News Digest: No Law To Scrap 15-Yr-Old Diesel Vehicles

Here are some headlines from the leading newspapers:

1. No law to scrap 15-yr-old diesel vehicles: Centre

There's nothing in the law on scrapping diesel vehicles more than 15 years old, the ministry of heavy industries says. It has filed an affidavit before National Green Tribunal (NGT) to this effect, adding that the “forcible scrapping“ of such vehicles may lead to “innumerable writ petitions by affected owners“ in the courts, reports The Times oF India.

The Union ministry was responding to a recent NGT order in the Vardhaman Kaushik case, highlighting Delhi's severe air pollution.

2. AAP blames Haryana’s ‘poor’ drainage network for chaos

Countering allegations of “lack of cooperation” made by the Haryana government and its police, the AAP government on Friday blamed them for poor planning of their drainage networks, which it claimed has led to severe waterlogging in Gurgaon, reports The Hindu.

While Gurgaon Commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk alleged that the Delhi administration “closed the gates” of the Najafgarh drain leading its drains to overflow into the roads, the Delhi Flood and Irrigation department denied of having done anything of that sort.

Explaining his stand from Delhi’s perspective, chief engineer in the department V.K. Jain said: “The Najafgarh drain has a capacity of 8,000 cusecs, whereas, Gurgaon after the rains has around 300 cusecs of drainage water. The amount generated by the entire city is too small for the massive drain to even reach the warning level. Hence, there is no reason for Delhi to shut the gates of the drain as it hardly affects it”.

3. Wet weekend awaits capital

There are more showers in store for rain soaked Delhi and NCR in the next three-four days. But there could be some relief for commuters as the Met office predicts a slight reduction in intensity of rainfall during this period, reports Times Of India.

Rain activity peaked on Friday , with Indira Gandhi International airport recording 63.4 mm--around 10% of total rainfall it gets in the four monsoon months-in a span of two hours, 10.15am to 12.15pm. Although Delhi's main weather station, Safdarjung, recorded just 10.5mm, much heavier rain was seen in places such as Ayanagar (41.4mm), Jafarpur (49.9) and elsewhere.

4. Road Ministry Wants Uber, Ola to Ply on Meter Gauge

Uber and Ola have been asked by the government to start calculating fares using taxi meters rather than GPS as they are doing now, reports The Economic Times.

“Taxi aggregators are currently violating the law by measuring distance through GPS,“ a top road ministry official told ET. “The Motor Vehicles Act clearly says that they have to go by the taxi meter.“

The ministry's reasoning is that distance estimated by GPS is not accurate enough, according to the feedback it's been getting.

5. SC Promises All Help to Kashmiris, Seeks Report

The Supreme Court on Friday was seized of the serious situation in Kashmir and wanted to extend a healing touch to the violence-affected people and to that end sought a ground report from the Modi government's second senior-most law officer on the situation after the recent round of violence which crippled normal life in the valley, reports The Economic Times.

A bench, comprising CJI TS Thakur and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, asked for a report from Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar by Monday at the insistence of Panthers Party leader and senior advocate Bhim Singh.

6. In Smartphone Age, Feature Phones Making Comeback

This might be the era of highflying smartphones but India's mobile phone industry isn't writing off the humble feature phone, just yet. The basic device which lets people make calls and send messages without accessing the Internet, and being used by over half the Indian populace, is seeing a revival of sorts, reports The Economic Times.

It's just not the relatively lesser known brands like MTech and Josh that are in the business.Smartphone world leader Samsung says it continues to focus on feature phones in the rural markets of India and that the segment is an important one for it.

7. Doctors, medical students protest

Doctors and medical students of Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, along with those from the NDMC and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, protested against “an irrational proposal by the Union Health Ministry to change affiliation of the college from Indraprastha University to Delhi University”.

Over 100 doctors and students marched from Mahavir Medical College to Safdarjung Hospital’s main office to speak with the administration on Friday, reports The Hindu.

8. Nocturnal protests spread across Valley

Violent nocturnal protests, airing of songs in praise of slain militant Burhan Wani on public address systems late into the evening and torch marches are the new challenges facing the security forces in the Kashmir Valley, reports The Hindu.

A senior police official told The Hindu that late-night operations on Thursday to contain street protests by detaining stone-throwers in areas of Srinagar and north Kashmir were hampered by violent protests.

9. After confusion, DU extends admission process by a day

The admission process to the university will now continue till noon on Saturday, reports The Hindustan Times.

The university in a press statement said: “It has come to our knowledge that some colleges could not announce the merit lists in time for the admissions to be completed on July 29. Therefore, it has been decided that admissions which was scheduled for July 28-29 will be continued on July 30 up to noon.”

The time for payment of online fees too has been extended till 6 pm on Saturday. The extension, the press release said, was only for morning colleges and not for the evening ones.

10. Noida’s better city planning saves it from waterlogging, traffic snarls

Noida does not suffer from waterlogging during rain like Gurgaon did on Thursday because of the difference in their planning, say urban planners, reports The Hindustan Times.

Noida authority allots land to buyers after developing roads, drainage, sewage network and other infrastructure.

“Noida is a well-planned city like Chandigarh. Here, an authority acquires agricultural land in bulk. Then develops… infrastructure for the next 100 years or more,” said urban town planner and School of Planning and Architecture alumnus Pradeep Kharbanda.