New Delhi, December 31
The Congress, which is offering support to the minority AAP government, today questioned AAP's free water move, saying that since half of Delhi does not get water at all, Kejriwal should ensure that these households get water first.

The Congress said the Delhi Government's announcement yesterday to supply free potable water to the people of Delhi was a "joke" played on the middle class and poor families.

The party alleged government of having used manipulated statistics while announcing the decision.

Congress leader and former MLA Mukesh Sharma said that the decision would benefit only 15 to 20 per cent consumers. "Those who really need drinking water will not get 700 litres of water," he said.

He said those living in unauthorized and resettlement colonies sand Group Housing Societies will not benefit from this announcement and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) would shell out another Rs 164 crore charges separately.

"This decision was a robbery on the middle class and the poor of Delhi and being a responsible party, the Congress would not accept it," Sharma said.

He said according to the figures of the DJB, only 19.5 lakh users have DJB meter connections, and the DJB feels that out of this figure, only 6.5 lakh houses have actual metres. "Khejriwal's statement that only those users, who have functional meters, will get the benefit was a misinformation as out of the 6.5 lakh meters, only 3.5 lakh were in running condition. It was thus clear that only those with working meters would get the promised quantity of water," he added.

By this decision, people living in the DDA, NDMC and Cantonment areas have not been benefited.

New Delhi, December 31
Demanding for rolling back the hiked water tariff, Delhi BJP president Vijay Goel said that the AAP government in Delhi had given an "unwelcome gift" in the New Year of 10 per cent hike in water tariff for majority of consumers.

More than eight lakh households will be affected with this hike as they will be forced to bear additional monthly burden of Rs 500-700 from January 1, 2014, he said.

Goel said that the BJP leaders who are members of the Delhi Jal Board had registered a note of dissent on the proposed hike in water tariff from January 1, 2014, in the meeting of the DJB held yesterday which was chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejrwial. But their dissent was brushed aside and the AAP government decided to go ahead with water tariff hike.

"The AAP is continuing with the anti-people clause inserted in the DJB rules by the Congress government which increases 10 per cent water tariff every year. The BJP has been demanding removal of this clause for quite some time. Neither the Congress government removed this clause nor the AAP.

The BJP also demanded that this anti-people clause of increasing 10 per cent water tariff every year should be removed immediately.

Meanwhile, commenting on the "free water" announcement, Goel said that the residents of unauthorised colonies, JJ clusters and group housing societies will not get any benefit out of this. Most of the jhuggis do not have functional water meters, the unauthorised colonies do not have piped water supply from the DJB and the group housing societies are having a single water meter for the whole society so their consumption will obviously be much more than the prescribed limit, though the average consumption of households might be lower than the prescribed limit.

In addition residents of the Delhi Cantonment and NDMC areas also would not get benefit of this announcement. It is clear, thus, that the majority of poor, lower and middle income groups will not get any benefit. The fact is that there are fundamental issues that need to be addressed such as ensuring piped water supply to all households, installing meters, ensuring supply of clean water, repairing of meters which are malfunctioning.

He said that it appears that the new Chief Minister is in hurry to make some announcements without doing due diligence.

New Delhi, December 31
Senior Congress MLA Mateen Ahmed has been appointed as pro tem Speaker in the Delhi Legislative Assembly who will administer oath of office and secrecy to all the MLAs tomorrow on first day of the assembly session.

There will be election for the Speaker on January 3, a day after the trust vote to be sought by the government in the assembly. The first session of the assembly starts tomorrow, said Secretary of Delhi Assembly Secretariat P.N. Mishra.

In the 70-member assembly, the AAP has 28 MLAs, eight short of a majority required to get its nominee elected. The AAP has the support of eight MLAs of the Congress, which may take it safely across the half-way mark.

Mateen Ahmed has been five-time MLA from the Seelampur Assembly Constituency. In 1993 he had won the election on Janta Dal ticket. Second time he had contested the election as an independent candidate and three times he had contested on the ticket of the Congress Party and won with heavy margin.

Mateen said that first he would be administered the oath of office and secrecy by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung, and then he would come to the assembly for oath taking ceremony of all the MLA across the party.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that earlier senior most MLA in Delhi Legislative Assembly Jagdish Mukhi who represented the BJP was appointed as the pro tem Speaker by the LG, but last night he refused to accept the post, saying that his party did not allow for this post. Later, JDU MLA Shoaib Iqbal was asked for the post of pro tem Speaker. He also refused, though his party general secretary had asked the AAP for giving the post of Speaker to his lone MLA.

Mukhi said, "Our party has decided that no BJP MLA will accept this post in present circumstances."

Meanwhile, the Secretary (Assembly) said that AAP has proposed the name of MLA from the Jangpura Assembly Constituency Maninder Singh Dhir, who had defeated the Congress heavy weight Tarvinder Singh Marwah and the BJP's candidate would field its senior most MLA Jagdish Mukhi who was Finance Minister in the Madan Lal Khurana government.

New Delhi, December 31
New Education Minister Manish Sisodia's first comment on the Municipal Corporations for not sanctioning the building plans of municipal schools drew flak from Leader of House in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) Subhash Arya.

Arya criticized the statement by the minister in newly formed Delhi Government of the Aam Admi Party. "All three corporations ruled by the BJP are approving plans and granting non-objection certificates to the proposal submitted on priority basis," he said.

