New Delhi, March 4
Ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections, both the Aam Aadmi Party and the issue of hike in power tariff are surely not something that the city government can ignore.

The activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal is back with attacks on the Capital's Congress-led government. He announced that he would go on an indefinite fast from March 23 to protest against electricity prices in Delhi.

While accusing the Delhi government of conspiring with power discoms, resulting in overburdening people, he urged the city residents to begin a civil disobedience movement by refusing to pay the hike in power bills.

"I will go on an indefinite fast from March 23. I will have just water. This is a fast meant to awaken people, to help them remove their fears. I urge them not to pay bills," he said. The power bills have been inflated, he cited instances and said that people should only pay half of what is mentioned in the bill and leave the rest.

He said that if their power connection is snapped, his party's volunteers will restore the electricity connection. "If you are afraid, do not pay the bills at least for one month. No one can snap your connections for not paying the bill for one month," Kejriwal remarked.

"The benefits that these private companies have got through improved power distribution over the years have not been passed on to the consumers who in turn have been overcharged," he said.

After aiming his guns at the Dikshit-led government, he didn't spare the BJP either and said the opposition has failed to take up the issue of hike in their water and power bills.

Kejriwal said the protest will continue till his demands for CAG audit of the power companies, withdrawal of illegal bills and changing faulty meters are heard.

New Delhi, March 4
A 31-year-old scriptwriter arrested on Saturday for allegedly murdering an aspiring actor has disclosed to the police that he had made his victim enact a movie scene before killing him and making a ransom call to his father.

Shantideep Verma was arrested from Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district on Saturday. According to the police, he had allegedly murdered Sumit Tiwari, an aspiring actor, whose body was found in a suitcase at Verma's residence in Madawali on February 23. The Delhi police had declared a reward of Rs 50,000 for his arrest.

Verma had completed his postgraduation from Pune's reputed Film and Television Institute. After the course, he started writing scripts for films.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (North East District) Dheeraj Kumar said, "He had written four scripts, Love in Kasba, Sampark Kranti, Mohlat and Pechhan, but they were not selling. He was in dire need of money."

Verma was surfing Facebook for potential victims. Sumit contacted him and sent his profile as a professional actor.

"He called Sumit to his room at Mandawli, and pretended to offer work in his forthcoming film. He had again called Sumit on February 20 and 21," Kumar added.

On February 21, Sumit and Verma were watching a film, "Phas Gaye Re Obama", on the latter's laptop. "There is a scene in the film, where the actor's hands and legs are tied and his mouth is gagged with a cloth," said the officer.

Verma asked Sumit to play this scene, as it was to come in his proposed film. He tied Sumit's legs and hands and gagged his mouth.

"He then revealed his plan to Sumit and told him that he will have to remain in that condition until a ransom of Rs 2 lakh was paid," Kumar added.

Hearing this, Sumit started struggling to free himself. Verma strangled him. He purchased a suitcase from a local market in Mandawli and stuffed Sumit's body in it. He then made a ransom call to his father from Sumit's mobile phone.

Verma fled from his rented house on February 22, leaving the body behind. He travelled to Kanpur, Allahabad, Banaras and Lucknow and was going to his parent's house at Bahraich when he was arrested.

New Delhi, March 4
Delhi University has finally decided the structure of the four-year undergraduate courses that will replace the existing three-year degree system. With the courses of foundation, discipline, applied and the cultural activities incorporated in the curriculum of eight semesters spread out over four years, the new system will have a variety of options for the students.

Under the new programme, there will be 42 papers in four years, out of which 20 papers will be from the student's chosen discipline, five from discipline-based application papers, 11 foundation papers which will be same for all and six papers from the second discipline of the student's choice.

Also, the students will have exit options at the end of second and third year with internship and job opportunities being arranged by the university.

The first year in the degree programme will ride heavy on foundation courses which will be similar for students across the university. These will include Hindi and English, information technology, business, management, governance and citizenship, psychology, communication skills, geographic and socio-economic diversity, science, history, culture and civilization, mathematics, environment and public health.

The languages will be taught for five classes per week for the first two semesters, while other foundation courses will be taught thrice a week (two lectures and one student's presentation).

In a notification on the university website, the elaborated stricture of the course also included one compulsory activity for students under the category of curricular activities, including NCC and sports and integrated body, mind and soul. The category will have two dedicated periods per week. The activity will be a part of the workload and account for credits (marks) too.

