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Delhiites woke up to a chilly morning on Friday as the city received overnight rains with the minimum temperature recorded at 17 degrees.

However, the light rains had no impact on the flight operations at the city airports.

The visibility range was recorded at 1400 meters, according to airport officials.

While the maximum temperature hovered around 22.4 degree Celsius, the minimum recorded at 17 degree Celsius was up by two degrees from yesterday’s low.

Met officials have predicted generally cloudy sky with the possibility of thunder showers in some parts of the city.

The maximum is likely to rise to 25 degree Celsius while the minimum will slip to 16 degree Celsius.

A BJP-sponsored bandh to protest hike in bus fares and skyrocketing prices of essential commodities had partial impact in the city today with only some markets remaining closed and traffic plying normally.

Schools, government offices and other institutions functioned normally.

Braving chilly weather, BJP workers led by their leaders staged demonstrations in various parts of the capital, holding placards and raising slogans against the city government for “failing” to curb inflation and increasing bus and metro fares.

Markets in BJP dominated areas such as Greater Kailash, Vikas Marg, Lakshmi Nagar and Chandni Chowk were closed as BJP workers carried out protest rallies amid tight security deployed by the Delhi police to avoid any untoward incident.

“The bandh has been called to protest anti-government policies. Bus fares have surged to such an extent that people do not prefer travelling in the buses at all. Similarly food prices have hit the roof. How will a common man survive?,” senior BJP leader VK Malhotra said.

Praveen Khandelwal, General Secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which is supporting the bandh, said transport and essential services were kept outside the purview of the bandh so that people do not face any inconvenience.

After DTC, Delhi Metro Hikes Fares, Almost a week after DTC hiked the fares of its bus service, Delhi Metro Wednesday announced an increase in fares, burning a hole in the commuters’ pockets.

Delhi Metro’s increased fares would come into effect Friday.

The minimum fare (0-2 km) was increased from Rs.6 to Rs.8, while the maximum fare (over 39 km) was increased from Rs.22 to Rs.30, theDelhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) announced. The rest of the slabs will also increase accordingly.

The move comes after Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) increased its bus fares last week, irking commuters.

On an average, over 850,000 people commute daily by Delhi Metro.

New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Thursday said allotment of nearly 5,000 flats under its 2008 housing scheme would start in November as the final report into a multi-million rupee housing scam has given it a clean chit.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police, in its report, cleared that the software used for the draw of lots was not rigged and it also ruled out any connivance of its serving employees.

Over 500,000 people applied for 5,238 flats under the DDA’s housing scheme 2008. But the scheme got mired in controversies amid allegations of fake applications. The scam came to light earlier this year after a man who was allotted a flat in the draw of lots told the police that he had not even applied for it.

The EOW started investigations, which revealed a group of people conspired to buy several flats in the names of those from reserved categories – the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes – who were eligible for the flats but could not afford them. The conspirators meant to sell off these flats at huge profit.

The DDA has now received the EOW’s report, which comprises investigations by EOW, software report from the Government Examiner on Questionable Documents (GEQD0), Hyderabad, and a report from Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Thiruvananthapuram.

“The report does not indicate any connivance or favouritism by any DDA serving officers or those connected with the draw. The allotment process will now start in November,” said DDA spokesperson Neemo Dhar.

“C-DAC, after analysing all the hard disks of computers used in DDA draw, DDA server, software, has not found any evidence of rigging of software,” said an official DDA statement.

“The report also states that from an analysis of the source code, the experts could not find any evidence to indicate that the software shows any type of bias towards any specific applicant or applicants,” the report given to EOW said.

Said Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat: “The technical report of C-DAC on the software used in the DDA draw was received and the technical experts have opined that they could not find any external tempering in the software. However, apart from the software matter, other aspects of the investigation will continue till the case is finalised.”

“As per the report of the EOW, there are nine accused persons who had fraudulently got a large number of DDA forms filled in by inducing poor and illiterate persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes with a view to corner maximum flats in bargain and caused wrongful gain for themselves. Out of the total 5,238 successful DDA applicants, only 1.37 percent, that is 72 successful candidates, fall in the purview of such investigations and are connected with these persons,” the DDA statement added.

“The persons who fall within the purview of the investigation as mentioned above, will not be issued any allotment letter till the investigating agency clears these cases,” it added.

The EOW has arrested nine people, including Deepak Kumar, who allegedly blew the lid off the scam after he fell out with some fellow real estate agents, retired DDA employee M.L. Gautam, and real estate agents Raju Ram, Laxmi Narayan Meena and Vijay Pal.

New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) Six swine flu deaths, including five in Karnataka alone, were recorded Thursday, taking the total toll due to the Influenza A (H1N1) virus to 463 in India, health authorities said here.

Apart from the five deaths in Karnataka, one death was also recorded in Maharashtra.

With the five deaths, the total number of people who have died due to the contagious virus in Karnataka has climbed up to 117.

However, Maharashtra continues to top the list of states that record the highest number of deaths in the country since the first one was recorded Aug 3. With the one death, the toll has now risen to 197 in the state, where over 3600 people have been affected with the flu.

Also, the country reported 75 new cases, taking the number of people affected with the flu to 13,722.

“Till date, samples from 72,483 people have been tested for Influenza A (H1N1) in government laboratories and a few private laboratories across the country, and 13,722 of them have been found positive,” said a statement issued here.

Of the 75 new cases, Kerala recorded 27 cases alone.

New cases were also recorded from Delhi (11), Maharashtra (10), Karnataka (9), Tamil Nadu(8) and Haryana (1).

London, Oct 29 (IANS) Indian Sports Minister M.S. Gill said Thursday he has assured the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) that India is ready to host “good Games” in 2010 and the entire country is behind the efforts.

