Month: March 2022

Tokyo Paralympics gold medalist shuttler Pramod Bhagat on Monday received the prestigious Padma Shri award in the field of sports.

The ace athlete was also conferred with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in October 2021 and now Bhagat has become the first para-badminton athlete to receive the prestigious Padma Shri Award.

Pramod Bhagat received his prestigious award from President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in a ceremony today.

The Padma awards are conferred in three categories — Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri. These awards are given in various disciplines and fields such as art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.

‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

These awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhavan usually around March/ April every year. This year the President has approved the conferment of 128.

Padma Awards include 2 duo cases (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one). The list comprises 4 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri Awards. 34 of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 Posthumous awardees. (ANI)

Punjab Kings co-owner and actor Preity Zinta shared an adorable picture of her twins — Jai and Gia — watching their first Indian Premier League (IPL) game.

Taking to her Instagram handle, the actor shared a picture of her babies sitting on a couch with the TV on, capturing a glimpse of the third match of IPL 2022 between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In the caption, she wrote, “New team, new Captain and new fans. Thank you @punjabkingsipl for such a fantastic run chase and for making Jai & Gia’s first IPL game so memorable. I cannot stop smiling. #Ting #Tataipl #ipl2022 #saddapunjab #aapajeetgaye.”

The post was flooded with likes and comments.

“New fan is good luck for new team and a new captain. They are enjoying a new beginning of Punjab Kings,” a social media user wrote.

“Omg too sweet and I watched the match which was a thriller. Odean Smith was on fire,” another added.

Talking about the match, Punjab Kings, the team co-owned by Zinta, scored 208/5 in 19 overs in reply to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 205/2 to register a five-wicket in their IPL encounter at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday. (ANI)

Rajya Sabha MPs from the Left and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) parties on Monday staged a protest inside the Parliament premises against the government in support of the two-day ‘Bharat Bandh’ strike called by trade unions.

The MPs held the protest at the Gandhi statue when the Rajya Sabha was adjourned till noon due to disruption in proceedings by Opposition parties over rising prices of petroleum products and over trade union protests.

The MPs also marched towards the Vijay Chowk from the Gandhi statue to protest against government policies.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) MPs Jharna Das Baidya, K Somaprasad, V Sivadasan, CPI leader Binoy Viswam, DMK leaders TKS Elangovan, were among those who took part in the protest.

Speaking to ANI, Baidya said that the government has not done anything since 2014 except privatisation.

“Air India to Airports, everything is being privatised. What is the meaning of Parliament, MPs, and Ministers when the government will not do anything for the public?… The trade union strike was very necessary for common people. We are supporting the strike. As long as BJP will keep pushing its own free will, we will keep protesting,” Baidya said.

The Rajya Sabha MPs held the protest as Central trade unions on Monday began a two-day nationwide strike against the government’s alleged wrong policies that are affecting farmers, workers, and people.

A joint forum of central trade unions had given a call for a nationwide strike on March 28 and March 29.

Their demands include the scrapping of the labour codes, no privatisation of any form, scrapping of the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), increased allocation of wages under MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act), and regularisation of contract workers among others.

The central trade unions that are part of this joint forum are the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF), and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC).

However, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has kept its distance from the strike. (ANI)

A team of officials from Indira Gandhi International Airport Police station busted a prostitution racket and arrested three accused in the case including the girl, informed the police official on Monday.

On March 21, the IGI Police received information through a secret informer about the prostitution racket being operated in the vicinity of the Aerocity area at IGI Airport. A special team of police was formed to conduct raids in the area.

The police team reached the Aerocity area and caught the accused broker identified as Naveen red-handed who had come to drop a woman, involved in the racket, at the hotel. The police apprehended the woman inside the hotel and caught Naveen outside the hotel.

The police said the accused Naveen was contacted through a secret informer. To track the accused, a room was also booked in Hotel Holiday Inn.

Naveen came to the hotel with a woman to drop her to the decoy customer waiting already. He dropped her at the porch of the Hotel and took a certain sum of money in advance. After that, the girl reached the hotel and took advance money from the decoy customer. At the direction of the decoy customer, the raiding team entered the hotel room and the girl was apprehended with the help of lady police.

Meanwhile, Naveen who came to drop the girl was arrested outside the hotel.

An FIR has been filed against the accused in the IGI Police station under sections 4, 5 of the Immoral Trafficking and Prevention Act (ITP) of the Indian Penal Code.

The police revealed the accused used Whatsapp to approach the customers, where they send the photos of girls to the customers’ contact and after receiving the token money, the broker used to drop the girl at the given place.

During the investigation, the police found that the broker Naveen along with the co-accused Riyash Siddiqui was operating the sex racket from a hotel taken on lease in Sector 45, Gurgaon. Both were operating an organised racket of prostitution in Delhi and NCR along with their three other associates.

Further investigation of the case is underway, further raids are being carried out to arrest the other brokers. (ANI)

President Ram Nath Kovind will confer Padma awards for the year 2022 at the Civil Investiture Ceremony-II at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.

Amongst the prominent awardees at today’s Investiture ceremony will be Padma Vibhushan recipients – Dr Prabha Atre and Kalyan Singh (Posthumous), Padma Bhushan recipients Victor Banerjee, Sanjaya Rajaram (Posthumous), Pratibha Ray and Acharya Vashishtha Tripathi.

The Civil Investiture Ceremony – I was held on March 21.

The awards are conferred in three categories such as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

These awards are given in various disciplines and fields of activities such as art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, etc.

