THE HEADLINES:
- First session of 18th Lok Sabha begins with oath taking of newly elected Members of Parliament; Leader of the House Prime Minister Narendra Modi, first to take oath.
- Prime Minister says, his government always strive to take everyone along, build consensus to serve the country and fulfil people’s aspirations.
- Meteorological Department forecasts heavy to very heavy rainfall to continue along West Coast for next five days.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, intense phase of fighting in Rafah nearly over; Reiterates, war would continue until Hamas is completely uprooted.
- And in T-20 Men’s World Cup, South Africa enter Semi Finals beating West Indies in a super 8 encounter this morning; India to take on Australia in a Super 8 encounter in St Lucia this evening.
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The first session of the18th Lok Sabha began today with newly elected MPs taking oath as the members of the House. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the leader of the Lok Sabha, was the first to take oath as the member of the House. Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab administered oath to Mr. Modi.
This was followed by the oath of the panel of chairperson appointed to assist Mr. Mahtab in running the proceedings of the Lok Sabha till the election of the Speaker.
BJP MPs Radha Mohan Singh and Faggan Singh Kulaste took oath as the members of the chairperson panel. However, Congress MP K Suresh, DMK MP TR Balu and Sudip Bandyopadhyay of TMC skipped oath taking proceedings as the members of the panel.
Later, Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Manohar Lal, Piyush Goyal, Jitanram Manjhi, Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh, Dr Virendra Kumar, Kiren Rijiju, Chirag Paswan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Annapurna Devi, and others took oath as members of the Lok Sabha.
Union Ministers HD Kumaraswamy and Pralhad Joshi took oath in Kannada while Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram took oath in Odia language. Another Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal took oath in Assamese, and Union Ministers K Ram Mohan Naidu, and G Kishan Reddy took oath in Telugu. Union Minister CR Patil took oath in Gujarati. Union Ministers Prataprao Jadhav was administered oath in Marathi while Dr. Jitendra Singh in Dogri. Union Minister Suresh Gopi took oath in Malayalam, while another Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar took oath in Bengali. Union Minister Durgadas Uikey took oath in Sanskrit. The oath and affirmation of newly elected members is underway. Now, the MPs are taking oath as per alphabetic order of States and Union Territories. More from our correspondent:
“As 18th Lok Sabha convened for the first time, a remarkable display of India’s diverse multi-lingual and ethnic traditions was witnessed in the Parliament. Besides Hindi and English, several MPs took oath in regional languages, including Telugu, Assamese, Bangla, Malayalam, Guajarati, Sanskrit, Kannada, Odia, Dogri and others. Some MPs were also seen wearing their traditional attire of the region. The Parliament premises also witnessed joy and excitement among the MPs as well as bonhomie between treasury bench and opposition MPs as they were seen greeting each other. Before the Lok Sabha assembled, MPs across party lines were seen clicking photographs and greeting each other warmly. TDP MP from Vijayanagaram, A Kalisetti reached Parliament on bicycle. MPs from Congress, Samajwadi Party, TMC, DMK and others entered the Lok Sabha carrying copies of the constitution. With Diwakar, Durgesh Bhadoria for Akashwani News, Delhi.”
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Briefing media outside Parliament, the Prime Minister said, the session of the 18th Lok Sabha is beginning with the resolve of building Viksit Bharat. He asserted that his government will make constant efforts to serve the country and fulfill the aspirations of the people by taking everyone together. Mr. Modi said, a majority is required to run the government but to run the country a consensus is of utmost importance. He added that his government wants to go ahead and speed up decisions by taking everyone together and by maintaining the sanctity of the Constitution. Mr. Modi said, the world’s largest election was conducted in a very grand and glorious manner.
The Prime Minister said, the Lok Sabha polls have also become very important because for the second time after independence, the people of the country have given an opportunity to a government to serve for the third consecutive term.
The Prime Minister said the people of the country expect good steps from the opposition and he expressed hope that the opposition will live up to their expectations to maintain the dignity of democracy. He expressed confidence that the MPs of the 18th Lok Sabha will try to fulfill the expectations of the common man.
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The Congress today criticised the government over the NEET examination, recent rail accident in West Bengal as well as on the issue of inflation. Party President Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of being silent over these issues. Talking to media outside the Parliament, party MP Rahul Gandhi alleged that the government is undermining the constitution that’s why the opposition MPs carried the copies of constitution in their hand on the first day of the Parliament session.
Earlier today, INDIA bloc MPs reached Parliament by carrying copies of the Constitution. The MPs from Congress, TMC, DMK, Left and others assembled in Parliament House premises with copies of the Constitution. The MPs including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, T R Balu of DMK and Kalyan Banerjee of TMC raised slogans.
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In Gujarat, CBI teams have arrived in Godhra to investigate the alleged irregularities in the NEET examination at an exam centre in Godhra.
Our correspondent reports that the three days after the exam was conducted on May 5, an FIR was registered over the irregularities in the exam at an exam centre in Godhra. So far, the Police have arrested five accused for their alleged role in helping at least 30 students solve their question papers in Godhra.
