New Delhi, March 23
After suffering a shocking defeat in the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections, winning even a few seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls seems a distant dream for the Congress in Delhi.

Delhi has seven Lok Sabha constituencies, all of which will go to polls on April 10. The humiliating poll drubbing has made Delhi Congress realize its mistake that it did by underestimating the growing popularity of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the national Capital.

The party was reduced to a single digit, falling straight from 42 seats out of 70 in 2008 assembly elections to eight in 2013. The party lost a whopping 18 per cent seats to the AAP which is 16 per cent of its vote share.

The hopes of the Congress coming back on all seven Lok Sabha seats seem impossible unless it wins back vote share diverted to the AAP.

The party has been majorly abandoned by Delhi's slum clusters and resettlement colonies. The constituencies with a high number of slum clusters invariably voted for the party, which earlier used to be the Congress bastion.

Assemblies like Kondli (East Delhi) and Ambedkar Nagar (South Delhi), are the examples of party's lost dominance among the poor. Slums, JJ clusters and the unorganised colonies form an influential chunk of voters in these areas. The incumbents who were ruling in these seats for two decades were swept by the AAP in one go during the assembly polls.

Admitting the fact, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said that the party's fate in the forthcoming elections depends on the changing mood of lower middle class voters in the city.

"We have started working at the ground level. The AAP's governance is being exposed by us. We will distribute brouchers and pamphlets detailing the failure the of AAP's two-month rule in Delhi," said Sharma.

While, convincing all the lost voters would not be an easy task for the party, senior Congress leaders are hopeful that a significant number of vote-share will return to the party as they were disappointed with the AAP.

"People voted for the AAP as they were misguided by the party's impractical promises. They were sold dreams which cannot be made reality. But now people in Delhi have had the taste of the AAP's rule and are thus disappointed. So, many voters this time will return to the Congress as it has been their traditional choice," said DPCC president Arvinder Singh Lovely.

"Secondly, there was an anti-Congress wave in the city. People came out to vote against the party and they got an alternative in the form of AAP. But people still did not opted for the BJP either which means they do not want the BJP government either," he said.

According to the Congress leaders, a sizeable number of voters lost to the AAP will return to the party after the Kejriwal's 49-day show in the capital. The party recently launched a "Pol Khol" campaign against the AAP in a bid to retract people's confidence from the AAP.

The Congress had lost 16 seats to "jhadu" (AAP's elections symbol) in 2013 assembly elections, while the BJP too missed out on 11 constituencies.

New Delhi, March 23
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi visited the Yog Mahotsav at Ramlila Grounds organized by Baba Ramdev where thousands of people from Delhi and neighbouring states reached.

The Mahotsav was organized on the occasion of martyrdom of Rajguru, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev. They sacrificed their lives for the sake of independence of the country.

People came in buses and in their own vehicles. The entire stretch from Ranjit Singh flyover to Kotla Road was packed with heavy vehicles. Had it been a working day there would have been a major traffic jam. The buses were also parked at Raj Ghat from where people walked to Ramlila Grounds that was packed to capacity.

One of the participants said that he had never seen such rush in a Yog Mahotsav.

Ravinder Singh who came from Meerut said yoga taught by gurus at Patanjali is a distinguished way for a healthy life. Thousands of people have benefited from the kind of yoga taught by Baba Ramdev, he said.

Yashwant Deswal of Faridabad said that people spend a big sum to learn yoga, but Baba Ramdev teaches it free at the Mahotsav.

New Delhi, March 23
Only 70 per cent of Rs 93.75 crore that was made available to the Lok Sabha MPs in Delhi under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund, was utilised, leaving around Rs 28.80 crore unspent, according to the data of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released for 2009-2013.

Delhi has seven constituencies and all of them are represented by the Congress members.

The Congress' media in charge and MP from the New Delhi constituency, Ajay Maken, spent around Rs 16.61 crore out of Rs 20.96 crore allotted to him.

Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath, who represents North West Delhi, has spent Rs 5.66 crore out of Rs 9.99 crore funds allocated to her.

Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi and Jai Prakash Agarwal from North East Delhi have been able to perform comparatively better than their counterparts, but none of the MPs could manage to spend 100 per cent of the allotted amount.

Jai Prakash Agarwal has best spent the funds allocated to him under the MPLAD while his South Delhi counterpart Ramesh Kumar has barely utilised the money for development of his constituency.

While Agarwal, the former president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), has spent Rs 16.69 crore out of Rs 18.39 crore available with him, Mishra brought Rs 10.26 crore to use out of total Rs 13.31 crore.

Ramesh Kumar is the worst-performing MP when it comes to the utilisation of the MPLAD funds. He managed to spend only Rs 3.71 crore till date out of a total sum of Rs 10.32 crore.

The residents of the areas of Kumar's constituency allege that the basic infrastructure is in appalling conditions.

" The locality lacks parking lots, places for garbage to be dumped and proper urinals, and many stretches have missing lampposts," said Ashish Batra, a resident of Chhattarpur which is under Kumar's constituency.

New Delhi, March 23
BJP's Chandni Chowk candidate Dr Harsh Vardhan today visited Sainik Vihar, Sant Nagar, Venus Apartment, Rani Bagh, Apna Ghar Society and Risalpur Village in Shalimar Bagh.

He organized a 'chaupal' in Risalpur village. Senior party leaders Tilak Raj Kataria, Ashok Gupta, Shashi Jaitley and others accompanied Vardhan in the public contact programme. This campaign will continue.

During the contact programme, senior citizens blessed Vardhan and wished him victory. In the village, more than 100 people participated in the chaupal meeting.

While talking to the people at chaupal, Vardhan told them that during the Congress rule, only the corrupt enjoyed the power. Nobody listened to the common man during the last 15 years. The Chandni Chowk constituency has become a slum area. The sitting MP did nothing to develop it.