Students will be asked to take up two discipline courses during their degree and work on research and projects in both, which will account for credits as well. Both discipline courses will be run for five classes per week.

"The new programme will have more emphasis on practical learning. We have also worked towards making the syllabus more up to date. The change in the system in the university is bound to attract more companies during the placement season," said a senior university official.

However, the university's teaching community is still critical of the new system which will be introduced after three months. At a time when various departments of the university are having meetings with teachers on the course structure and syllabus, DU English teachers, in an unanimous resolution adopted in a meeting two weeks ago, expressed their concern at "the un-academic and anti-student structure of the four-year-undergraduate programme."

For quite some time now, teachers have criticized the proposed reforms citing issues like infrastructure, undemocratic representation of college teachers in syllabus making, hasty and unplanned manner of increasing student workload.

New Delhi, March 4
Indicating a slowdown in the consumption of liquor, the Delhi government has faced a significant dip in collection of revenue in comparison to last year from the sale of liquor.

The government generates revenue by imposing excise duty on the import of liquor in the city. Though, there has been a hike of 12.3 per cent in the current financial year from the total revenue collected last year, in 2011-12, a growth rate of 25 per cent was observed from the previous year's revenue generation.

Senior officials in the government attributed the downward trend as a sign of stagnation in the liquor market of the city. "The government had introduced changes in the policy which were implemented in 2010. This had led to a sudden shoot up in the revenue collection during 2011-12. But the market has stabilized in this financial year," said Indu Shekha Mishra, Deputy Commissioner, Excise, Entertainment and Luxury Taxes.

"We have still booked the profit, though it is slightly less than the previous year," said Mishra. The government had set a target of Rs 3,000 crore as revenue from the excise duty in the present financial year, which has already crossed the mark of Rs 2,900 crore. "The month of March sees maximum sale of liquor in Delhi. So, we are expected to meet the target comfortably," said the official.

Last year's target was set at Rs 2,250 crore by the government, which the government managed to achieve comfortably by collecting Rs 2,500 crore from the excise duty.

The maximum quantity of liquor supplied in Delhi is Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) which alone imports around 150 different brands in the city. "The IMFL contributes around Rs 43 crore to our revenue annually," he said. Whereas, beer remains the second-most preferred drink as the sale goes up to one crore bottles per month on an average during peak season. "We sold around 11 crore beer bottles last year. Till now, 90 lakh bottles have been already out. Next month also, it would see maximum sale," added the official.

New Delhi, March 4
The Delhi Cabinet today approved a proposal to introduce Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) screening of donated blood in blood banks in respect of the major hospitals of the city government and an amendment to Section 12 of the Delhi Professional Colleges or Institutions Act, 2007.

The Cabinet also decided to speed up implementation of its flagship Dilli Annshree Yojana. The decisions were taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

While briefing the media after the meeting, Dikshit stated that in order to ensure minimizing the risk of transmission of infections due to transfusion of donated blood, the Cabinet has decided to introduce NAT screening of donated blood in blood banks in major hospitals of the city government. The new testing and screening technology will replace the existing ELISA which detects infections in respect of HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C viruses in donated blood after about 21, 60 and 75 days of infections respectively.

The period is known as window period. The new technology will reduce the duration of window period from the above-stated days to 11, 20 and 15 days respectively. Hence, it would reduce the risk of transmission of infections. It is proposed to introduce the new technology at Lok Nayak Hospital and GTB Hospital.

The Cabinet has given its nod to a proposal for granting exemption to Army College of Medical Sciences, Delhi, run by the Army Welfare Education Society.

The Cabinet also reviewed the present status of its flagship scheme Dilli Annshree Yojana and decided to speed up its implementation.

The scheme is to provide Rs 600 per month as Direct Benefit Transfer to the Aadhar-enabled bank accounts of the seniormost female members of the most vulnerable families not covered under PDS.

New Delhi, March 4
Kendriya Guru Singh Sabha (KGSS) president Tarwinder Singh Marwah who is executive committee member of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) demanded that the under-construction Guru Harkrishan hospital on the premises of Gurdwara Bala Sahib be brought under the DSGMC, education committee be constituted to improve the standard of Guru Harkrishan Public Schools (GHPS).

Besides, he wanted implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission in gurdwara committee.

Marwah told the executive members of the KGSS that these demands may be accepted by the authorities as they were also listed in the election manifesto of the SAD Badal. Now the SAD is in power, so it is the moral duty of the ruling party to accept these demands.