Delhi, Mumbai, City News: Students Detained for Ruckus Outside Jamia Millia Islamia Over BBC Documentary

Delhi logged the season’s best air quality on Wednesday, with favourable wind speed dispersing pollutants.

The 24-hour average air quality index settled at 160 at 4 pm, the best after the AQI of 154 recorded on October 14 last year.  An AQI between 201 and 300 is considered “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”.

This was the first moderate air quality day in January this year.

Delhi did not record any good, satisfactory or moderate air quality day in November. It, however, saw three moderate air quality days in December. (PTI)

Two persons, including a 62-year-old man, were arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch on Wednesday for allegedly making fake passports and visas and issuing bogus COVID test reports, an official said. The police are on the lookout for the third member of the gang, he said.

The trio operated from a flat in suburban Andheri. The Crime Branch raided the apartment and seized 28 duplicate passports, 24 bogus visas of different countries and several fake COVID test certificates, said the official.

Fake immigration rubber stamps of many countries were found in the flat, he said.

The police have learnt that the trio was charging lakhs to make fake passports and visas. They suspect the gang has already sent many people out of India with the help of the fake documents made by it. (PTI)

A day after no new COVID-19 case was reported in Mumbai, the city logged one fresh infection on Wednesday, taking the overall tally to 11,55,241, while the death toll remained unchanged at 19,747, said the city civic body.

For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, the city had reported zero COVID-19 case on Tuesday.

The number of recoveries reached 11,35,471 after one more patient recuperated from the illness, leaving with metropolis with 23 active COVID-19 cases, said a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation bulletin.

The city’s coronavirus recovery rate stood at 98.3 per cent, while the case doubling rate improved to 2,87,314 days.

As many as 2,606 swab samples were examined since the previous day, taking the tally of tests conducted so far in the city to 1,86,98,786, said the bulletin.

The growth rate of COVID-19 cases between January 18 and 24 was 0.0002 per cent, it added. (PTI)

Overcast conditions are predicted in Delhi on Republic Day and moderate fog is expected to lower visibility levels to 200 metres.

The maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to settle around 9 degrees Celsius and 19 degrees Celsius, respectively, the India Meteorological Department said.

“Moderate fog is likely in the city on Thursday morning. Cloudy conditions will prevail during the day,” an official said.

According to the weather office, ‘very dense’ fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, 51 and 200 metres is ‘dense’, 201 and 500 metres ‘moderate’, and 501 and 1,000 metres ‘shallow’.

Delhi witnessed overcast skies and logged a minimum temperature of 10.6 degrees Celsius, five notches above normal, on Wednesday.

The maximum temperature settled at 19.3 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal.

The Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi’s primary weather station, had logged a minimum temperature of 12.3 degrees Celsius, the highest this month so far, on Tuesday.

The maximum temperature had settled at 21.6 degrees Celsius.

The city had recorded a maximum temperature of 25.9 degrees Celsius on Monday — the highest in the month in four years — according to the weather department.

Clouds trap heat that gets through during the day, keeping night-time temperatures above normal.

However, cloudy weather reduces daytime temperatures by preventing exposure to the sun.

Delhi is likely to see cloudy skies for the next four to five days.

A fresh western disturbance may lead to light rainfall on January 29, it said.   Delhi has not recorded any rainfall this winter season so far. The Met department attributed it to the lack of strong western disturbances in November and December.

Last year, the city had recorded 82.2 mm rainfall in January, the highest in the month since 1901.  The capital logged eight cold wave days in January this year, the most in the month in 15 years. It saw seven cold wave days in January 2020 while it did not record any such day last year.

The city recorded two intense coldwave spells — from January 16 to January 18 and January 5 to 9, according to IMD data.

It, however, did not record any cold days.  Delhi has also logged over 50 hours of dense fog this month so far, the highest since 2019. (PTI)

The Delhi government will give an ex-gratia of Rs 1 crore each to the kin of eight police and armed forces personnel who died in the line of duty, including an Army co-pilot whose body was found after 75 days following a chopper crash, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Wednesday. Dwarka-resident Jayant Joshi was a co-pilot of an Army helicopter that crashed and sank into Ranjit Sagar Dam in August 2021.

A 3-year-old girl was raped and murdered in Maharashtra’s Thane district, the police on Wednesday.

