Chandigarh, Aug 31 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit was on Tuesday sworn in as Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh. He has been given this as an additional charge as incumbent V.P. Singh Badnore has completed his term.
Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Ravi Shanker Jha administered the oath of office to Purohit at Punjab Raj Bhavan here.
Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar were present on the occasion.
Purohit took the oath in English.
Earlier in the day, he arrived at the Punjab Raj Bhavan and was given a guard of honour by a Punjab Armed Police contingent.
Referring to alleged reports of snooping of prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware, senior BJP leader and union minister Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday said that these kinds of stories are concocted, fabricated and have no evidence.
On Wednesday, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal gave permission to the Jantar Mantar demonstration on the condition that a maximum of 200 protesters will be allowed till August 9 between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Sidhu sent an invite, signed by some 62 legislators, through working presidents, Kuljit Singh Nagra and Sangat Singh Gilzian, to the 'sulking' Chief Minister to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
In a statement here, Badal said it was condemnable that the NDA government had targeted Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and the Bharat Samachar group because they had posed tough questions to the government in keeping with high standards of journalism.
In a written reply to parliamentarian Binoy Viswam in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (External Affairs) V.A. Muraleedharan said during the unprecedented crisis, the international community came forward with offers of solidarity and assistance for specific medicines and equipment that were not immediately available in the country.
With the Pegasus snoopgate leading to ruckus in the Parliament, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday that the news story on snooping was an attempt to malign India's democracy and its institutions.
