New Delhi, February 27
In what seems to be a staged attempt to eliminate competition, Member of Parliament Ajay Maken was the sole contender to file nominations under the 'primaries project' from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency today.

Besides Congress party's chief spokesperson, no one else has filed nominations and therefore he is almost certain to get the party ticket.

Today was the last day of filing nominations for the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat under the 'primaries project', a concept floated by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to promote participation of local office-bearers in the selection of candidates for the polls.

Maken was amongst the first few to voluntarily opt for primaries in his constituency. A list of 303 voters has been compiled for voting during the convention. Maken has showed the support of more than 250 people out of 303 voters in his nomination papers. The convention for the New Delhi constituency will be held on March 6.

"I had won by more 1.5 lakh votes in the last Lok Sabha elections. I am confident of repeating the same victory for my party this time as well," said Maken after filing his papers.

Besides the New Delhi seat, there will be a primary for the selection of candidate for the Northeast Delhi Lok Sabha seat as well. While the last date for filling nominations is March 4, its convention will take place on March 11, which will be followed by voting and announcement of results by the evening.

However, sources in the party said that JP Agarwal, the sitting MP from the constituency, will also not face any competition. "Only Agarwal and Jagdish Tytler are expected to file nominations from Northeast Delhi. Tytler who is an accused in the 1984 Sikh riots, will not be able to make it, paving way for Agarwal," said a source.

New Delhi, February 27
Asserting that every prisoner is equal, the Tihar Prisons Director General, Vimla Mehra, while ensuring that her jail staff follow this principle, today spoke about several welfare measures for the inmates.

Some of these measures include setting up of an 'old age ward' to provide better care to prisoners who are more than 60 years of age; giving better medical attention to inmates who are terminally ill and forming groups called 'gumshum punja' to help inmates overcome their depression.

The developments were shared by Mehra at a press conference of Tihar Prisons held here today.

In other welfare schemes, she said the Lieutenant Governor's office has cleared the prison authorities' proposal for setting up an Open Jail. Under the Open Jail, the inmates who have undergone two years of conviction in the Semi-Open Jail will be allowed to go outside the Tihar complex for work and return during the prescribed evening hours. The Semi-Open Jail which was inaugurated in June last year at the prison headquarters, aims to "mould the thinking of a prisoner towards positive activity", so that he is able to re-socialise after his release.

Another issue highlighted by Mehra is the overcrowding of the prisons. Tihar Prisons has 10 jails with a sanctioned strength of 6,250 inmates. But the total prisoner population is 13,552, including women, at Tihar Prisons, according to the prison statistics until December 31, 2013. The prison population has increased by 11.88 per cent in comparison to the population until December 31, 2012. Prison authorities assert that the overall figure of prisoners has increased due to the higher number of undertrials at Tihar, who are 10,154 at present.

New Delhi, February 27
A mobile and web-based application has been started by the Delhi police that allows a person to lodge a report of a lost article without arriving at a police station.

The application was launched by the Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, in Delhi today. He said, "The launch of this application is one of the friendly steps between the Delhi police and the public."

Explaining the functioning of the application, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said, "The mobile and web-based application has been designed for lodging reports of lost articles with the police. There will be no need for a person, if one so chooses, to come to a police station. After the information is lodged through the mobile or web, a digitally signed, printable report will be instantaneously sent as a reply."

The mobile phone users will have to download the application from the "Google Play Store" and the web users will have to open the Delhi police website, www.delhipolice.nic.in, for lodging their reports.

Bassi said that the application will act as a precursor for the lodging of FIRs in certain offences over the mobile phone and web.

The commissioner said that the victims are reluctant at times to lodge a report of a lost article. This happens because the victim may not be aware of the jurisdictional police station that needs to be approached.

"The systems for lodging of such reports are not very well defined and certain loose conventions presently govern the police response in dealing with such information," said Bassi.

In view of such problems, the police started the mobile and web-based application.

New Delhi, February 27
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) has to fulfil many promises given in its election manifesto though yesterday it completed one year in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and claimed to have met some of the promises it had made during the gurdwara committee election.

A spokesman of the SAD-ruled DSGMC said that now all the religious functions are celebrated according to the Nanak Shahi calendar. Since the SAD has come to the DSGMC, no politics is done during Kirtan Darbar.

The spokesman said that earlier huge hoardings used to be installed at the religious functions. But the new committee has banned the installation of hoardings.

On his part, former president of the DSGMC Paramjit Singh Sarna said, “I used to invite leaders of different religious groups to Kirtan Darbar to promote teachings of Sikh religion. Besides, I had to take help from them to get the names of blacklisted Sikhs dropped and also to get the Afghan Sikh issue solved," Sarna said.