New Delhi, December 9
The preference for diesel cars in the national Capital has led to an increase in the consumption of diesel by 15 per cent while the consumption of petrol has gone down by nearly 1.5 per cent in 2011-12 in comparison to the previous year.

Also, the consumption of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has increased by around 9 per cent in 2011-12 as compared to 2010-11. The city consumed a total of 6.49 lakh metric tonnes of CNG in 2011-12 as against 5.96 lakh metric tonnes in the previous year.

As per the latest Delhi government statistics, consumption of diesel in the city was 9.34 lakh metric tonnes in 2011-12 as against 8.11 lakh metric tonnes in 2010-11. The increase of around 1.33 lakh metric tonnes of diesel in 2011-12 came when 5.05 lakh new vehicles were added to the city roads in the same period, taking the total to 74.38 lakh from 69.32 lakh in 2010-11.

However, consumption of petrol went down to 8.13 lakh tonnes in 2011-12 as against 8.25 lakh tonnes in 2011-10 which is a decline of 1.45 per cent.

Senior officials attributed the increase in diesel consumption to the rise in the number of diesel-run vehicles in the city.

According to statistics, consumption of kerosene came down by a whopping 55 per cent in 2011-12 as compared to 2010-11. The city consumed 48,000 metric tonnes of kerosene as against 1.07 lakh tonnes in 2010-11.

The city had only 5.62 lakh vehicles in 1981. The total number of vehicles in Delhi is more than the combined total of vehicles in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. On an average, over 1,000 vehicles are added to the city roads every day.

New Delhi, December 9
Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Ministry of Human Resources and Development and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) will work together to promote 'VigEye' (Vigilance Eye), a project to fight corruption.

The announcement was made today as IGNOU observed Anti-Corruption Day at the university headquarters in the Capital.

VigEye will soon reach the remotest corners of the country through IGNOU regional centres.

In a discussion facilitated by a two-way videoconferencing, R. Sri Kumar, Vigilance Commissioner, CVC, brought forward the commission's project called VigEye which is a platform to submit complaints against corruption through mobile phones and the Internet.

"People can lodge their complaint with the help of photographs. The project shall soon be upgraded to 'VigEye Shree', 'VigEye Vibhushan' and 'VigEye Ratna' to encourage people to fight corruption. There has to be a change in the strategy. Through VigEye, we will reach out to the common people and tell them, what should be done and what should be avoided," he added.

Besides, he said that the project would be taken further to the public domain so that the complaints can be lodged easily in audio, video or photography mode.

New Delhi, December 9
Three women have been apprehended at Indira Gandhi International Airport here for allegedly stealing handbags of women passengers.

The CISF yesterday nabbed Bosia (65), Saroja (55) and Rohini (25) after tracking their suspicious activities for some days and handed them over to the Delhi police today.

"When the information of the theft of bags of the women passengers came to the CISF, CCTVs camera footage was thoroughly viewed and it appeared that these three women stole the bags during rush hours outside Terminal-3," said a spokesperson for the airport Hemendra Singh.

"The accused were identified and their photographs provided to the CISF surveillance team to nab them. Yesterday about 11 pm, the CISF surveillance team observed that these bag lifters were present outside Terminal 1-D and nabbed them from the spot," said Singh.

New Delhi, December 9
Gopal, a homeless, braves the chilly night daily and sleeps outside a night shelter in Nizamuddin Basti. Spending Rs 6 for a stay in a shelter is a waste of the hard-earned money that he earns by begging at a nearby traffic signal in southeast Delhi.

Ramesh, an addict, has also found a cozy corner for himself under a tree near the same signal to avoid shelling out the charges every night. A blanket is just enough for him to survive the frosty weather.

These two are among the thousands of homeless people, a large number of whom do not have any identity as far as the government records are concerned. They live in appalling conditions. Around 150 night shelters in the city, including temporary and permanent, are the only places that serve them when the mercury plummets to near zero in wintertime. However, even these shelters are not available at times.

Though the government has announced that the homeless will not be charged for using the night shelters, Society for Protection of Youth and Masses, an NGO, that manages a shelter at Basti Nizamuddin, charges Rs 6 per head.

According to those who take refuge in a night shelter near Ranjit Singh flyover which is exclusively for the disabled, there are worn-out mattresses and blankets.

"It is very cold in extreme winter and we don't get blanket if we are late," said Kisan.

Though the condition of shelters specially for women and children is a little better, they are very few in number.

Shakti Shalini, an NGO, manages a night shelter located near Humayun Tomb. It houses not more than 30 women and 35 children below 10 years of age.

Abida, the shelter in-charge, claims that the NGO provides free quilts and blankets to the homeless. She said that a majority of them are beggars and they enter the shelters after nine and leave early in the morning. Though the state government had promised arrangements for toilet and bathing facilities in the shelters a few years ago, nothing has been done so far.

There are reportedly 1,50,000 homeless people in Delhi though the government has mapped only 67,151. The city has only 66 permanent and 84 temporary shelters which can accommodate just over 14,000 people. That means a majority of them are left to fend for themselves every night.

"If the city has nearly 1.5 lakh homeless, how are the existing shelters sufficient. Even if we go by the government estimate of around 67,000 homeless, it accounts for only 15 per cent of the homeless population. What about the rest," said a member of Chetna, an NGO working for the homeless.

Notwithstanding a survey conducted by the Delhi government in 2010, which had suggested more shelters, including those for women, children and the disabled, nothing much has been done in this regard during the last two years.

While the government officials claimed that a budget of Rs 6 crore has been provided for the night shelters.

"We are taking caring of the needs of homeless persons and upgrading the facilities in night shelters. We will soon build many more shelters in the city. All the temporary night shelters in porta cabins have been upgraded to make them fire-resistant," said a senior Delhi government official.