New Delhi, May 22
Lokayukta Manmohan Sarin today indicted Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for misuse of public funds in government advertisements. He held that these advertisements were put out for political purposes in the election year.

The Lokayukta has recommended the President to advise Dikshit to reimburse Rs 11 crore as half the cost incurred by her government for putting out these advertisements in 2008.

The order said that the money be paid either by herself or through her party. Dikshit then held charge of the Department of Information and Publicity of the Delhi government.

He has also recommended framing of guidelines for publication of government advertisement regarding development works and incorporation of safeguards to prevent misuse of public funds.

The BJP had accused the Delhi government of spending Rs 22 crore in advertisements during 2008 state election. The party's former state unit head Vijendra Gupta had complained to the Lokayukta in 2009. It had reserved its order in the case in 2011.

"This is not the first time that the Chief Minister has been indicted by the Lokayukta. Whenever it happened, she and her party leaders as well as colleagues have blatantly ignored the indictments," said Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel.

Reacting to the order, Delhi government officials said that nothing can be commented till the orders are received. "We have not received the orders yet, so cannot say anything on this," said spokesperson for the Chief Minister.

New Delhi, May 22
The proceedings of the House meetings of the national Capital held at the Delhi Legislative Assembly is all ready to come live for people across the country from this monsoon session itself.

The working of the Delhi State Assembly sessions will be made live on its official website, enabling people to watch it from anywhere in the country. The ambitious project 'Live Web Cast' is in its last stage of implementation and is likely to be completed before the commencement of monsoon session, which would also mark as the last session of the House under the present government.

The Web Cast is being put into practice under the guidance of National Informatics Center, which is also the implementation authority of the project, said a senior official of the Information Technology (IT) Department at Delhi Vidhan Sabha.

"Once the Live Web Cast is implemented, the proceedings of the meetings will be telecast live on the website. This is a landmark development which will bring transparency in the working of the assembly," said Lal Mani, Deputy Secretary of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

Presently, there is no such telecast of the House meetings on either television or any other medium with only texts of the proceedings made available at the website, however, the working is video recorded for official purpose and future reference.

The contract for procurement of related hardware and software has been given to the government agency - National Informatics Centre Services Inc. The construction of a control room is under way at the assembly to control the operations of the system, said the official at the IT department. "We have already granted funds for the project and the tenders have been given," he said.

The total project will cost around Rs 11 to 12 lakh. The project was proposed in March and was approved by technical evaluation committee.

New Delhi, May 22
The Delhi BJP has decided to launch a 'Jail Bharo' agitation from May 27 to June 2 to highlight the failure of the Congress on issues of corruption and inflation. The agitation is a part of the nationwide movement of the saffron party.

Thousands of BJP workers will march to Prime Minister's residence on May 27. They will demand the resignation of the Prime Minister and Delhi Chief Minister. The march will be led by national BJP president Rajnath Singh, said Delhi unit party president Vijay Goel.

"Delhi is governed by both the Centre and state governments. So, it is a failure of both the Congress-led UPA and Sheila Dikshit-led Congress governments and we are demanding Dikshit's and PM's, resignation," said Goel.

"The departments headed by the Chief Minister have been neck deep in corruption as exposed by the CAG reports. Her dubious role in the Commonwealth Games scam has been proved beyond doubt by the Shunglu Committee report.

“And on top of it, she is proving to be an insensitive Chief Minister whose off-the-cuff remarks about problems of common man have hurt the sensibilities of people at large," he added.

The BJP also slammed the city government for making Delhi residents suffer from massive power outages, disrupting their normal life. The party believes that had the government planned well in advance to deal with peak summer demand, this crisis could have been avoided. "It is like a double whammy for Delhi citizens. They are made to suffer from hike in power tariffs and then they are made to suffer from unscheduled power cuts for long hours," said Goel.

"The power crisis is affecting water availability in homes, shops and establishments. These long unscheduled power cuts are also affecting the business and industrial activities at all levels," he added.

New Delhi, May 22
Under the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), DU today made it clear that all colleges have to scrap the additional criterion of having Mathematics in Class XII for admission to commerce discipline.

While DU never mandated the criterion of Maths for commerce, as confirmed by Prof JM Khurana, the Dean of Students Welfare colleges, colleges fixed their own. In the past, several colleges had refused admissions to general category and OBC students from commerce stream in BCom (H), if they did not have Mathematics.

But with the new format as the admission procedure is going to be decentralised even for the special categories, the university has directed all colleges to relax the eligibility criterion for taking admission in commerce, which is anyway now only honours, for students of all categories.

With the introduction of four-year programme from this academic session the admission to the in commerce will now be 'Bachelor with Honours in Commerce'. The eligibility for taking admission to this course will be based on Discipline I.

"There are more than 35 colleges offering a degree in commerce and the discipline itself is one of the most popular among students. So, we have directed all the colleges to do away with the criterion of having Mathematics compulsory in their pre-university classes," Prof JM Khurana the Dean Students Welfare said.

New Delhi, May 22
In view of ongoing Metro construction work, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), has appealed to the aspiring candidates for admission that they must report to their respective examination centres at least one hour ahead of the commencement of their admission test, said spokesperson for JMI.

There is a heavy congestion on roads leading to the university. The university will not accommodate late comers, the spokesperson said.

The applicants must avoid bringing personal vehicles to the examination centre. There is acute congestion and no parking facility available on campus.

The parents should not accompany the candidates to the venue of the test. The university has many applicants taking the entrance examination and cannot accommodate parents, added the spokesperson.