LEAD

Due to the heavy rains in the past few days, all schools across Noida and Greater Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar will remain closed on Monday for students of classes 1-12 as per an official order by the Noida DM. The shutdown is applicable to all school boards.

"Due to excessive rain in the district and keeping in view the possibility of excessive rain, the District Magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar has declared a holiday on October 10 (Monday) in government, semi-government aided and unaided recognized schools of all the boards operating from class 1 to 12 of the district," District School Inspector Dharamveer Singh said.

"Therefore, all the principals and headmasters should ensure compliance of the order," Singh stated in the order issued late Sunday night.

With the current impasse in the Supreme Court Collegium virtually blocking fresh appointments in existing vacancies in the apex court, the new collegium led by the next Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice D.Y. Chandrachud will have two years to fill up 18 vacancies — four current and 14 set to arise between October 2022 and September 2024.

Justice Chandrachud will be sworn in as India’s 50th CJI on 9 November and will demit office exactly two years later, on 10 November 2024. Of the 14 impending vacancies — two later this year, nine in 2023 and three in 2024 — the last one will arise in September 2024, just two months before his retirement.

Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, said that he will not withdraw his nomination for the post of Congress party president, adding that he was drawing huge support from the party leaders and cadres while interacting with media persons at Sathyamurthy Bhavan, the Congress state headquarters, here on Thursday. The polling for the Congress presidential election is scheduled to be held on October 17.

The former Union minister said, "Rumours that I am going to withdraw (nomination) are false. I am receiving so much support that if I wouldn't have been democratically inclined, I would have asked the other candidate to withdraw."

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, aspiring for a national role ahead of the 2024 election, launched the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), a new version of his party, at the recommended "auspicious time" of 1.19 pm today.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is now BRS, Rao declared after a meeting of his party. Workers celebrated by bursting crackers and splashing the party's colour pink on the city of Hyderabad.

The "name-change" was conveyed to the Election Commission, which has rules for recognising any party as national.

The new party, to be deemed a national entity, must be recognised as a state party in at least four states or has to have won six per cent of the votes in any four states and four Lok Sabha seats. Or the party must win two per cent Lok Sabha seats (11 seats) in at least three states. 

With Congress losing the chairmanship of the parliamentary committee on Home Affairs in the latest rejig announced on Tuesday, all key parliamentary panels -- External Affairs, Defence, and Finance -- lie with the ruling BJP. Besides Home Affairs, Congress was also not given the chairmanship of Information and Technology in the latest reconstitution of parliamentary panels, which happens annually. The chairmanship of two key parliamentary panels -- Commerce and Chemicals Fertilisers -- are yet to be announced and likely to be given to Congress, sources said.