Man gets life imprisonment for murdering teenage Indian wife in London
Chandigarh, March 16-
Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh took charge of his new office at the Punjab Secretariat hereon Thursday afternoon amid multi-religious prayers.
The second floor office of Punjab’s 26th chief minister reverberated with the chanting of sacred hymns from the Bhagwad Gita, the Guru Granth Sahib, the Quran and the Bible as he entered it in the company of several of his newly inducted ministerial colleagues, MLAs and close aides and associates.
This is the second time that Captain Amarinder will occupy the Punjab chief minister’s stately office. He first occupied the office during his previous term as chief minister from 2002 to 2007.
An air of festivity prevailed at the Secretariat as Captain Amarinder stepped into it to take over the reins of Punjab’s new Congress government after an emphatic win in the recently concluded assembly polls. Captain Amarinder, along with a 9-member council of ministers, had taken the oath of office earlier in the morning at the Punjab Raj Bhawan in the presence of several prominent dignitaries, including AICC vice president Captain Amarinder Singh and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Immediately after assuming charge, Captain Amarinder said he was committed to fulfilling all his electoral promises and his government would take several important decisions in this regard at its first cabinet meeting scheduled for Saturday (March 18). He reiterated his promise to constitute a Special Task Force (STF) to wipe out the drugs menace from the state within four weeks, as promised in the Congress poll manifesto.
Captain Amarinder said farm loan waiver, industrial revival and employment were some of the other programmes high on his government’s agenda, which he would take up on priority.
The Chief Minister was accompanied, among others, by state cabinet ministers Mr. Brahm Mohindra and Mr. Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, minister of state Ms. Razia Sultan, MLAs Gurmeet Singh Rana Sodhi, Mr Raj Kumar Verka, Mr Parminder Singh Pinki, Mr Vijay Inder Singla, Mr Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Mr Sukhbinder Singh Sukhsarkaria and Mr Gurkirat Kotli, Mr Sukhpal Singh Bhullar. Former Punjab minister Mr Mohinder Singh Kay Pee, former MLAs Mr Kewal Singh Dhillon and Mr Ranjit Singh Chajjalwandi were also present, besides the new Chief Secretary Mr Karan Avtar Singh and Director General of Police Mr Suresh Arora.
