Delhi

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeted the BJP-led government Monday over the Rs 41,167-crore loss suffered by banks during the past year, saying the money given to "best friends" could have been used for running the MGNREGA for one full year, waiving farm loans in three states and opening 40 new AIIMS in the country.

"In the guise of 'chowkidaar', they do the work of thieves. Rs 41,167 crore given in the name of best friends.

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) The Delhi government on Monday ordered the concerned district magistrate to take over a private shelter home for girls in Dwarka where the inmates were allegedly abused by its staff.

The abuse came to light after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) conducted an inspection at the shelter home and some girls complained that the female staff put chilli powder in their private parts as punishment. The girls also claimed that they were also forced to have chilli powder.

New Delhi, Dec 30; PTI:  The central government has not given "blanket power" to any agency to intercept information from any computer and they have to strictly adhere to the existing rules and stick to the book while carrying out such action, a senior Home Ministry official said.

There is no new law, no new rules, no new procedure, no new agency, no blanket powers, no blanket authorisation and it is the same law, same rule, same procedure and the same agencies, he said.

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) Cold conditions prevailed in the national capital on Sunday with the minimum temperature settling at 3 degrees Celsius, four notches below the season's average, the MeT department said.

The maximum temperature settled at 22.9 degree Celsius, two notches above the season's average, an official of the Meteorological (MeT) department said.

The humidity oscillated between 34 and 100 per cent.

Delhi has been reeling under a cold wave for the past few days.

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) A 32-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times allegedly by her husband after he suspected her of having an illicit affair in northeast Delhi's Sonia Vihar, police said Sunday.

The incident took place Saturday morning, they said.

The woman suffered multiple injuries to the chest and in the abdomen, police said.

New Delhi, Dec 27 (PTI) A Delhi court on Thursday allowed 12-day custodial interrogation by NIA of 10 people arrested on the suspicion of being members of an ISIS-inspired group who were allegedly planning suicide attacks and serial blasts, targeting politicians as also government installations, in Delhi and other parts of north India.

NIA had sought 15-day custodial interrogation of the arrested, saying it needed to unearth the entire conspiracy for which there were intelligence inputs.

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) The government plans to rope in professionals for top positions at Air India through a global search process, as part of efforts to revive the national carrier, according to Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu.

With the proposed strategic stake sale of the Air India failing to take off in May this year, the government has been working on various initiatives, including hiving off a significant chunk of over Rs 55,000 crore debt into a special purpose vehicle, to turn-around the ailing airline.

New Delhi, Dec 29 (PTI) Four women employees of a shelter home in Delhi, where girls were allegedly abused by its staff, were arrested on Saturday, police said.

During an inspection of the private shelter home in Dwarka on Thursday, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) found that girls were severely punished by the staff for not following rules. Some teenage girls alleged that the female staff put chilli powder in their private parts as punishment. They were also forced to have chilli powder, the DCW had said.

AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said that the Congress party will not let the passage of the triple talaq bill in its present form in the Rajya Sabha.

According the PTI report, the bill will be moved by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

New Delhi, Dec 27 (PTI) Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar is likely to surrender before a court here on December 31 to serve the life imprisonment awarded to him by the Delhi High Court in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

"We will comply with the high court's judgment," his counsel Anil Kumar Sharma told PTI.

The counsel said Kumar's appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the high court verdict is not likely to be taken up for hearing before December 31.