Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced that his government will launch hotspots providing free Wi-Fi across Delhi on December 16.

Providing free Wi-Fi to all was one of the key poll promises of the 70-point manifesto released by the Aam Aadmi Party during the 2015 Assembly elections.

“With this our last promise of AAP’s manifesto has also been fulfilled,” Kejriwal said at a press conference on Wednesday. The announcement comes ahead of the Assembly polls in Delhi scheduled for early next year.

Kejriwal said the first 100 hotspots will be launched on December 16 following which 300 more will be added every week.

In the first phase as many as 11,000 hotspots will be created in the coming six months. Out of this, 4,000 will be created at bus stops and the remaining 7,000 at markets and colonies, he said.

Of the 7,000, each of the 70 constituencies will have 100 such spots. The budget of the project is around Rs 98 crore.

Kejriwal also said once the 11,000 hotspots are created, people will get free internet access in every half a kilometre across the national capital.

“Every day each user will get up to 1.5 GB data and the monthly limit will be 15 GB. The average speed will range from 100-150 Mbps with congested areas having internet speed of up to 200 Mbps,” he said.

Kejriwal said the project is being undertaken under “rent model” wherein the private company will be paid per hotspot on a monthly basis by the government.

“Like free water and power, the Delhi government feels that today in the age of technology, people should also be entitled to access to basic internet facilities. This project fulfils that,” he said.

The chief minister also said that the government is planning to link all its CCTVs with the Wi-Fi system in the future. Hindustan Times had reported about this on July 1 this year.

The AAP, which came to power by winning 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi assembly, was unable to begin its flagship project in the first four years of its tenure.

In 2016, the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi was in charge of the Wi-Fi project and had launched a pilot run in north Delhi’s Sant Nagar. The pilot failed and the scheme was then transferred to the government’s Information Technology, which failed to prepare a project report.

In March 2018, the Delhi government shifted the project to the Public Works Department (PWD). By January 2019, the department had shortlisted three possible models.

Taking inspiration from the ongoing protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University, dozens of students at Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) on Tuesday protested against the present fee-structure of the institution and threatened to not pay the fee for second semester if their demands were not met.

Hrishikesh Sharma, a student of Radio and Television journalism which has the highest fee structure, said “We are demanding affordable fee-structure and availability of hostels for everyone. As of now, only 42 students can avail hostel facilities in the boys’ hostel and the rest have to stay out of campus which is expensive.”

When questioned on why the students were protesting now, Hrishikesh said, “We joined the institute as nobodys. Since we are here now, we can protest and demand a concession in the fee. You can say we have been influenced by what is happening in JNU,” he added.

Students burned the fee notification circular for the second semester which states which states that students of Radio and TV journalism have to pay Rs 80,000 of the total fee of Rs 1,68,500. The fee for Radio and TV was Rs 1,45,000 last year and Rs. 1,32,000 before that. There have been similar fee hikes for other streams as well.

The administration met with the students on Tuesday and assured them of looking into their students’ demands. A senior official of the institute said, “Administration has not turned a blind eye to their demands. DG has met students twice and assured that their demands will be looked at. We have also set up a Committee of Course Directors to look into the genuine demands.

Besides, we have skill-oriented PG diploma courses which are akin to ‘self-finance courses’ offered under the collegiate system, where the course fee is normally much higher than the regular courses.”

“When it comes to spending such a huge amount of money on education between a girl and a boy, an economically weaker household will always prefer spending it on a boy. If the fee is reduced, even girls from poorer households can study here”, said Aakash Pandey, a student of Hindi Journalism.

Shivam Bhardwaj, another student of Hindi Journalism said that the institution’s policy of raising the fee by ten percent every year is unfair to the students belonging to the economically weaker section of the society.

(The reporter is an intern with Hindustan Times)

A 62-year-old doctor shot dead a 55-year-old woman in a car in Delhi’s Rohini area before using the licensed revolver to shoot himself, police said after finding two dead bodies in a white Volkswagen Vento car on Wednesday morning.

