logo
Van Mahotsav 2025: Delhi launches massive tree plantation drive

Van Mahotsav 2025: Delhi launches massive tree plantation drive

Hans India3 days ago
New Delhi: In a major push towards environmental sustainability, the Delhi government has launched Van Mahotsav 2025, a large-scale tree plantation initiative that aims to make the capital greener and more pollution-free.
The campaign, inspired by the emotional theme 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam', encourages citizens to plant trees in honor of their mothers. The launch event was held at 11 Willingdon Crescent, Rashtrapati Bhavan, where government officials, judicial leaders, and environmental experts came together to plant saplings and show their commitment to the cause.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced that the city aims to plant over 70 lakh saplings in 2025, calling on residents to take part by planting trees at home, in schools, offices, and public spaces. 'This is not just a plantation drive, it's a movement to secure cleaner air and a healthier environment for future generations,' she said. She also highlighted that 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' is a deeply personal initiative meant to strengthen the emotional bond between people and nature.
The event saw participation from prominent judicial and environmental figures, including Delhi High Court judge DK Upadhyaya, NGT Chairperson Prakash Shrivastava, and other justices such as Naveen Chawla, Jyoti Singh, Anup Bhambhani, and Arun Tyagi.
Also present were Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, NGT experts, and senior Forest Department officials. All attendees planted saplings as a symbolic gesture of support for the campaign.
Justice Upadhyaya urged citizens to turn the initiative into a mass movement, while Justice Shrivastava described the campaign as a 'meaningful step' toward long-term environmental preservation.
Environment Minister Sirsa praised the involvement of the judiciary and environmental institutions, stating that their participation sends a strong message of unity and collective responsibility. He noted that citizens across the city are actively participating, reflecting a growing public commitment to environmental protection.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

CM Rekha Gupta plans review of welfare schemes, eligible to get aid
CM Rekha Gupta plans review of welfare schemes, eligible to get aid

New Indian Express

time20 minutes ago

  • New Indian Express

CM Rekha Gupta plans review of welfare schemes, eligible to get aid

NEW DELHI: CM Rekha Gupta on Monday announced that all existing welfare schemes will be reviewed to ensure only genuinely deserving individuals receive benefits, while those found ineligible will be removed. She also said the process of issuing digital ID cards to persons with disabilities (PwDs) will begin soon. Accusing the previous government of cheating underprivileged sections of society, she said, 'Many women who were not eligible were granted pensions unchecked. Our government will not allow such malpractice. Those who are truly eligible will receive financial assistance under all circumstances, but those found ineligible will be excluded.' The CM chaired a high-level meeting with senior officials from the Department of Social Welfare and the Department for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The meeting focused on reviewing and improving the implementation of schemes for economically and socially marginalised communities. Key schemes reviewed included the Financial Assistance for Senior Citizens, under which beneficiaries aged 60 and above—particularly from SC/ST and economically weaker backgrounds—receive Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 monthly. Over four lakh senior citizens have benefited so far. Another key initiative, the Assistance to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), offers Rs 2,500 per month to individuals with severe disabilities unable to support themselves. Around 1.34 lakh people have been aided under this scheme. The Delhi Family Benefit Scheme (DFBS) provides a one-time financial support of Rs 20,000 to families who have lost their primary breadwinner. So far, about 1,100 dependants have benefited. The SMILE (Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise) scheme was also reviewed. It aims to rehabilitate individuals involved in begging through services like shelter, medical aid, counselling, skill training, and livelihood support. Gupta directed officials to take concrete steps to improve transparency, efficiency, and data digitisation. She said, 'Our aim is to establish a robust, inclusive, and sensitive support system. We will ensure that no deserving individual is left out, and public funds are used responsibly.' The meeting also addressed key challenges such as delays in disability certification, rehabilitation efforts for beggars, and the digitisation of beneficiary records. The CM instructed departments to resolve these swiftly and present a clear action plan.

Muddied investigations deny justice to not just the accused but also the victims
Muddied investigations deny justice to not just the accused but also the victims

