New Delhi Apr 24PTI The Delhi government will soon distribute 10000 DIYdo it yourself kits to promote urban farming announced in the annual budget 2022-23 officials said on Sunday Promoting urban farming was one of the 20 areas announced in the Kejriwal governments annual budget presented last month by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia The government has targeted creation of two million job opportunities in the next five years through initiatives including promotion of urban farming Through the urban farming promotion especially among women the government plans to provide 25000 job opportunities to people in Delhi The kits including summer and winter crop seeds biofertilisers manure and a leaflet on how to go about it will be provided by the Environment department officials said PTI VIT CK

New Delhi Feb 23PTI Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta on Wednesday said his party leaders and workers will get all the illegally opened liquor shops in the capital sealed including those near schools and temples During a protest at Haidarpur-Shalimar road Gupta got a liquor shop shut down there in the presence of party workers and locals Liquor shops have been opened everywhere including near schools and temples as well as residential colonies We will get all these illegally opened shops sealed Gupta asserted He hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party AAP government alleging it has failed to ensure supply of safe drinking water to Delhiites but opened liquor shops everywhere Under the new excise policy of the Delhi government implemented in November last year over 580 liquor shops have been opened by private firms The Excise department has allotted 849 licences for retail liquor sale to private parties through the tender process The Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled municipal corporations have sealed several liquor shops for alleged violations of Delhi Master Plan provisions The Excise department recently allowed licensees for shifting their shops if they fell in non-confirming areas in a ward to authorised commercial areas within a given zone The licences were issued by dividing the city into 32 zones PTI VIT CK

New Delhi Jan 24PTI App-based cab aggregators in the national capital will be able to impose surge price that will not be more than double of base fare during peak demand hours according to the draft of Motor Vehicle Aggregators Scheme 2021 issued by the Delhi government on Monday The aggregators will also be required to include electric vehicles in their fleets The cab aggregators currently exercise surge pricing on the rise of demand from commuters but there was no regulation of it by the Delhi government The draft scheme fixes surge pricing rate by keeping upper limit of it not more than double of the base fare to be fixed by the government All aggregators operating more than 50 vehicles in the NCT of Delhi would be required to take license for the same The applicant seeking issuance of license to operate as an aggregator will either be a company registered under the Companies Act 1956 or 2013 or a cooperative society registered under the Co-operative Societies Act 1912 formed by an association of drivers or motor vehicle owners or such other association or a limited liability partnership under the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2008 states the draft The applicant will have a registered office in India and they will comply with all the applicable provisions prescribed under the MV Act and the Information Technology Act 2000 including intermediary guidelines and all other laws of India as and rules as notified by the Delhi government The aggregators will ensure registration of all onboarded driver-partners and their vehicles currently in use within three months from the date of the notification of the scheme The scheme also lays emphasis on passenger safety stipulating that a round-the-clock functioning control room will be mandatory to have realtime location of cabs and swift action in complaints It says panic button will be compulsory and drivers having less than 35 rating must be imparted training by the aggregators The aggregators will also require to share details of their driver partners with Transport department of Delhi government The Delhi government has set a target to achieve a transition of 10 per cent of the new-onboarded two-wheelers and three-wheelers by aggregators to be electric within the first three months from the launch of the scheme and 50 per cent in the first year of the scheme Under the scheme the aggregators will also require to have 5 per cent electric vehicles within three months and 25 per cent in one year period PTI VIT CK

New Delhi Jan 24 PTI Amid demands of lifting weekend curfew and odd-even system of opening shops by traders as well as the AAP and the BJP Delhis apex COVID-19 management body DDMA will meet on Thursday to review the pandemic situation in the city The meeting of Delhi Disaster Management Authority DDMA to be chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal is scheduled at 1230 pm on January 27 Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also likely to attend the meeting that will discuss relaxations that may be allowed in view of improvement in COVID-19 situation in the city officials said According to an official source the government is also likely to take a call on reopening of schools from February depending on vaccination status of students by the end of this month The Delhi government on Friday had proposed lifting the weekend curfew and ending the odd-even scheme for opening shops in view of the pandemic situation but Lieutenant Governor Baijal suggested maintaining status quo on the restrictions till the situation improved further The LG office however had approved the governments proposal to allow private offices to function with 50 per cent staff strength official sources said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said the decision to ease the restrictions was taken in view of declining number of Covid cases in the city and also to ensure that livelihood of the public is not affectedNow since the cases are going down and it also seems that the peak has gone we want to ensure that the publics livelihood continues smoothly We have proposed to do away with weekend curfew and also with the odd-even arrangement of opening of shops in markets Sisodia had said Traders in many parts of the city have also been protesting against the restrictions and demanded the curbs be lifted including those imposed on shops selling non-essential items being permitted to open on alternate days based on odd-even system The weekend curfew is implemented at 10 pm on Friday and continues till Monday 5 amThe decision to impose weekend curfew was taken by the DDMA on January 1 due to rise in COVID-19 cases in the city The DDMA had also imposed other restrictions including closure of all private offices dealing with non-essential services A night curfew during weekdays is already in place from 10 pm to 5 am The number of fresh COVID cases went down to 5760 according the Health bulletin issued on Monday from the high of over 28000 a fortnight ago The positivity rate also came down to 1179 per centDelhi BJP president Adesh Gupta also recently wrote a letter to Baijal requesting him for lifting of weekend curfew and odd-even shop opening scheme besides allowing restaurants and gyms to run with 50 per cent capacity PTI VIT CK

