New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Sonia Gandhi on Monday approved several committees ahead of the Assembly polls in Goa. Girish Chodankar has been retained as the state president and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat will continue as the Congress legislative party leader while Alexio Sequeira is the Working state President.
Former Chief Minister Luizinho Falerio has been appointed Chairman of the Election coordination committee with M.K. Sheikh as convener.
Campaign committee to be headed by Reginaldo Lourenco and Sangeetha Parab as co chairperson.
Former CM Fracisco Sardinha has been made chairman of the Finance committee and Pramod Salgaocar as co chairperson. Manifesto committee is to be headed by Ramakant Khalap and Publicity committee by Chandrakant Chodankar.
The surprise missing is Francisco Xavier Pacheco, popularly known as Mickky, who was tipped to be made the working President of the Goa Congress. Mickky was in Delhi and had formally joined the Congress.
Mickky speaking on the phone from Goa on Friday had said, "I want to settle the people in the Congress who have been with me for a long time and so I will meet the Congress leaders in Delhi soon."
Sources said that Mickky had met Kamal Nath who had been instrumental in his joining the Congress and also had met P. Chidambaram, Dinesh Gundu Rao and K.C. Venugopal in Delhi.
Indians stranded abroad because of the coronavirus pandemic will be brought back home as of May 7th but it will be a gradual process. Aircraft and naval ships will be arranged for their travel, the government said in a statement, adding the service will be offered on "payment-basis". Only those asymptomatic will be allowed onboard.
Two terrorists and an associate have been killed in an encounter that began on Saturday morning in Awantipora, a city in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. As of this writing, a search operation was still ongoing.
In India more than 23,000 people have, or have had, the new coronavirus, central health ministry data showed on Friday. More than 700 of those infected have died -- a dreadful total, but a relatively low number compared to fatalities in other countries facing outbreaks. India is currently under an extended lockdown til May 3rd that was imposed last month to contain the spread of the virus, which is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets.
Two people have been arrested for attacking prominent journalist Arnab Goswami and his wife. A FIR has been registered at the NM Joshi Marg Police station. Goswami in his complaint to the police has alleged that he and his wife were attacked by Youth Congress workers when they were driving back home from the Republic TV Headquarters in Worli.
A "major digital transformation" is coming to a one of fastest developing countries in the world. Facebook is committed to "opening commerce opportunities for people across India", founder Mark Zuckerberg said this morning, a day after the social media powerhouse invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Industries Ltd-owned mobile telecom company Reliance Jio.
The men accused of killing three men in Palghar have been arrested and are in jail. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on he has spoken to Union home minister Amit Shah and assured him that he would look into the case. More than 100 people are in custody. The attack took place at a spot close to Mumbai.