The sessions judge of the Panchmahal district court in Gujarat rejected the bail plea of the accused on Friday.
Earlier, the Nanded Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) detained Sanjay Tukaram Jadhav and Jalil Umar Khan Pathan on suspicion of their involvement in the NEET paper leak case. Both of them are teachers at zilla parishad schools and run private coaching institutes in Latur. Also, a case has been registered against a total of four named Iranna Mashnaji Kongalwar and Gangadhar (Delhi) at Shivajinagar Police Station in Latur.
The Economic Offence Unit (EOU) of Bihar police has said, the NEET-UG examination paper was leaked by a professional interstate organized gang from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand.
The EOU said, 13 members of this organized gang have been arrested by the SIT, which is investigating the case.
The investigation agency said, from the analysis, the SIT has found that the question which reached Patna before the date of entrance examination originally belonged to the examination centre of Oasis School, Kallu Chowk in Mandai Road in Hazaribag.
The EOU said, the two kingpins of the paper leak case have been arrested. One of the mastermind Baldev Kumar alias Chintu was arrested yesterday from Deoghar in Jharkhand.
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The Supreme Court today adjourned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s petition against the High Court order staying the trial court’s order of granting him bail in the liquor policy case. The Apex court posted the case for hearing on Wednesday. A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti adjourned the hearing saying by the time the High Court is expected to pronounce its final order on the stay application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
On Friday, the Delhi High Court had reserved its order on an Enforcement Directorate (ED) plea to stay the bail granted by the trial court to the Delhi Chief Minister. The court stayed the AAP Chief’s bail in an alleged liquor scam case, till the final order is pronounced. The high court asked the counsel to file the written submissions by Monday.
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Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the intense phase of fighting in Rafah in southern Gaza is nearly over, but the war would continue until Hamas is completely driven from the power. He also said, he would not agree to any deal that included a permanent cease-fire, one of Hamas’ key demands in stalled efforts to broker a truce, adding that the goal is to return the kidnapped and uproot the Hamas regime in Gaza.
In a television interview, Mr. Netanyahu said that the Israeli military would soon be able to re-deploy troops to the border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire with Hezbollah have been escalating.
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In Russia, the death toll in yesterday’s twin attacks in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala of North Caucasus has risen to 15 that includes police officers, a priest and a security guard. Six of the attackers were dead and police are hunting for others. The Governor of the state, Sergei Melikov described the attacks as the latest assault on fraternity and multiethnic unity.
Dagestan’s Interior Ministry said a group of armed men shot at a synagogue and a church in the city of Derbent, located on the Caspian Sea. Simultaneously, reports appeared about an attack on a church and a traffic police post in the Dagestan capital, Makhachkala.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee described the incidents as terrorist attacks in the predominantly Muslim region with a history of armed insurgency.
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In Tamil Nadu, Fishermen of Rameswaram are on a day long strike today demanding the release of the twenty two fishermen who were caught by the Srilankan Navy for trespassing into the international waters yesterday. On Saturday, 5000 fishermen went in 507 boats for fishing, out of this, 22 fishermen in three boats were surrounded by the Srilankan Navy for trespassing into international waters. They were handed over to the Jaffna Court.
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that heavy to very heavy rainfall will continue along the Indian West Coast during next 5 days. Talking to Akashwani News, IMD scientist R K Jenamani said that heavy to very heavy rainfall will occur over parts of Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep and Tamil Nadu during the next 5 days.
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External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar has greeted all Passport Authorities in India and abroad on the occasion of 12th Passport Seva Divas. In a social media post, Dr. Jaishankar commended the efforts of all the authorities in furthering India’s mission of a citizen centric foreign policy. He also lauded the widespread recognition of the significant development in the passport delivery programme over the time. Dr. Jaishankar said, the Ministry of External Affairs reaffirms its commitment to make passport services more timely, reliable, accessible, citizen-friendly, transparent and accessible.
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In the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup, South Africa have entered the Semi Finals beating a formidable West Indies by three wickets in a thrilling rain affected Super 8s game in Antigua, this morning.
Putting to bat first, West Indies were restricted to a manageable 135 for 8. South Africa achieved the revised target of 123 with five balls to spare.
Later today, India will take on Australia in a Super 8 encounter in St Lucia today. The match will begin at 8 PM Indian time.
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THE HEADLINES ONCE AGAIN::
- First session of 18th Lok Sabha begins with oath taking of newly elected Members of Parliament; Leader of the House Prime Minister Narendra Modi, first to take oath.
- Prime Minister says, his government always strive to take everyone along, build consensus to serve the country and fulfil people’s aspirations.
- Meteorological Department forecasts heavy to very heavy rainfall to continue along West Coast for next five days.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, intense phase of fighting in Rafah nearly over; Reiterates, war would continue until Hamas is completely uprooted.
- And in T-20 Men’s World Cup, South Africa enter Semi Finals beating West Indies in a super 8 encounter this morning; India to take on Australia in a Super 8 encounter in St Lucia this evening.
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