Talking to traders, Vardhan said he would lobby for the creation of a new central ministry for internal or domestic trade.

"If there can be a labour ministry or shipping ministry, why domestic trade is left out. This sector contributes more than 23 per cent of the GDP and is seeing an annual growth of more than 15 per cent. But traders face diverse problems thanks to inspector raj and government indifference. Besides, there is need to harmonize the rules and regulations of all the states so that nationwide movement of goods is speeded up and consumers benefit," Dr. Vardhan said.

New Delhi, March 23
The Delhi Congress leaders today said that they will take rounds of unauthorized colonies in the city to mobilize their support ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

After the assembly elections, all the development works in the unauthorized and regularized colonies have come to a standstill, said Delhi Congress leaders.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Arvinder Singh Lovely alleged that due to the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and the BJP-ruled Municipal Corporations' anti-people policies, development works in these colonies have come to a halt.

"Congress workers will meet residents of the unauthorized colonies in all 14 districts by going to their houses to listen to their problems," said Lovely while addressing all the district presidents at a meeting at the DPCC office.

"Not a single rupee was spent for the development of these colonies during the BJP rule. They said those who want to construct houses in unauthorized colonies have to bribe the officials in the BJP-ruled MCDs, and the share of such bribe also goes to the BJP leaders," said DPCC spokesperson Mukesh Sharma.

They said after the parliamentary elections, the Congress will start agitations against the BJP-ruled Municipal Corporations.

The DPCC also announced that a list of those who do commendable work during the Lok Sabha elections would be made, and their names would be considered for the Executive Committee, to be constituted before June 1.

New Delhi, March 23
Data Ram Baisla, an Aam Aadmi Party leader who had contested the Delhi Assembly Elections from Ghonda, today rejoined the BJP. He became member of the BJP in the presence of chairman of the Delhi BJP election committee, Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra.

Baisla had earlier fought an election in 1998 as the BJP candidate from Seelampur and has held prominent posts in the party organization at block and district levels.

Returning to the BJP cadre, Baisla said he could not have subscribed to the chaos in the AAP or its anti-national bias.

New Delhi, March 23
Tourists, foreign travellers and government or private schoolchildren, non-government organisations running schools for differently abled children can book coaches for Metro tours for anything between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), under its policy on reservation of car/train, allows tour operators, any government or private agency, or an individual on behalf of a group or school to book cars or trains from any station of the Metro network, including the Airport Express Line.

The booking tariff consists of fares for the number of passengers and facilitation charges toward offering special facilities to the group, consisting of not less than 45 passengers up to 150 passengers.

Only the coach of the longest train consisting of eight coaches can be booked for a group.

The DMRC does not charge facilitation charges from government schools and NGOs running schools for special children.

Some special facilities offered by the DMRC are viewing the Metro museum, textiles, handicraft exhibition at nominal charges, free parking facilities at the stations for the groups, welcome message or special announcement for the groups, besides presenting mementos to travellers. One member of the DMRC will also be present to guide them.

New Delhi, March 23
The implementation of a security plan for Aerocity, a commercial complex that has been a cause for concern of the security agencies due to its proximity to the Indira Gandhi International Airport runway and a hangar of the Research and Analysis Wing in Delhi, is moving at a slow pace, according to the Delhi Police.

Sources in the Delhi Police said that in the past five months, several reminders have been sent to the IGI Airport operator, DIAL, for the quick implementation of the security plan.

The Delhi Police are also ensuring that the hotels constructed at Aerocity are secure and implement the required security arrangements.

Securing Aerocity has been gaining importance in view of the expected increase in footfall at the complex, which will also have shopping malls.

"About 50,000 people are expected to visit Aerocity every day," said the sources.

The security plan was made in June last year and sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Civil Aviation and the two agencies responsible for the security of IGI Airport--the Central Industrial Security Force and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.

"But the implementation of the security plan is slow. The security installations meant to secure Aerocity have not been set up. For instance, there are no gated entry points with the readers of vehicle registration number plates and scanners. Besides, CCTV cameras have not yet been installed," explained the sources.

The only thing that is being presently installed as part of the plan is boundary fencing, which will be eight feet in height. The fencing will be positioned over a two-foot layer of bricks.

However, DIAL denies that there is any delay in the implementation of the security plan. It clarified that the CCTV plan for Aerocity has been finalized in consultation with the Delhi Police.

"The plan includes installation of hi-resolution cameras, licence-plate-recognition (LPR) system and a control room. Pre-works have already progressed to the final stages of completion. The works pertaining to the installation and commissioning of the CCTV and LPR system are expected to be concluded in the next few weeks," said a DIAL spokesperson.

When the security plan was conceived, it included the installation of about 100 CCTV cameras at Aerocity, according to the sources.

"The CCTV cameras will focus on the rooftops of the hotels. We will be able to see who is going there and if that person is carrying a suspicious object. A register will be maintained to record the names of the people who will go to the rooftops. The entrances to the rooftops have biometric systems and only certain people such as a security officer of a hotel can enter the rooftops," explained the spokesperson.

Another important requirement for the hotels is to have bulletproof windows for their rooms that face the IGI Airport runway.

Out of the 13 hotels at Aerocity, five have already been constructed. Four of them, RedFox, Lemon Tree, J W Marriott and Holiday Inn still need full security clearance from the police. The fifth hotel, IBIS, is yet to gain the initial security clearances.

"The four hotels have not received the full clearances, because they are working on the installation of bulletproof windows for their rooms facing the runway. We have asked J W Marriott for a clarification in regard to the bulletproof windows of its 200 rooms. Our concern is that no VIP or planes are targeted from such rooms," said the sources.