The child was playing outside her home in Bhiwandi on Tuesday afternoon when she went missing, prompting her parents to file a police complaint.

The Shanti Nagar police launched a search and found her body in a flat on the first floor of a dilapidated building in the area, said the official.

The body was first sent to a local government hospital and then to the state-run JJ hospital in Mumbai for a post-mortem, said the official.

“We have registered a case of kidnapping, rape and murder under the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act,” said Inspector S A Indalkar of Shanti Nagar police station.

Nobody has been arrested yet, he said. (PTI)

Ahead of the G20 Summit in September this year, the Delhi government has demanded that the Centre give funds to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to carry out works as part of preparations, PTI reported.

Adani Group-owned Mumbai Airport has said it is looking to deploy more than 100 electric vehicles at the facility by FY24 to reduce its carbon footprint and promote sustainable transportation.

As part of the plan, the airport operator on Wednesday rolled out 45 EVs at the facility, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said in a statement.

The private airport operator also said it intends to replace all its ICE-powered vehicles with EVs as part of its Operational Net Zero mission by 2029.

In addition to the 45 EVs being introduced in January, the airport is also exploring the deployment of 60 more EVs in the next fiscal year, including ambulances, forward command posts, security and airside operations and maintenance utility vehicles, it said. (PTI)

The most romantic month of the year—February—is still a week away but it seems like some love birds can’t keep their hands off each other in public. Days after a couple in Lucknow was spotted hugging face to face on a moving two-wheeler, another video surfaced showing a man romancing a girl by opening the sunroof of the car in ‘The City of Nawabs’.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said with the inauguration of the Sohna-Dausa stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway by the end of this month, travel time between Delhi and Jaipur would come down to around two hours.

Gadkari further said that before the end of 2024, road infrastructure in India will be equal to 2024 .

“Issi mahine ke andar aap Delhi se Jaipur do ghante me pahunch jayenge ( of this month, Delhi to Jaipur drive will take only two hours,” the road transport and highways minister said at an event here.

He did not provide any further details. The distance between Delhi and Jaipur is around 270 km. (PTI)

Delhi Police have seized 626 bottles of illicit liquor which were slated to be smuggled to Bihar, an official said on Wednesday.

Police said that 626 bottles of illicit liquor, manufactured in Haryana and kept in 25 plastic drums covered with wood sawdust, were seized from Shri Sai Transport Company in SGT Nagar area.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Outer North, Devesh Kumar Mahla, on January 23, two rickshaw-pullers brought the plastic drums to the transport company in SGT Nagar and gave two bills on behalf of Shiv Trading Company, Geeta Colony, for conveying to Aditya Enterprises in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, IANS reported.

Fans of Bollywood star actor Shah Rukh Khan participate in a procession to celebrate the release of his movie

‘Pathaan’, in Kolkata today.

Four students have been detained for allegedly creating a ruckus outside Jamia Milia Islamia University over the screening of the BBC documentary today, Delhi Police said.

As many as 147 candidates have suffered injuries during physical tests held as part of the ongoing recruitment drive of the Mumbai Fire Brigade, the city civic body said. READ MORE

Amid traffic restrictions and security arrangements in view of the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi on Thursday, metro operations will also be affected. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said that various metros will remain closed during the parade, as per reports. READ MORE

Invitees to the 74th Republic Day celebrations at Kartavya Path and those possessing digital tickets for seats at the venue will be able to avail “free metro ride” to two stations near Raisina Hill, and Mandi House station on January 26, officials said on Monday.

Bodies of seven members of a family have been fished out from Bhima river in Pune’s Daund, police said on Wednesday, adding that four bodies were recovered between January 18 and 21 and the other three were pulled out today. READ MORE

Two people were reportedly found dead during rescue operation that is underway in Lucknow’s posh Hazratganj area after a four-storey residential building collapsed on Tuesday. UP Director General of Police DS Chauhan on Wednesday said that so far 15 people have been rescued, including an elderly woman. READ MORE

Morning shows of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer “Pathaan” were cancelled at some theatres in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore city on the day of the film’s release on Wednesday following protests by right-wing organisations.

Former Congress spokesperson Zishan Haider’s mother died on Wednesday, a day after a building collapsed in Lucknow’s Hazratganj area. It is the first death in incident. A senior official, earlier on Wednesday, said that so far to 15 have been rescued and at least two more are still feared trapped.