Yogi Adityanath sworn in as UP CM; heads 47-member team

March 19, 2017

Lucknow, Mar 19: BJP's hardline Hindutva poster boy and five-time MP, Yogi Adityanath was today sworn in as the 21st chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, heading a 47-member council of ministers that includes two deputy CMs.

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A surprise inclusion was cricketer-turned-politician Mohsin Raza, who was sworn in as a minister of state, becoming the lone Muslim face in the state government. BJP had not fielded any Muslim candidate in the Assembly polls.

Interestingly, the chief minister, his two deputies -- BJP state unit chief Keshav Prasad Maurya and party's national vice president Dinesh Sharma -- and Raza are not members of either House of the UP legislature.

Besides the two deputy CMs, his council of ministers has 22 other cabinet ministers, nine ministers of state with independent charge and 13 ministers of state.

The 44-year-old Adityanath is the fourth chief minister from the saffron party, ending its 15-year hiatus in the Hindi heartland state.

The oath of office and secrecy was administered by Governor Ram Naik at Kashiram Smriti Upvan at a grand 90-minute ceremony attended by a galaxy of BJP luminaries including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and L K Advani.

Expressing "immense confidence" that this new team will leave no stone unturned in making UP 'Uttam Pradesh', Modi tweeted, "There will be record development. Our sole mission & motive is development. When UP develops, India develops. We want to serve UP's youth & create opportunities for them..."

Outgoing chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father and Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav also attended the function.

The swearing-in ceremony was the culmination of a seven-phased Assembly election spread over two months in the most populous state, which gave BJP a landslide victory in the 403-member Assembly. BJP and its allies have won 325 seats.

Adityanath, who lacks administrative experience, was unanimously elected yesterday as the BJP legislature party leader at a meeting of the newly elected MLAs, a move that took many by surprise.

Soon after he was sworn in, Adityanath assumed charge in the newly constructed Lok Bhawan.

The elevation of Adityanath, who has had a chequered rapport with the BJP leadership, has left many puzzled, with political circles abuzz with talk of the RSS having prevailed over the party in deciding the chief minister.

However, RSS Joint General Secretary V Bhagaiah told reporters in Coimbatore that it was a political decision and RSS had no say in the selection of chief ministers in BJP-ruled states.

Often caught in controversy because of his speeches, Adityanath, who heads the Gorakhnath Mutt, allegedly led a "purification" drive for conversion of Christians to Hinduism in 2005.

In 2015, he had said those who oppose yoga can leave India and that they should all be drowned.

He was arrested for allegedly inciting Gorakhpur riots in 2007.

Adityanath, who has been accused by opposition parties of being a divisive political figure, enjoys considerable popularity in the state and is known to make provocative statements, be it about Islam or Pakistan.

A strong votary of construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, he drove BJP's Hindutva campaign in the eastern UP in the just concluded Assembly polls.

Besides Keshav Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, the 22 other cabinet ministers sworn-in include Surya Pratap Shahi, Suresh Kumar Khanna, Swami Prasad Maurya, Satish Mahana, Rajesh Agarwal, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Dara Singh Chauhan, Dharampal Singh, SP Singh Baghel and Satyadev Pachauri.

The rest of the cabinet ministers are Ramapati Shastri, Jai Prakash Singh, Om Prakash Rajbhar, Brijesh Pathak, Lakshmi Narain Chowdhury, Chetan Chauhan, Srikant Sharma, Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh, Siddharth Nath Singh, Mukut Bihari Verma, Ashutosh Tondon and Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi.

The governor also administered the oath of office and secrecy to nine ministers of state (independent charge).

They are Anupma Jaiswal, Suresh Rana, Upendra Tiwari, Mahendra Kumar Singh, Swatantra Dev Singh, Bhupendra Singh Chowdhury, Dharam Singh Saini, Anil Rajbhar and Swati Singh.

The thirteen ministers of state who took oath are Gulab Devi, Jai Prakash Nishad, Archana Pandey, Jai Kumar Singh Jacky, Atul Garg, Ranvendra Pratap Singh alias Dhunni Singh, Nilkanth Tiwari, Mohsin Raza, Girish Chandra Yadav, Baldev Olekh, Mannu Kori, Sandeep Singh and Suresh Pasi.

With this, the Adityanath government has 24 cabinet ministers, including two deputy CMs, nine MoS (independent charge) and 13 ministers of state. Five of the ministers are women.

Before Adityanath, Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh of BJP had served as UP chief minister. Kalyan Singh, now Rajasthan governor, held the high office twice.

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News Network
May 3,2024

Mangaluru, May 3: The Mangaluru City Corporation will resort to water rationing from May 5 as the Thumbe vented dam, which supplies drinking water to the city, is facing a shortage in water storage.

