Chandigarh, March 17 (IANS) The newly constituted legislative assembly, whose three-day session began here on Thursday, was different as most of the security guards did not recognise a few new faces who arrived for the session.
The first of the session commenced with Pro-tem Speaker Inderbir Singh Nijjar administering the oath of office and secrecy to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as Member of the Vidhan Sabha.
Breaking the convention, all women members were administered oath after the Chief Minister.
Thereafter, all other members were sworn in by the Speaker as members of the newly constituted Assembly district-wise in an alphabetical order.
The Chief Minister announced an anti-corruption helpline.
A day after resigning from the post of Punjab Congress chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu, who faced defeat from his stronghold Amritsar (East), supported Mann's crusade against corruption.
"The happiest man is the one from whom no one expects. Bhagwant Mann unfurls a new anti-mafia era in Punjab with a mountain of expectations, hope he rises to the occasion, brings back Punjab on the revival path with pro-people policies, best always," Sidhu said in a tweet.
Rising from the ashes like the phoenix, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) last week, in a maiden emphatic win, crushed the traditional players that ruled the border state of Punjab for over seven decades with its stunning victory largely by its greenhorns on 92 of the 117 seats of the legislative assembly.
The previous ruling Congress, which won 77 seats in 2017, managed to win only 18 seats with most of its stalwarts like Chief Minister Charanjit Channi and state party chief Sidhu facing humiliating defeat from their respective strongholds.
Wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, 'the Great Khali', on Thursday joined BJP. Khali has joined the BJP in presence of Union Minister Jitendra Singh and party national general secretary Arun Singh and Member of Parliament Sunita Duggal at party national headquarters.
Anand Singh is a businessman living in RS Puram of Coimbatore and now he has hit the headlines after filing his nomination papers as an independent candidate from ward no 71 for the Urban local body elections in Coimbatore.
The former Chief Minister expressed surprise at his former party, the Congress, fielding all MLAs involved with the sand mining mafia as candidates in these Assembly polls and termed it a clear endorsement of widespread corruption in the party.
Amid unrest and violence over the wearing of hijab by some students, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday ruled that no religious symbols are allowed for students until its final order, thus barring both hijab and saffron shawls in school and college premises.
People can ask questions on 11 topics, comprising electricity, women safety, law and order, agriculture, health, drug trafficking and unemployment. Both Mann and Kejriwal will answer their questions.
A total 4.70 kg RDX, one Chinese pistol, two magazines, 22 rounds, two timers, six detonators, among others, were seized from two packets dropped by the drone, an official statement by the BSF said.
