Three ministers resign ahead of Cabinet rejig

Agencies
September 1, 2017

New Delhi, Sept 1: Three Union ministers submitted their resignations on Thursday ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle.

Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra and Minister of State for Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan submitted their resignations.

A source said BJP president Amit Shah had called five more ministers, including Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti, and told them that the prime minister wanted them to resign. The source said that the Cabinet reshuffle may take place either on Saturday or Sunday before Modi leaves for Beijing to attend the BRICS summit.

The prime minister will visit Myanmar for two days beginning September 5. Also, President Ram Nath Kovind will not be in the national capital on Friday.

If reshuffle does not happen in this window, then it may take place after Navaratri, which begins on September 21. The days between September 5 and September 21 is considered inauspicious.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had dropped hints that he won’t be defence minister for long as a reshuffle was on the cards.

When asked to comment about the reshuffle, Jaitley said, “At least I hope not very long” to continue as defence minister.

Modi had held several rounds of consultations with Shah and other top leaders as the Cabinet rejig is also being seen as a performance audit.

Minister of State for Human Resource Development Mahendranath Pandey has offered to resign following the party’s decision to make him the Uttar Pradesh BJP president.

Apart from Jaitley, other ministers who are holding additional charges may have to offload the burden as this is expected to be the large major exercise before Modi seeks a fresh mandate in 2019.

The reshuffle is expected to bring in fresh faces to infuse new energy into the government. The reshuffle will also take into account the BJP’s focus in the poll-bound states of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.

Modi will also draft leaders from the JD(U) into his team after the party returned to the NDA fold. The BJP’s Maharashtra ally, the Shiv Sena, is likely to get another berth.

But as per Article 72 of the Constitution, it can go up to 82 since it says that the council of ministers shall not exceed 15% of the number of members in the Lok Sabha.

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News Network
April 13,2024

Mangaluru, Apr 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to campaign for the upcoming and much awaited Lok Sabha election in coastal Karnataka by holding a mega roadshow in Mangaluru. 

Meanwhile, the organisers have announced a slight delay in the commencement of Modi's scheduled roadshow on April 14 in Mangaluru.

Addressing the media BJP principal secretary and Karnataka MLA V Sunil Kumar said: Originally the roadshow was scheduled to begin at 5 pm., but it will start at 7:30 pm."

As planned, the Roadshow will kick off from Narayan Guru Circle, where Prime Minister Modi will pay floral tribute to Sri Narayan Guru idol. From there, the Roadshow will proceed and conclude at Navabharat Circle. 

Mr Kumar urged people traveling to Mangaluru to see Mr Modi's visit by 7 p.m. and stand behind the barricades. The roadshow is estimated to conclude at 8:30 pm.

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News Network
April 23,2024

gaza200.jpg

The genocidal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has entered its 200th day, with occupation forces killing more Palestinians in defiance of widespread international outcry to end the carnage.

The aggression marked its 200th day on Tuesday with no end in sight to the Israeli war that has so far killed a shocking number of Palestinians and led to a humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces have committed three "massacres" over the past 24 hours, killing at least 32 Palestinians and wounding 59 others.

The numbers, it added, bring the Palestinian death toll to more than 34,183, with at least 77,143 injured and an estimated 7,000 missing and presumed dead since early October.

More than 14,500 children and 9,500 women are among those killed, making up over 70 percent of the victims, according to health officials.

Israel waged its brutal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Israel has been carrying out war crimes in Gaza by deliberately starving people and forcing their evacuation, as well as targeting hospitals and schools sheltering displaced Palestinians.

Despite all these atrocities, the regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of “destroying Hamas” and finding Israeli captives held in Gaza.

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News Network
April 11,2024

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Six children were killed on Thursday morning after a private school bus carrying around 40 children lost control and overturned in Haryana's Mahendragarh district. The bus was on its way to school, which was functioning despite Eid-ul-Fitr holiday. 

Several students were left injured due to this accident. The incident took place near Unhani village in the Mahendranagar district.

Parents and locals are also asking why the school remained open on Eid, a public holiday.

Six children died and over 20 were injured when the school bus rammed a tree and overturned this morning. The driver was reportedly drunk, the police said.

The bus, whose fitness certificate had expired in 2018, belonged to GL Public School. A state road transport official has been suspended for failing to control vehicles running without proper valid documents.

State Education Minister Seema Trikha said an inquiry is being conducted to find out why the school was functioning on a holiday. She reiterated that the school should have been shut today and that a show-cause notice has been served.

"The school should not have been open today. A show-cause notice has been issued and apart from that, we have taken self-affidavits from the private schools. The schools will have to provide an affidavit of the transport vehicles stating that they function according to the transport rules," she said.

Asked who bears the responsibility for such a tragedy, the minister said the schools and the bus owners will be held accountable along with the driver.

"If (school bus) drivers are found to be drunk, schools will be held responsible. In such cases, FIRs will be filed against the driver, the school's principal, and the bus owner."

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