Instead of daily supply, water will be supplied on alternate days, the Executive Engineer (Water Supply) at the corporation said in a release.

The release said that water will be supplied to Mangaluru City North on May 5. There will be no water supply to Mangaluru City North on May 6. Instead water will be supplied to Mangaluru City South on May 6. Likewise the supply on alternate days will continue.

The inflow in the Netravathi has stopped, the release said, requesting people to cooperate with the corporation and not waste water for washing vehicles and other purposes.

An engineer at the corporation said that water level at the dam stood at 4.27 m on Wednesday against the full storage level of 6 m. If water is supplied daily to the entire city (Mangaluru City North and Mangaluru City South) the existing storage will last only for 16 days, the engineer said. Hence the decision to supply water on alternate days has been taken to supply water till May-end.

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News Network
April 24,2024

campaign.jpg

Campaigning for 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka going to polls in the first phase on April 26 will come to an end on Wednesday evening.

A total of 247 candidates -- 226 men and 21 women -- are in the fray for this round of voting in most of the southern and coastal districts.

It is a straight electoral contest between the ruling Congress and the BJP-Janata Dal (Secular) combine in the State.

While the Congress is contesting in all 14 seats, BJP has fielded nominees in 11, and its alliance partner JD(S) in three -- Hassan, Mandya and Kolar.

Besides the three, the segments where elections will be held on Friday are: Udupi-Chikmagalur, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga, Tumkur, Mysore, Chamarajanagar, Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South and Chikkballapur.

The intense campaigning for the past about a month saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah leading from the front for the BJP, holding rallies and roadshows. BJP President J P Nadda, some Union Ministers and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant too pitched in.

Veteran BJP leader and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and the party's state president B Y Vijayendra also campaigned extensively.

Congress president M Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy were among the prominent names who led the charge for the party.

And for the JD(S), it was the 90-year-old party patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who led the campaign.

Chikkaballapur has a maximum number of 29 candidates, followed by 24 in Bangalore Central and Dakshina Kannada has the least number - nine.

Kumaraswamy from Mandya, his brother-in-law and noted cardiologist C N Manjunath from Bangalore Rural on a BJP ticket, erstwhile Mysuru royal family scion Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar from Mysore, also from the BJP, and state Congress President Shivakumar's brother and MP D K Suresh from Bangalore Rural, are among the prominent candidates in the fray in the first phase.

The state has a total of 28 Lok Sabha segments. The remaining 14 constituencies, mostly in the northern districts, will go to polls on May seven.

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News Network
May 1,2024

Bengaluru: A red alert denoting severe heat wave has been issued for six districts of Karnataka by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), as temperatures are likely to cross 46 degrees Celsius.

Bagalkote, Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Koppal districts will see temperatures ranging from 40 to 46 degrees Celsius between May 1 and May 9, according to KSNDMC.

The monitoring centre also pointed out that when comparing the maximum temperature recorded in Karnataka in the past seven years – between 2017 and 2024 – April 30, 2024 recorded the highest, 45.6 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, in a statement released by the India Meteorological Department in Bengaluru, the trough/wind discontinuity from southeast Madhya Pradesh to South Interior Karnataka (SIK), across Vidarbha, Marathawada and North Interior Karnataka (NIK) extending up to 1.5km above mean sea level persists.

But as per IMD, the department issued a severe heat (red) alert only when the actual maximum temperature crosses 47 degrees Celsius.

The maximum temperatures are likely to continue and also be around 40 to 46 degrees Celsius over parts of NIK districts, such as Raichur, Kalaburgi, Yadgir, Bellary and Vijayapura districts till May 6, the natural disaster management centre said on social media platform X.

The remaining NIK districts, most of the SIK districts and Dakshina Kannada district are likely to experience maximum temperature between 40 and 44 degrees Celsius, it added.

Parts of Kodagu, Udupi, Hassan, Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru and parts of Uttara Kannada districts are likely to experience between 33 and 40 degrees Celsius till May 6, according to the centre.

From May 7, maximum temperatures are likely to come down by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius across the state, according to KSNDMC.

Meanwhile, as per realised rainfall across the state data by KSNDMC, while isolated rains were observed in six districts -- Haveri, Dharwad, Gadag, Vijayapura, Shivamogga and Uttara Kannada -- dry/negligible rains were received in 25 districts, including Bengaluru rural and urban on April 30.

Maximum rainfall of 35mm was recorded at Bhogavi in Haveri district.

As per the cumulative date of rainfall from January 1 to April 30, only coastal Karnataka recorded an excess of 59% rainfall from usual, while the rest of Karnataka had deficit rainfall ranging from 13% to 80%, said a press release by KSNDMC, which compiles the data from telemetric rain gauge locations established by it across the state.

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