NEWS

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said she would be on a maiden visit to Goa on October 28, and appealed to political parties and individuals to join her party in defeating the ruling BJP in the state, where Assembly polls are due early next year.

The West Bengal Chief Minister's party has already announced its decision to contest the Assembly elections in Goa. "As I prepare for my maiden visit to Goa on 28th, I call upon all individuals, organizations and political parties to join forces to defeat the BJP and their divisive agenda. The people of Goa have suffered enough over the last 10 years," Banerjee said on Twitter.

"Together, we will usher in a new dawn for Goa by forming a new govt that will truly be a govt of the people of Goa and committed to realizing their aspirations! #GoenchiNaviSakal," she added. The party had earlier announced that Banerjee would be visiting the state by the end of this month.

Within a week of reporting zero Covid-19 deaths, Mumbai recorded a spike in virus cases, accounting for 27 per cent of total virus cases in Maharashtra.

Mumbai reported 1,573 new coronavirus cases and 39 fatalities on Thursday, taking the state tally to 65,98,218 and the death toll to 1,39,925. Mumbai reported the highest 427 new infections among the districts. Of eight administrative regions of Maharashtra, the Mumbai region reported the highest 708 new COVID-19 cases, followed by 458 cases from Pune region.

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived here on Saturday for his first visit to Jammu and Kashmir since Article 370 was revoked in August 2019 and drove straight to meet the family of a police officer killed by terrorists. He later chaired a meeting to review the security situation in the Valley.

The home minister, who is here on a three-day visit, was received at the technical airport here by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and advisor Farooq Khan. It was a day of heavy rain and snow in several parts of the Valley. If the weather holds, he will visit Jammu on Sunday to address a public rally and return to Srinagar, officials said.

Number one on his agenda was meeting the family of Jammu and Kashmir Police Inspector Parvaiz Ahmad who was shot dead by terrorists on June 22 near his home in Nowgam on the outskirts of the city while he was returning after offering evening prayers at a mosque.

The Centre has told the Supreme Court that West Bengal’s power to withhold consent to the CBI is not absolute and the probe agency is entitled to carry out investigations that are being carried out against Central government employees or have a pan-India impact.

The Centre submitted an affidavit in response to a lawsuit by the West Bengal government which alleged that the CBI is going ahead with the investigation in post-poll violence cases without securing the pre-requisite nod from the state under the law.