New Delhi, October 27
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is going to take over the repairing work of Connaught Place from the Engineers India Limited so that it could be finished early. The repairing had to be completed in 2010 before the Commonwealth Games, but it is still on.

Newly appointed chairman of the NDMC Jalaj Srivastava said that the NDMC was going to remove the company from all the works in a phased manner and would carry out the repair and maintenance. It will also hire a new company for the overall maintenance of every facility in Connaught Place. There will be clearly defined deliverables along with penalty clauses.

The chairman has also an idea to provide central air-conditioning to all the buildings in Connaught Place. He would discuss this issue with the NDMC members.

On the issue of choking of drains in the NDMC areas, h said one of the biggest reasons for it is debris and other waste. The NDMC is planning to use the construction debris for making bricks. The Ministry of Urban Development has recently started a pilot project in this connection. The civic body is also going to organise a workshop to find the best available technology for this purpose.

The chairman said that the garbage disposal is also a challenge for the NDMC. It had given a contract to a private company to collect and dispose of it a few years ago. The company completely failed to discharge its duties. For the time being, it has deployed its own staff and in the meantime, tenders have been floated to hire a new company.

Besides, the NDMC will soon launch a five-digit round-the-clock helpline where people can register their complaints which will be attended to immediately, he said.

New Delhi, October 27
Reiterating a radical change in the government if voted to power, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Harsh Vardhan today said the party would constitute a food price commission to be headed by experts in agriculture, statistics and finance.

He said that the commission will monitor the prices of food commodities and have a weekly meeting on the current issues of agriculture produce. The inspectors and food supply officials will be in touch with the Chief Minister's office as it is the concern of the local government if prices soar.

The officials in CM office will be available online to provide transparency in the system. There will be mechanism to check the agricultural markets. "The nexus between the government and hoarders will be checked," he said.

Addressing a conference, Harsh Vardhan said if the BJP was voted to power, a new model will be framed to develop the city that will be known as Delhi model.

On the price rise issue, he said experts had warned the Union Government, but the warning was ignored. Consequently, the vegetable prices have gone high up to 77 per cent, onion prices particularly have increased up to 200 per cent, potato and tomato 100 per cent. The agricultural produce has increased more than the demand, but hoarding of the commodities is the cause of increased prices. The government has failed to take action against the hoarders, Vardhan said.

The Delhi unit chief of the BJP, Vijay Goel, who was also present on the occasion, said the government's claim of opening 150 outlets for selling onion at Rs 55 per kg is nothing but a joke.

New Delhi, October 27
With the Delhi Assembly elections little over a month away, certain political parties are going all out to lure voters, even finding innovative ways to supply liquor in a bid to bypass the hawk eye of the Election Commission.

As per the modus operandi, the voter is allegedly given a slip with the number of a currency note which is to be deposited with an identified liquor shop owner to get bottles.

The slips are secretively distributed among voters by the agents of some candidates. The liquor vendor, who has already been paid, supplies the bottles or the cartons to the customers on the basis of the number written on the slips, a list of which has already been provided to him. In some cases, cartons of liquor bottles are directly supplied to the voters' homes.

The Chief Electoral Office had previously said that there was a need to keep a tab on the use of liquor as its free distribution had become a menace during the elections across the country.

"With stakes running high, the candidates are trying to outdo one another in offering allurements. Slum dwellers have been getting a royal treatment by political agents. The parties manage to hoodwink the Election Commission every time with some innovative ways," a senior EC official said.

The Chief Electoral Officer recently held a meeting with the excise department and the Intelligence Bureau to chalk out a strategy to contain the illegal transportation, storage and supply of liquor in the city.

"There are several ways in which candidates spend money for wooing the electorate and distribution of liquor is one of them. Though there are no easy solutions to curb the practice, the increase in liquor sales makes us suspect that alcohol is being used extensively," said Special Chief  Electoral Officer Shurbir Singh.

"We held a meeting in this regard with the officials of the excise department and the Intelligence Bureau. We have provided them with a list of all liquor vendors and warehouses in the city," said Singh.

New Delhi October 27
As the election campaign rises to a crescendo, there is a new tool in the hands of politicians, be it building their profiles or connecting with people-the social media. Learning lessons from this media used by Anna Hazare's supporters in 2011, the parties have stepped up their efforts to make their presence felt through this mode.

The political speeches are not just limited to rallies now as the publicity-hungry leaders have developed a rage for online participation. The parties make dedicated teams to create accounts and profiles of their candidates, launch pages on social sites. The digital penetration is being seen as an effective medium to reach out to the youth ahead of the assembly as well as the Lok Sabha elections.

In order to make its legislators 'web-savvy', a workshop was organized by the Delhi Government a couple of months ago to teach the MLAs on how to open accounts on the websites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

"The main objective of the social media campaigning is to provide a steady flow of information that can be shared and spread by all the supporters to counter any negative propaganda," said Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president JP Aggarwal.

The party has created 'WithCongress' on Twitter and a Facebook account with the same name to spread information on its day-day happenings and activities. A dedicated website 'incmanifesto.in' has also been created to invite suggestions from the public.

These accounts and website are being managed by the special publicity and publication committee of the party.

However, the war on virtual world is being fought by both the sides. Congress's arch rival BJP is getting even more active online with its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi exploiting the medium aggressively.

Keeping in view the Net users in Delhi, the BJP in this election is focusing on e-campaigning apart from using the traditional mediums like print, TV, door-to-door campaigning, public meetings, posters, banners, etc.

The IT in-charge of the saffron party, Arun Gupta, said that the party has started preparation for e-campaigning. In these elections, about 20 crore people are using the Net, mostly the youth who do not have time to attend rallies and public meetings.

Even the Election Commission has now used e-network to convince the youth to exercise their franchise.

In previous elections, the manifestoes used to be the brain work of senior leaders. However, this time the BJP has sought suggestions from people about the issues to be included in the manifesto. It had got 30,000 suggestions. Of them, as many as 10,000 people have complained against discoms.

What's more, the BJP has started block and district level meetings during the last few months, appealing to its workers to convince the electorate to change the government in view of inflation, rising crime, high power and water tariffs, difficulties faced by the residents in unauthorised colonies, bad roads and poor sanitation services.

It has also organised big rallies-one at Jantar Mantar that was addressed by BJP's national president Rajnath Singh and a recent rally addressed by party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

The party has also started a door-to-door campaigning raising the issue of onion and other vegetables as in 1998, the BJP had lost the assembly election on the issue of rising onion prices.