SD Mishra, deputy commissioner of police (Rohini), identified the dead doctor as a general physician of a hospital in Rohini and the woman he allegedly shot dead as the managing director (MD) of a nursing home associated with the same hospital.

“The doctor and the MD were in a relationship. The woman wanted the doctor to marry him. That demand led to the murder and suicide,” the DCP said based on the initial probe.

While the police are yet to verify the family background of the woman, the doctor was a married man with two children, said the DCP. His son is a doctor in another state while his daughter is a doctor in another part of the city, the DCP added.

The bodies were found by a passerby around 7.45 am on an isolated stretch of a road in Rohini Sector 13, the DCP said. “The car’s ignition was on and the doors were locked from inside. We had to break open a window to gain access to the bodies,” said the DCP.

The woman was shot in her chest while the doctor had shot himself in his head, the officer said.

The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) will be go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday in support of their demand that a circular mandating appointment of guest teachers be withdrawn.

The strike might affect the ongoing examinations in the varsity as the DUTA has urged all teachers to stay away from exam duties.

The decision to go on strike has been made on the basis of August 28 DU circular which mandates that only appointment of guest teachers can be made against substantive vacancies arising for the first time in the current academic session.

The DUTA also wrote letters to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the HRD Ministry on Tuesday to intervene immediately to end the crisis which has emerged due to a letter issued by the university.

The DUTA criticised the vice-chancellor for not taking any concrete steps to resolve the crisis in the university.

It urged the teachers to stay away from invigilation, evaluation and any other official duties.

“Superintendents and Deputy Superintendents are urged to tender resignations and relieve themselves from all duties related to the conduct of the examinations. Similarly, CEC coordinators/incharges should tender their resignations,” the DUTA said.

Colleagues are, however, requested not to stop students from taking exams, it added.

The DUTA said it will organise a massive protest and gherao the vice-chancellor.

It also urged staff associations to ensure that teachers stay away from invigilation duties.

“DUTA teams along with staff associations will ensure evaluation Boycott. DUTA teams will also meet principals of colleges who have kept renewal of ad-hoc teachers’ tenure in abeyance and have not released salaries,” it said.

A group of Rajya Sabha MPs is looking into the issue of regulating access of children to pornography on the Internet and it has decided to hold deliberations with law enforcement agencies, TRAI and social media giants such as WhatsApp and Facebook, sources said on Tuesday.

The informal group includes 14 MPs from 10 parties and it was formed by the Upper House Chairman Venkaiah Naidu. On November 28, Naidu had asked Congress MP Jairam Ramesh to form a committee comprising lawmakers from across party lines to suggest concrete steps to curb pornography on social media and other Internet platforms which is adversely affecting children.

Naidu’s suggestion came after the AIADMK MP Vijila Sathyananth raised the issue in the House.

The MPs got into action quickly and conducted its first meeting on Monday and held preliminary discussion on the subject, a source said.

The group decided that it will consult civil society groups, experts, parents, government agencies like Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and law enforcement agencies on this sensitive issue.

It will also hold deliberations with telecom regulator TRAI, National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and social media companies such as Bytedance (TikTok), WhatsApp, Google, Facebook, Sharechat and Microsoft, the source added.

The group noted that the Internet offers significant developmental and educational benefits for children but the growing access to it and social media leads to increased exposure to unsafe content like pornography and potential risks of online harassment, abuse and exploitation. The MPs who are a part of this group are Vinay P Shasrabuddhe, Rajeev Chandrashekar Roopa Ganguly, Jairam Ramesh, MV Rajeev Gauda, Amee Yajnik, Derek O’Brien, Tiruchi Siva, Vijila Sathyanath, Jaya Bachchan, Vandana Chavan, Amar Patnaik, Kahkashan Perween and Sanjay Singh.