Punjab Cabinet reshuffle in offing with minister submitting resignation
Darpan News Desk IANS, 30 May, 2023 10:43 AM
Chandigarh, May 30 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday forwaded the resignation of Local Government Minister Inderbir Singh Nijjer from the Council of Ministers to Governor Banwari Lal Purohit for early acceptance.
Disclosing this here, a spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said that in a communique to the Governor, Mann has impressed upon him to accept the resignation of Nijjer, who has resigned from the Cabinet on personal grounds.
The Chief Minister has also proposed the names of Kartarpur MLA Balkar Singh and Lambi MLA Gurmeet Singh Khudian for their induction as Cabinet ministers.
Mann has requested the Governor to accord approval to administer oath of office to the new ministers at 11 a.m. on May 31 at the Punjab Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh.
In a surprise move, the Uttar Pradesh government, on Thursday, opposed the bail plea of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son, who is one of the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, in the Supreme Court. Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh Garima Prasad told a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice J.K. Maheshwari that the crime is "grave".
Last year in June, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and several others in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Rahul Gandhi, in an open letter addressing the people, alleged that the AAP government in Punjab seems unable to tackle the challenges. The Bharat Jodo Yatra which is being led by the former Congress president completed its eighth day in Punjab on Thursday.
After six days in Punjab, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra on Wednesday entered Himachal Pradesh where Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and state party President Pratibha Singh, among other party leaders, welcomed the day-long leg of the march in the state.
The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit of the Delhi Police has arrested four men for stealing data from a government portal and creating a fake website following which they duped more than 1,800 pensioners. The accused were identified as Amit Khosa, a resident of Greater Noida; Kanav Kapoor from Noida; Binoy Sarkar and Shankar Mondal, both from Hyderabad.
Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, claimed on Wednesday that Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena is acting like a 'tribal chieftain to appease his big boss'. While addressing the winter session of Delhi Assembly, Sisodia said, "Baba Saheb (B.R. Ambedkar) had mentioned municipal governance in the fifth entry in List II in the Constitution.
