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.
The firefight at Sopore was the second encounter that erupted in Kashmir in less than 12 hours after an exchange of fire between between terrorists and security forces at Ganapora area of Shopian district in south Kashmir earlier on Friday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Shahdara, R. Sathiyasundaram said that Vivek Vihar police station personnel arrested the two fraudsters -- Ritik Kumar Singh, of Bihar's Ara district and Sandeep Panday, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur -- who used to make promises to provide oxygen cylinder at doorsteps, received money through digital transactions, and then, disappeared.
On the 130th day, the cumulative Covid vaccination coverage stood at 20,06,62,456 doses, including 15,71,49,593 first doses and 4,35,12,863 second doses, as per data available at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. India is the second country after the US, which took 124 days, to achieve this level.
At several places including outside the Delhi borders, the farmers burnt effigies of the Central government, hoisted black flags on their homes, farms or vehicles to condemn the farm laws and demanding their rollback as over 470 farmers' lives have been lost in the past six months.
Doctors suspect that the sudden surge in mucormycosis, or “black fungus” infection, may be linked to the use of steroids to treat COVID-19. It can result in breathing problems and coughing blood.
India broke its own previous record of Covid deaths in 24 hours after the the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday said the nation recorded 4,529 deaths -- the highest number of fatalities from Covid infection.