Passing the buck, Arya said the corporations are ready to open new schools, if land is provided by the government. The three corporations are running 1,789 municipal schools. "Land is not provided by the state government for various projects of the corporations in spite of many meetings and communications," he said.

He said there is shortage of teachers in the municipal schools due to non-recruitment of teachers by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board which is under of administrative control of the Delhi Government. "The corporation recruited contract teachers in municipal schools to overcome problem of shortage of teachers and paying them monthly salary of Rs 23,500," Arya said.

Calling minister's statement as "baseless and politically motivated", Arya said that the corporations have allocated 20 per cent of the total expenditure on primary education which he said is highest in percentage in any state. "The basic infrastructural and educational facilities are provided in all schools. We are providing free textbooks, uniforms, school bags, mid-day meal and other facilities as dual desk, clean drinking water and safety equipment," he said.

New Delhi, December 31
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) today launched a scheme to sanction building plans online, said NDMC chairperson Jalaj Shrivastava. "People can now apply online for approval from the NDMC for building plans.

“This will add to transparency in the system, besides minimizing the procedural time. Easy checking of approvals will also reduce possible corruption," he said.

Information regarding pending applications can be monitored, at each stage, according to the system evolved by the NDMC, he said.

"The file can also be seen by department officials, architects and citizens at any point of time.

The link to the new system can be accessed through the NDMC website, said Shrivastav.

New Delhi, December 31
The Congress today took potshots at Arvind Kejriwal for his statement that he was running the government assuming that his party has just 48 hours, wondering whether Aam Admi Party MLAs are deserting the party.

"I do not know whether some of his partymen are leaving. This information is not with us. The BJP cannot ensure the fall of the AAP government. They do not have the numbers for this. The Congress has announced support for them (AAP) and we have not made any change in that decision.

"We have already decided to give our MLA for pro tem Speaker as they demanded. So naturally, the Congress does not want the government to fall and the BJP cannot do it even if it wants.

“If some MLAs from Kejriwal's party are deserting it, we have no information.

“Only Kejriwal will have that information," said AICC general secretary in charge for Delhi Shakeel Ahmed.

Ahead of the trust vote on January 2, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said he wants to do maximum good for the people in the next 48 hours whether his government stays or not.

"Not sure of the Congress and the BJP. We are not bothered whether the government survives or not. We are running the government assuming that we have just 48 hours with us.

“We want to do the maximum good to the people, if we can in this time," he told reporters.

Congress leader Ahmed ridiculed these remarks of Kejriwal but welcomed the decisions on tariff cut in power and water by the AAP government. — PTI

New Delhi, December 31
Representatives of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) today demanded proper rehabilitation of people whose houses were razed at a slum near the Mansarovar Park Metro line during a demolition drive authorised by the Railways, and conducted by a branch of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi MCD.

"Immediately after the drive, we had protested at the Divisional Railways Manager's office. For the past two days, we have been collecting relief material. Today, we distributed blankets and clothes to all the families living in plastic tents in this bitter cold," said Sandeep Saurav, general secretary of JNUSU. "Warm clothes and blankets were collected, and also brought with the money we collected," added Sarfaraz Hamid, joint secretary, JNUSU.

After the protests against the demolition drive, the Railways had promised that no eviction would take place for at least three months, till March 2014.

"We demand that the Municipal Corporation and the Railways take responsibility for properly rehabilitating the people whose homes and hearths have been destroyed. Most of them have been living here for at least a decade, providing them adequate housing is the responsibility of the government", said Anubhuti Agnes Bara, vice-president of the JNUSU.

New Delhi, December 31
The Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) intensified its agitation demanding the withdrawal of the illegal suspension of two teachers of Hindu College, by staging a joint protest along with the Delhi University and College Karamchari Union (DUKU) outside the venue of the meeting of the Governing Body.

Undaunted by the large police presence that had been summoned by the college authorities, the protest went on beyond 9.30 pm. The delegation, including the newly elected MLA from AAP and secretary of the DUTA Dr. Harish Khanna, submitted a memorandum with an appeal to withdraw suspension of the two colleagues in the light of their replies, the report of the grievance committee and the resolution of the staff association. Following which, the chairman of the governing body Punj assured the protestors to hold a special meeting on the issue around January 12 and reach a solution failing in which the agitation would be intensified, said DUTA members.

According to the DUTA, the issue of suspension of the two teachers by the chairman, without even waiting for their reply to the show-cause notice issued to them, had not even been put on the agenda of the meeting. Neither the reply of the teachers to the show-cause notice, nor the report of the grievance committee of the staff council that has held the complaint as false and fabricated, was shown to the members of the governing body either before or after the suspension, or tabled at the meeting of the governing body.

On the issue, the DUTA office-bearers had met the chairman twice in the last two months and expressed strong resentment pointing out that severe action was not taken against two teachers on the basis of a complaint filed by two other teachers allegedly without even hearing the side of the accused.

"The continued callous disregard to the appeals by the DUTA, the staff association of the college and the report of the grievance committee made it evident that the malafide and biased behaviour of the chairman in collusion with the VC, who had approved of the suspension, was part of a larger agenda to create disaffection within the faculty and destabilize the college," said DUTA president Nandita Narain.