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.
The incident happened at about 5-6 p.m. on Saturday. Police have arrested two Americans - a father-son duo - in this connection, Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, Eish Singhal told IANS.
In a shocking incident, an 11-year-old boy was sodomised by a 16-year-old boy inside the premises of a premier institute for the visually impaired here in Uttarakhand.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wished veteran singer Asha Bhosle on her 86th birthday. Bhosle on Sunday shared a message sent by Trudeau on Twitter.
“You are watching the situation (in Pakistan) and I am also watching the same. That day our Sikh girl was kidnapped. Such things should not take place,” said Kumar.
Announcing the snapping of communication link, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan said, the performance of the lander was as per the plan till it was 2.1 km from the moon surface.