“I told them that we are ready for a good Games,” Gill told journalists after meeting CGF head Michael Fennell in London Thursday.

Gill indicated that all issues, including Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi’s objections over a monitoring committee for the 2010 Games, had been resolved. Gill would not say if he met with CGF CEO Mike Hooper, who is also said to be in London.

“The Indian people and government are clearly focussed that we want a very good Games.

“The mood of the country, the prime minister (Manmohan Singh) and the entire cabinet is that we will do whatever is necessary to make the Games a success. That is the message from the prime minister,” Gill said.

The minister refused to divulge the deadlines for the completion of projects, but said he had the dates with him.

“This is not the end of the world. There is no fight happening,” Gill added.

Fennell told IANS that talks will continue over the next few days. Follow-up talks will take place when the Games Coordination Committee visits New Delhi Dec 18.

Earlier this month, Kalmadi ruffled feathers by calling for Hooper to be sacked, claiming that he was “useless” and “an impediment” to the smooth functioning of the organising committee.

However, Hooper has received the strong backing of Fennell, who said recently, “Instead of attacking Hooper, I urge the organising committee to focus on the issues raised by us in Delhi (during the CGF delegation’s visit).”

Fennell and Kalmadi have already held talks in London Wednesday. They met for a second round Thursday following the launch of the Queen’s Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace, which officially raises the curtain on the Commonwealth Games.

London, Oct 29 (IANS) The Queen’s Baton was handed over to India’s President Pratibha Patil by Queen Elizabeth II in a glittering ceremony at the Buckingham Palace here Thursday.

Patil then passed on the Baton to India’s sports minister M.S. Gill, who handed it over to Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organising committee of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Kalmadi then handed over the baton to the first baton-bearer Abhinav Bindra, India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist.

The other baton-bearers were Sebastian Coe, Kapil Dev, Sania Mirza, Mikha Singh, Kelly Holmes, Monty Panesar, Vijender Kumar, Misha Grewal, Sushil Kumar, Susan Gilroy, Karnam Malleshwari, Dilip Tirkey and Gurbachan Singh Randhawa.

The Baton will now traverse the length and breadth of the Commonwealth for 240 days, visiting all of the other 70 nations, before embarking upon a 100 day tour of India.

The Baton will have travelled for 340 days and covered in excess of 190,000 kilometres, on many different modes of transport – from bicycle and boat to hot air balloon, steam train and even on an elephant, conveying the Queen’s message to its final destination Delhi.

New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) A Delhi-based advocate Thursday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi government’s decision to hike bus fares, terming it “unjustified”.

Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma filed his lawsuit in the apex court registry, contending that “the government decision is unjustified and adds unbearably to the living costs of the poor in Delhi”.

Sharma told IANS that he would apprise the apex court bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Friday of his lawsuit and seek its urgent hearing.

In his lawsuit, Sharma has pointed out to the court that the government has decided to raise the DTC fares on the ground that the public transport body had been incurring massive losses and it also needed Rs.450 crore as capital to buy more low-floor buses.

Sharma refuted the government’s rationale for raising the fares, saying that DTC was suffering losses not because of its low fares but due to the underutilization of its manpower and resources.

He said the DTC suffers from paucity of trained drivers, resulting in 40 percent underutilization of its buses which remain idle in bus deports.

Sharma’s lawsuit said despite lacking required number of trained drivers, the public bus service has superfluous staff who are left idling with no work to do.

“Hampered by shortage of qualified drivers – to the tune of 1,400, around as many buses, numbering 40 percent of the total buses, remain parked and idle during peak evening hours in various depots, adding to the woes of the commuters,” said the lawsuit.

Sharma said the state-run transport service firm has 27,818 employees, of which 2,000 are conductors, 1,147 maintenance workers and 141 administrative staff remain idle at their places of posting.

A Pakistani diplomat, Mohabat Khan Afridi, died of an electric shock in Delhi at his Vasant Vihar residence. Officials said that Afridi was taken to the nearby Fortis Hospital where he was declared dead.

Afridi’s body was flown to Pakistan last night and the burial will take place in his hometown today. Afridi was a resident of Kohat in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. He was the political counsellor at the Pakistan High Commission for the past two-and-half years.

Pakistan High Commission officials are said to be in a state of shock over the incident

Gurgaon: MTS has launched its services in Delhi NCR presenting to Delhi subscribers the innovative tariff plan Power of One with per second billing and announced availability of MTS mobile high speed data services in Delhi in October.

For the first time in the Delhi mobile telecom market MTS has made available for NCR customers the innovative tariff plan Power of One with full talk-time for life, plus 1-second billing, and local calls at just 1 paisa per second.

Within the plan STD calls will be charged at 2 paisa per second. Full talk-time will be available on MTalk, on all recharges including even mini-recharges of Rs.10/- and Rs.20/-.

Moreover, customers can also choose to get 50% off on local calls, 50% off on STD calls, and 100 SMSes every day, at nominal Msaver rentals of just Rs.1 per day for each

MTS has the biggest services network in Delhi NCR for specially designed for high-speed data which includes over 600 BTS. MTS mobile high speed data services, called MBlaze, will become available for MTS Delhi subscribers in October this year.

Mr Sanjay Bahl, Chief Operating officer of MTS India, Delhi and NCR, added “MTS provides subscribers with unparallel voice clarity, unmatched high speed data services and a bouquet of innovative VAS services.”

He said further, “Besides the innovative tariff plan Power of One which, on an average, adds 25% to the value of your recharge compared to per minute plans, we have prepared a special promotion offer for the Delhi launch called Minute Millionaires.

Further he said We offer 10, 000, 00 minutes of talk time free through the M Card. MTS products are available at 16000 retail outlets across Delhi NCR, and the number of outlets will increase substantially by year end”.