New Delhi, January 7
The Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal today preferred to be precise while giving reply to the questions raised by the Opposition and other members while debating Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung's speech in the assembly House yesterday.

The Chief Minister said that during discussion a number of issues that were not mentioned in the LG's speech and their solution came to light. The members have given good suggestions to the government.

Admitting that the members of the AAP are new in the House, the Chief Minister said that they did not have experience of governance. They may have weaknesses but their intention is clear. The government has numerous challenges before it.

Welcoming to all the members in his office whenever they need, the Chief Minister said "Swaraj" is not possible without discussion and "first we should discuss the issues within 70 members of the House."

Attacking the AAP government, senior BJP MLA Prof Jagdish Mukhi said that LG's speech reflected policy matters of the government, development work and its planning but yesterday's speech delivered by the LG in the House only carried the points that were mentioned in the manifesto of the AAP. It has a mention of beacon light. There is no need to mention this. The Supreme Court has given a ruling against use of beacon lights by MLAs. Thereafter, in Delhi MLAs do not use beacon lights.

Raising the issue of security, Mukhi said following refusal for the security by the Chief Minister, the Delhi Police has deployed security personnel in civil dress that is more costly. Had the Chief Minister accepted the security the cost of police spent on Chief Minister's security would have been reduced. Common man is not getting the benefit of the government policy for free water distribution up to 666 litre per day. Hardly 5-7 per cent people are getting free water.

He further said on the name of supplying cheap power to Delhiites, the Chief Minister had misled the people. He has given subsidy to the power distribution companies though there is no mention of this in the Budget tabled by the previous government. It is an illegal decision. Instead of this, the Chief Minister should got audited the accounts of the power department. The government has 49 per cent share in the power.

Debating the LG speech, Mukhi said that the government had spoken of the Janlokpal Bill, though the state government had no power for such a bill. It can be done only by the Centre. Delhi already has Lokayukta.

He also said that the AAP had come to power on the issues of corruption and inflation, but the LG speech had no mention of the way out to curb corruption and inflation.

However, the BJP leader supported the LG's speech on full statehood to Delhi, saying that to abolish the contract system the government should check the outsourcing.

Congress leader Haroon Yusuf said that the LG's speech was visionless. Inflation was the main issue of the AAP during election, but it was not discussed in the LG speech. There is no road map to curb the inflation, improvement of food supply, development, construction of roads, monorail. He supported the government if it makes Lokayukta stronger.

Others who spoke on the occasion are Devender Yadav, Asif Mohammad Khan, Nand Kishore Garg, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, Subhash Sachdeva, Satprakash Rana, R.P. Singh, Ramesh Bidhuri, Anil Jha and Manoj Shaukeen.

New Delhi, January 7
Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel today slammed the Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, for not adhering to the deadlines declared for various initiatives and brushing cases against "corrupt" Congress leaders under the carpet.

"He and his ministerial colleagues are playing to the gallery and not doing any serious work. Mere symbolism will not help and the situation on administrative front has worsened over the past 10 days in the Capital. The AAP-Congress alliance government is proving to be a disaster for Delhi'ites," said Goel.

The Chief Minister should answer why he has taken a U-turn on issue of corruption by the previous Congress government? Why he is asking for proof of former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's corruption now when so many reports indicting her are there? Instead of putting corrupt Congress leaders behind bars, why is he giving such lame excuses?" asked Goel.

"It is clear that in lieu of getting support from the Congress, the AAP has decided to let the 'big fish' of the Congress go scot free," he added. The Congress and the AAP are, in fact, natural partners for alliance as leaders of both the parties are masters of the art of doublespeak.

Listing the announcements made by the AAP Goel said, "The corruption helpline was promised to be functional within 48 hours and it has been more than a week after that. Similarly, 45 night shelters were announced to be functional in the capital in 48 hours, but even after several days they have not been functional. In fact NGOs running these shelters are lamenting the undue interference of AAP workers.

The AAP had promised reduction in power tariff for all but lakhs of consumers who consume more than 400 units per month have not been provided any respite. In fact, the hard earned money of tax payers is being used to further fill the coffers of private discoms. This would further affect the development work on the projects.

New Delhi, January 7
Following the crackdown on corrupt officials in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the association of the board employees extended its support to the Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, saying they also want investigations into irregularities happening in the board.

Members urged the Chief Minister, the chairman of the DJB, to constitute a trained "independent investigation team" consisting of sincere staff of the board and independent members. The association urged him to put in place corruption control best practice.

With feelers of fraud coming in over the past few days, the Delhi Government on Monday suspended three officials of the water distribution utility and shifted around 800 others in a bid to streamline its service delivery mechanism.

The anti-corruption bureau of the government has been asked to investigate the alleged bribery case involving the three DJB officials - chief water analyst Vinod Kumar, patwari Sunil Kumar and meter reader Atul Prakash - whose suspension came following orders by the Chief Minister.

The orders came after a sting operation by a TV channel showed the trio involved in corruption to clear use of water for construction purpose and meter reading.

Meanwhile, the DJB today decided to extend the 30 per cent rebate scheme on actual arrears up to March 31, if the outstanding dues are paid by that date. Earlier, the DJB had announced that the scheme would close on January 1.

The board also said it will waive the late payment surcharge on accumulated arrears of residents of slums and resettlement colonies if the dues are paid by March 31.

New Delhi, January 7
Much to the cheer of parents who are looking forward to admit their children in schools this year, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi Government is going to implement the Right to Education Act 2010 in the letter and spirit and in process will even ensure that private schools violating law on donations are fined 10 times as per the law.