Hindustan Times

time24 minutes ago

  • Hindustan Times

Muddied investigations deny justice to not just the accused but also the victims

Justice JR Midha (retd) of the Delhi High Court once profoundly stated, 'In a court of 'justice' both parties know the truth; it is the judge who is on trial.' For anyone familiar with the quality of evidence presented in the 2006 7/11 Mumbai serial train blast case, the Bombay High Court's decision on Monday to acquit 11 men (Kamal Ansari passed away while the proceedings were pending)—five of whom had been sentenced to death by a trial court in 2015—was simply a discharge of its duty. Muddied investigations deny justice to not just the accused but also the victims This article won't delve into the unspeakable horrors of the third-degree torture these men endured in prison and later testified to in court, nor the agonizing wait for judgment that stretched from days into months, years, and even decades, or the abject poverty resulting from their incarceration, or the deaths of spouses and parents during their 19-year-long imprisonment. Instead, this article aims to raise critical questions about a case shrouded in controversy from its inception, specifically regarding the accountability of investigating agencies that relied on unreliable evidence to secure convictions and assuage 'society's collective conscience'. In this particular case, such evidence sealed the fate of 13 men, some of whom were merely students at the time of their arrest in 2006. The 7/11 train blasts trial was riddled with allegations of forced confessions and improbable eyewitness accounts right from the beginning. Eleven of the 13 accused in the case testified under oath to prove their innocence, providing vivid details of third-degree police torture, particularly before their alleged confessions. Forced confessions are inadmissible as evidence under law. Medical reports from the time largely substantiated their testimonies and were accepted by the Bombay High Court to discard the confessions. As for eyewitness accounts, Ehtesham Siddique, accused of planting one of the bombs, filed hundreds of Right to Information (RTI) applications to demonstrate the improbability of statements made by eyewitnesses. For instance, an eyewitness claimed to have seen a man with a 'heavy bag' at Churchgate station on the day of the bombings and identified Siddiqui as that man. However, Siddique cited RTI replies to show that the eyewitness may have been lying about his whereabouts at the time of the incident. The witness claimed he was visiting someone at the ENT hospital near Fort who either didn't work there or hadn't reported to work at all. Since the ATS was exempt from providing information under the RTI Act, Siddique and the other accused in the case sought information from several other government forums and hospitals to counter the prosecution's theory. At a conspiracy level, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) alleged that the blasts were orchestrated at the behest of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a terrorist group based in Pakistan. ATS further claimed that one Indian and one Pakistani planted the seven bombs that detonated in first-class men's compartments of Mumbai local trains on July 11, 2006, resulting in 188 deaths and 829 injuries. However, not a single Pakistani or LeT member was prosecuted over time, immediately casting doubt on the ATS's initial allegations. Moreover, the prosecution failed to establish a credible link between the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), to which many of the accused belonged, and the LeT. In fact, in 2008, Sadiq Israr Sheikh, a former SIMI member who later joined the terror outfit, the Indian Mujahideen (IM), claimed responsibility for the train blasts. Sheikh, arrested in a separate 2009 Indian Mujahideen case provided a detailed account to the Mumbai Crime Branch of how the IM executed the train blasts, but his claims were not substantially investigated by an independent agency, perhaps because it could have exposed critical loopholes in the ATS's investigation. Unsurprisingly though, during the 7/11 trial when Sheikh was called by the defence, he denied any involvement. His confession to the crime branch, however, did muddy the waters. Echoing the questionable investigative patterns of the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts probe was the 2006 Malegaon blasts probe. Two months after the train attacks in Mumbai, four bombs ripped through Malegaon city on Shab-e-Baraat, a holy day for the city's Muslim-majority population. The ATS swiftly arrested nine Muslim men, operating under the theory that they would target their community near a mosque. This investigation mirrored the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts probe, where 'confessions' were extracted in written Hindi from Urdu speakers and evidence, like RDX traces found months after the blasts, was presented. Two of the 7/11 accused, Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh and Asif Khan were also implicated in the Malegaon blasts, with the ATS alleging their involvement in procuring explosives. However, after the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Hindu extremist Swami Aseemanand in 2007 claimed responsibility for the blasts and the ATS's investigation in Malegaon blasts of 2006 subsequently fell apart under scrutiny. It turned out that Shabbir Masiullah, said by the ATS to have been a key conspirator in Malegaon blasts was already in police custody when he was alleged to have helped Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh and Asif Khan procure explosives. Nearly 10 years after these revelations, in April 2016, a special court discharged Mohammed Ali and Asif Khan in the Malegaon blasts case along with the other accused, castigating the ATS's 'unbelievable' theory. These glaring inconsistencies and the human cost of wrongful arrests make one thing clear: there needs to be a complete overhaul of how investigating agencies perceive and investigate cases related to terrorism and how courts fix accountability. Agencies should refrain from making overly ambitious claims at the outset when their investigation is not yet scientific. Doing so is an affront to every victim of terror—living, injured or dead. Sharmeen Hakim is a journalist and the author of Six Minutes of Terror: The Untold Story of the 7/11 Train Blasts

Delhi Assembly Monsoon Session likely to begin on August 4
Delhi Assembly Monsoon Session likely to begin on August 4

Time of India

time3 hours ago

  • Time of India

Delhi Assembly Monsoon Session likely to begin on August 4

The Monsoon Session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly is likely to begin on August 4, sources said. The Monsoon Session will be the third session in the Assembly for the Chief Minister Rekha Gupta-led government. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category The last session, which was the Budget Session, in the Delhi Legislative Assembly was held from March 24 to April 2, where Rekha Gupta , the Finance Minister of Delhi, presented the Annual Budget of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi for the financial year 2025-26. Meanwhile, the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) Training Centre is providing MLAs with training on digital legislative processes ahead of the Monsoon Session. Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta launched the NeVA Training Centre and wrote on X, "The Delhi Legislative Assembly launched the NeVA Training Centre today with the aim of accelerating digital legislative processes. This three-day program, running from July 21 to 23, 2025, will provide training to honourable legislators on the use and functionality of the National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA), enabling them to participate more effectively in the upcoming Monsoon Session." Live Events "The training will be conducted by expert trainers from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (MoPA)," the X post read. Meanwhile, the Monsoon Session of the Parliament began on Monday. The first day of the Monsoon Session witnessed several adjournments amid sloganeering from the Opposition. Both houses of Parliament were adjourned until 11 am on July 22 amid the ruckus and demands from opposition leaders to speak in the House. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met with senior Union Ministers, including Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiren Rijiju, and Arjun Meghwal. Sources said that the meeting, held at Parliament House in the national capital, likely discussed and made decisions regarding the ongoing Monsoon Session. The Prime Minister was apprised about the discussions in the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) and the opposition's insistence on his making a statement in the House, according to sources Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc will hold a meeting of its floor leaders in the Parliament today at 10 am. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss strategies for the session in the House.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store