Mann to get first Council of Ministers on March 19
Darpan News Desk IANS, 18 Mar, 2022 11:35 AM
Chandigarh, March 18 (IANS) Two days after taking oath as Punjab Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann is set to get his first Council of Ministers, all first-timers, on Saturday.
Former Leader of the Opposition and a prominent Dalit face Harpal Singh Cheema may be inducted as the deputy chief minister. Cheema retained his Dirba seat.
The other probables in the Cabinet are Aman Arora, Kultar Sandhwan, Harjot Bains, Sarvjit Kaur Manuke, Baljinder Kaur, Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Neena Mittal and Kunwar Vijay Pratap.
It is learnt the party leadership is keen to induct six to seven ministers in the Council of Ministers that has space for 17 ministerial posts, excluding the Chief Minister's.
The remaining ministers will be inducted after a few months, a senior party leader told IANS.
Sunam MLA Aman Arora is a prominent Hindu face of the party and is known for his proximity with Mann. In 2018, when Mann had resigned from the post of the state president after Arvind Kejriwal apologised to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on allegations of drug trade, Arora too had quit AAP. Both of them later rejoined the party.
Arora defeated Congress' Jaswinder Singh Dhiman by a record margin of 75,277 votes, state's highest.
First-timer Jivan Jyot Kaur, who emerged as the 'giant slayer' by showing the door to two political heavyweights -- Navjot Singh Sidhu of the Congress and Majithia, who were busy in mudslinging against each other, is likely to inducted a minister.
Another first-time Kunwar Vijay Prartap, who once served as the Amritsar SSP, is AAP's big face who registered a victory in Amritsar North by defeating his closest rival and SAD's Anil Joshi by a margin of 28,313 votes.
Party's state co-in-charge Raghav Chadha has already clarified that the induction of the Council of Ministers in government is the prerogative of Bhagwant Mann, seting aside speculations that Arvind Kejriwal will be taking the final call from Delhi.
The party is trying to maintain a balance in the Cabinet from the state's Malwa, Majha and Doaba regions.
The Malwa belt can get more ministers as the party owns 66 out of the 69 seats in the region. In Doaba, AAP won 10 out of 23 seats, while in Majha, it won 16 out of 25.
Also, this time AAP sent eight women legislators, five doctors, the richest legislator -- Kulwant Singh with assets of Rs 238 crore and won from Mohali -- and the youngest -- Narinder Kaur Bharaj, 27, to the Assembly.
The AAP recorded a thumping win by claiming 92 of the Assembly's 117 seats. The ruling Congress won 18, down from 77 in 2017.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that Rs 18,000 crore have been returned to the banks in the case of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi.
The Special cell of Delhi Police has busted an inter-continental syndicate of cocaine traffickers operating in a highly organized manner and recovered a massive 1,850 grams of contraband valued at approximately Rs 10 crore in the international market.
According to the data, Punjab tops in the seizure of arms on western border with 110 arms seized during this period whereas the total arms recovered on western border is 134. In the year 2019, seven arms were seized, 42 in 2020, 58 in 2021 and three till January 25 this year in Punjab.
Rahim is on 21-day furlough from Sunaria jail and is camping in Gurugram. He will be getting 10 NSG security personnel for mobile security and eight security personnel for his residence security. The Haryana government's recommendation to grant the top layer security cover to the convicted sect leader comes following his request.
Many residential and industrial parts of the city faced major power outages as employees of the Electricity Department went on a three-day strike from Monday night in protest against the privatisation of the department. Most of the places have been facing snapping of power since midnight.
In a significant decision by the Guru Nanak Dev University syndicate, Professor Dr Sanjeev P. Sahni, Principal Director, Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences (JIBS), has been appointed as 'Professor of Eminence' for a period of five years. Dr Sahni joins an elite list of scholars extraordinaire who have been awarded the position based on their outstanding contribution to the field of academia.
