elections.

The SAD (Delhi-UK) president Jasjit Singh submitted a memorandum in this regard to the DSGMC president, reminding him of the promises made in the election manifesto of the SAD Badal.

The SAD Badal had promised to implement recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission vin schools, hike in salary of sewadars, fee concession to the poor students enrolled with the Guru Harkrishan Public School, provide books free of charge to the students who have scored good marks and give information asked through the RTI Act.

Jasjit said if these assurances given by the SAD Badal were not fulfilled within some months, he would gather people in order to launch the movement.

If the new gurdwara committee acts like the previous committee led by Paramjeet Singh Sarna, the Sikh community would not keep quiet.

New Delhi, April 1
While replying to a short-duration discussion on water, power and LPG moved by Dr Harsh Vardhan, R.N. Bansal and Sunil Vaidya in the Delhi Assembly today, Delhi Power Minister Haroon Yusuf asked the Opposition BJP to refrain from politicizing these issues.

Yusuf said that the assurance being given by the Opposition on reducing 30 per cent tariff after coming into power is just an election stunt.

Comparing the power situation in Delhi to that of other states, he said that the power deficiency in Delhi is 0.1 per cent whereas in Madhya Pradesh, it is 3.5 per cent; Karnataka 14.9 per cent; Bihar 21.0 and Jharkhand 6.8 per cent. "The aggregate technical and commercial losses have come down from around 60 per cent to 15 per cent across Delhi. Today, the reliability of power has increased as loadshedding in pre-privatization era was 893 million units whereas in 2010-11, it was just 74 million units," said Yusuf.

"The government has been providing subsidy of one rupee per unit to consumers across the board on containing their monthly consumption up to 200 units. More than 20 lakh families are getting relief due to this subsidy," he said.