"Shutting schools is not the solution," says Education Minister Manish Sisodia, who has issued a public appeal to people to lodge complaint with the helpline of the minister to be announced soon.

While a notification regarding this has already been issued to various private schools, the government is also mooting the idea of putting in place signages before nursery admissions at both government and private schools which would have the name and address of the education officer of the area whom parents faced with troubles can contact.

If the grievance remains unaddressed, the complainant can reach out to helpline to be overseen by the minister himself. "There would be an officer at the local level who will help them and if the issue remains unresolved, it would be forward to the helpline for help from the minister. We are in process to develop such a mechanism where schools will be fined 10 times if they do not follow the guidelines," said officials engaged in the job.

Towards its long-term priority, the new government is focusing on upgrading the basic facilities and infrastructure of government schools. While it hopes to set up 500 new government schools in the national Capital minister is relying on his party's enthusiastic bunch of volunteers.

He has created a team of volunteers who from tomorrow will go on inspection rounds of the government schools based on a checklist of essential facilities among other things availability of clean water, proper toilets, numbers of teachers attending classes, electricity, window panes, etc.

AAP volunteer Praveen Deshmukh, who is overseeing the education departments' volunteer programme, said, a team of 140 volunteers would visit around 300 schools tomorrow and on a daily basis, reports would be sent to the minister after such rounds on an excel-sheet and steps would be taken as per requirement.

"When children return to schools after winter break, I want them to have these facilities," said Sisodia. He said that for this initiative, the volunteers must be able to monitor government schools in different areas and reports daily.

In view of the Lieutenant Governor guidelines on the matter while association of private schools has already approached the High Court last week the Education Minister has made it clear that there is no going back from the stand.

New Delhi, January 7
A 28-year-old college dropout, who is a tutor, was arrested for allegedly cheating a retired Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of more than Rs 3 lakh on the promise of providing his son with a job in a government bank.

The accused has been identified as Amit Kumar who belongs to Bokaro in Jharkhand and stays at Rani Bagh in Delhi. "He has done a basic computer course. He is presently jobless," said Additional Commissioner of Police (Outer District) Sanjay Kumar.

O P Arora, a retired SDM, had lodged a complaint at the K N Katju Marg police station in outer Delhi against Amit for allegedly committing criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery, said officer.

In his complaint, Arora alleged that Amit had approached him two years ago through a man named Anil Kumar. Amit came with an offer of a job with a nationalised bank to Arora's son Kunal Arora. "Amit had assured Arora that if he will give him Rs 5 lakh, he can arrange the job for his son. On believing his assurance, he agreed to pay him the amount," said Sanjay Kumar.

Arora paid Rs 3.5 lakh from his elder son Piyush's bank account, said the officer. It was decided between the victim and the accused that the remaining money will be paid upon receiving the appointment letter of a bank.

In January, Amit gave an appointment letter of a bank probationary officer of an Andhra Bank zonal office in Chandigarh to Kunal. The joining date was March 25 last year. They went on that day and Amit was allegedly informed that the joining date had been deferred to a later date.

On October 10, Amit gave Arora another letter that was allegedly issued by one, Harvinder Singh, the general manager and appointing authority of the Chandigarh zonal office. The letter requested Kunal to appear at the office on November 18. Amit took Arora and Kunal to the office on that day and later told them that the joining date has been extended until December 9.

"Arora and Kunal became suspicious of Amit. On November 21, Kunal went to the Andhra Bank branch at Prashant Vihar for authenticating the joining letter given by Amit. Some senior officers of the bank told him that the documents were forged. Arora and Kunal then complained to us," said officer.

Amit had allegedly made a coloured copy of a joining letter through the internet and gave it to the complainant. He also visited the Andhra Bank zonal office in Chandigarh to convince them of the offer. Amit said that he started working as a tutor and used to give students admission to schools for Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 per student. "He did not give this money to anyone, because he did not have a liaison with anyone," said Sanjay Kumar.

New Delhi, January 7
Participants from across the world displayed their kite-flying skills at Central Park here as the 26th International Kite Festival got underway today.

Scores of kites of various shapes and colours and from countries like Russia, Ukraine, Malaysia, Vietnam, France and Estonia, soared to the skies in a spectacle of colour.

"The craze here and the promotion by the government are exemplary. Flying a kite is an amazing experience," said a participant from Malaysia.

This is the third time that the festival is opening in the national Capital.

"After Delhi, the event will be organised in Mumbai and then at four places in Gujarat before it culminates in Ahmedabad," said Soman Pathy, liaison officer with the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd.

The festival, which is being organised by Gujarat Tourism, will conclude on the banks of Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad on January 14. — PTI

New Delhi, January 7
Two employees of a businessman were allegedly robbed off Rs 32 lakh by four motorcycle-borne assailants in the Okhla area, south Delhi, last night.

According to the police, Ramesh and Randhir work with a businessman named Pradip Jain. He is the importer of a mobile phone company in Delhi.

The two employees collect cash from the clients of the businessman. Yesterday, they were returning to their office after collecting the cash from central Delhi. "They were travelling in a car. Ramesh and Randhir said that when they reached near their office in Okhla, four armed men, who were travelling on two motorcycles, stopped their car. Two youths got down from the motorcycle and forced them to get down from the car. The assailants then stole the bag containing money from them and fled the spot," said a police officer.

The police are examining the CCTV footage of the cameras installed at the site.