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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau for his re-election but his returning to power is unlikely to augur well for the relations between the two countries.
The United States on Thursday sought from India a "roadmap" to political and economic normalcy in Kashmir and immediate release of all political detainees as it asked Pakistan to take "sustained and irreversible" steps against militants and terrorists in its territory.
India and Pakistan on Thursday signed an agreement to operationalise the Kartarpur Corridor even as the ticklish issue of a $20 service fee imposed by Islamabad remained unresolved.
Even Emperor Akbar had lifted the 'Jizya' tax on non-Muslims, showing respect for secular sentiment, he pointed out, urging Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to reconsider the $20 fee in light of the Sikh pilgrims' sentiments.