New Delhi Jan 24PTI The Delhi government under its new excise policy has reduced the number of dry days to just three from 21 last year according to an official order issued on Monday The licensed liquor shops and opium vends will remain closed on Republic Day January 26 Independence Day August 15 and Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 the order issued by the Excise department of the Delhi government stated In pursuance of the provisions of Rule 52 of Delhi Excise Rules 2010 it is hereby ordered that the following dates shall be observed as Dry Day in the National Capital Territory of Delhi by all the licensees of the Excise department and opium vends located in Delhi for the year 2022 it stated listing Republic Day Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti as the days when the sale of alcohol will not be permitted The restriction on sale of liquor on dry days will not apply to the service of alcohol to occupants in case of hotels having L-15 license said the order Earlier the dry days numbered 21 including on birth anniversary of great leaders and religious festivalsThe business premises of a licensee will be kept closed on dry day The order said that apart from the above three dry days the government may declare any other day in the year as Dry Day from time to time The licensees will not be entitled to any compensation on account of any changes related to number of dry days All the licensees will exhibit the dry day order at some conspicuous place of their licensed premises it said PTI VIT CK

New Delhi Dec 28PTI Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will discuss the existing COVID-19 situation with top officials at a high-level meeting on Tuesday during which a decision is also likely to be taken on implementing the Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi officials sources said The chief minister will chair the meeting at 12 noon It will discuss the rising number of COVID-19 cases and threat posed by its new variant Omicron Besides the meeting may decide on sounding the Yellow alert and restrictions according to the GRAP according to the sources The yellow alert is sounded when Covid positivity rate stays over 05 per cent on two consecutive days It involves restrictions like night curfew closure of schools and colleges alternate day opening of shops of non-essential items and halved seating capacity in Metro trains and public transport buses among others Delhi on Monday recorded 331 fresh COVID-19 cases the highest single-day rise since June 9 and one death while the positivity rate mounted to 068 per cent according to data shared by the city health department On Sunday Delhi recorded 290 cases with a positivity rate of 055 per cent and one fatality according to officials figures In view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases the Delhi Disaster Management Authority DDMA has already imposed night curfew that will remain in force in the city from 11 pm to 5 am till further orders PTI VIT CK

New Delhi Nov 20PTI Amid deteriorated air quality in the city the Delhi Transport department has intensified the enforcement drive to penalise the vehicle owners without a valid PUC certificate issuing nearly 3500 challans worth over Rs 35 crore from November 1-17 In October the enforcement wing teams of the department checked 825681 vehicles and issued 9522 challans worth more than Rs 95 crore Also over 8 lakh Pollution Under Control PUC certificates were issued in the month official data showed In accordance with the Motor Vehicle Act 1993 vehicle owners who fail to get a valid PUCC are liable to be challaned under Section 1902 leading to imprisonment of up to six months or fine up to Rs 10000 or both The driver could also lose their driving licence for three months According to official figures of the Transport department there were nearly 1771 lakh vehicles running without valid PUC in the city by mid October There are total 134 crore registered vehicles in Delhi Most of the vehicles without PUC certificate included two-wheelers13 lakh approx while 420 lakh four-wheelers were without the valid certificate according to the Transport department database The enforcement teams issued 3446 challans for non-compliance of valid PUC of vehicles till November 17 More than 334 lakh PUC certificates were also issued during this period in November figures showed We have deployed more than 50 teams at vantage points like fuel stations and identified crossings Both enforcement and awareness work is being done by the teams to enhance PUC compliance said a senior Transport officer The drive was started last month with Delhis air quality getting affected with various local and external factors like burning of paddy straw in neighbouring states There are nearly 1000 authorised PUC centres in the city that issued 544 lakh certificates in September The number has increased significantly with the Transport department starting its drive against pollution causing vehicles Around 10000 PUCC were issued daily in August and the number started rising with the talk of poor air quality starting in September officials said According to the department database the daily average of PUCC issuance rose to around 20000 from mid September The drive started by the Transport department further increased the number to around 38000 per day from second week of October It is currently over 30000 per day The department is also taking action against old petrol and diesel vehicles that have completed their stipulated working age Around 50 such vehicles -- petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel ones older than 10 years -- have been impounded so far in November PTI VIT CK