‘Padma Vibhushan’ is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; ‘Padma Bhushan’ for distinguished service of high order and ‘Padma Shri’ for distinguished service in any field. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

The awards are conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan. This year a total of 128 Padma awards are being conferred, including two duo cases (in a duo case, the award is counted as one).

The list of awardees comprises four Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 107 Padma Shri Awards. Thirty-four of the awardees are women and the list also includes 10 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 13 Posthumous awardees. (ANI)

Three Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs were dismissed from the House for the day for raising slogans against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while standing on benches in the Delhi assembly session on Monday.

Chaos erupted in the House on Monday due to the protest by the Aam Aadmi Party leaders over “derogatory” remarks made by Delhi BJP president Adesh Kumar Gupta against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The House was briefly adjourned twice over the same issue.

AAP MLAs protested demanding an apology from BJP over alleged derogatory remarks on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

The clutter between the two political parties surfaced after Adesh Gupta slammed CM Kejriwal with making defamatory remarks for his statements on ‘The Kashmir Files’ movie.

Kejriwal, in his speech in the Delhi Assembly, had accused the BJP leaders of “promoting” the movie and asked the makers of the movie to upload the film on YouTube which attracted backlash against the Chief Minister on social media.

The Vivek-Agnihotri directed ‘Kashmir Files’ that was released in theatres on March 11 stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumaar and others. It revolves around the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990.

The film has been declared tax-free in several states including Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Goa, Haryana and Uttarakhand. (ANI)

The Pramod Sawant led Goa Cabinet sported new faces after four former ministers, which included a few who had left the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the state polls, missing from the new government.

Eight state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders along with the Chief Minister took oath at a grand swearing-in ceremony here which was also attended by top party brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Jennifer Monserrate, Filipe Rodrigues, Michael Lobo and Deepak Pauskar were ministers in the previous council of ministers, but are now out of the government.

Jennifer Monserrate, who was the only woman Minister in the first term of Sawant as the Chief Minister, had looked after the departments of Revenue, IT, Labour and Employment. She was the first woman MLA to be elected from Taleigao constituency for two successive terms.

Filipe Nery Rodrigues, who had joined the BJP in 2019, was elected as a member of the Goa Legislative Assembly from Congress in 2017. Michael Lobo had joined Congress in January this year, just ahead of the Goa Assembly elections 2022.

On the other hand, Deepak Pauskar had served as the Goa Minister for Public Works. However, he had resigned from the position as well as the party after the BJP denied him the ticket in the polls.

Pramod Sawant took oath as the Goa Chief Minister for the second consecutive term at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in the coastal state today.

Following Sawant taking the oath, the BJP leaders Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Ravi Naik, Nilesh Cabral, Subhash Shirodkar, Rohan Khaunte, Govind Gaude, and Atanasio Monserrate were also sworn in as Goa’s cabinet ministers.

Former Goa Ministers Vishwajit Rane, Mauvin Godinho, Nilesh Cabral managed to stay in the newly sworn in government.

However, the list also includes four fresh faces — Rohan Khaunte, Ravi Naik, Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate, and Subhash Siralkar.

The key attendees at the oath ceremony included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP president JP Nadda, Haryana CM ML Khattar and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

Before Sawant, Goa for the Bharatiya Janata Party had all been about the former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who had also served as Union Minister for Defence.

In the recently concluded state Assembly polls, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in Goa, winning 20 seats in the 40-member state Assembly and reducing Congress to 11 seats.

The BJP fell one seat short of the majority figure in Goa but is set to retain power in the state with the help of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and independent candidates.

In 2017, Congress had emerged as the single largest party in the state, winning 17 seats but the BJP, which won 13 seats, managed to form the government with the support of the Goa Forward Party and the MGP which had won three seats each, and two independents. (ANI)

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday took oath as the Member of Legislative Assembly in Lucknow.

Notably, Yogi Adityanath is the first time MLA while he had previousely been a member of the Legislative Council in the state during his first five year tenure.

The newly elected members of the 18th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) will be administered oaths today.

Along with Protem Speaker Ramapati Shastri, Governor Anandiben Patel has nominated Suresh Kumar Khanna, Jai Pratap Singh, and Mata Prasad Pandey to administer the oath to the MLAs. Shastri took oath as Protem speaker on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party chief and Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav also took oath as an MLA. He’s also a first time MLA. He was an MLC during his stint as the Chief Minister of the state during 2012-17.

Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the state by Governor Anandiben Patel in a jam-packed Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday last week.

A total of 52 ministers had taken oath as ministers, including two deputy Chief Ministers.

Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak had taken oath as the Deputy Chief Ministers of the state.

The BJP won 255 seats in Uttar Pradesh with its allies in the state also registering impressive performance. (ANI)

Senior leader of Aam Aadmi Party, Raghav Chadha took a walk down the fashion lane as a showstopper at the Lakme Fashion Week 2022.

On Sunday, Chadha walked the ramp for his maternal uncle and fashion designer Pawan Sachdeva.

Dressed in a leather jacket, paired with leather pants and matching shoes, he exuded confidence in his ramp debut.

An orange belt with lining on shoulders in the same colour stood out in the otherwise all-black outfit.

Actor Aparshakti Khurana also walked the ramp for Sachdeva, flaunting a grey suit with matching jogger pants, sports shoes and sported round glasses with chain.

Meanwhile, Chadha has recently been officially elected to the Rajya Sabha as an MP. (ANI)