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.
Swara Bhasker, who has been vocal in her criticism of the new citizenship law, termed it a "targeted" law and claimed it is an "attack" on the Constitution of India.
The government has worked on lighting these dark spots in the last three years, and the number of dark spots which were identified in another audit carried out by SafetiPin over January to May 2019 was 2,768 in number, he said.
Former East Bengal and Mohun Bagan defender R Dhanarajan died on Sunday night while playing a 'Sevens' football match at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district.
The Twitter handle of PM Modi's personal website also had a message saying that the CAA is about giving citizenship to persecuted refugees and not about taking anyone's citizenship away.
"Prime Minister Varadkar's visit is entirely private.There are no official functions planned during his visit. Hewould be in Goa till January 1 alongwith his family," he said.
Self styled godman Baba Piara Singh Bhaniara Wala, whose 'dera' is situated at village Bhaniara near Nurpurbedi in this district passed away Monday morning, his close associates said. He was 61.
