NEWS

Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday said the name of the DGP will be finalised after consultation with state president Navjot Singh Sidhu, all ministers and MLAs. Channi said that the new DGP would be appointed as per the law and the state government has forwarded the panel of all senior police officers with 30 years of experience to the Centre. Channi said that no decision has been taken yet.

The appointment of Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota is a flashpoint between Channi and Sidhu as Sidhu stepped down from the post of the Punjab Congress chief expressing his objection to the DGP appointment.

Channi took a step back and said he was not rigid about the appointments. Navjot Sidhu can give his feedback and the party will consider those, he said and invited Navjot Sidhu for a talk. Following the meeting, Sidhu was reportedly satisfied and decided to continue in his post.

New Delhi:  NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday lauded Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari for using power effectively to carry out development. The two leaders from rival parties shared the dais at a function at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.

"I am attending this function because I was told that Gadkari was going to inaugurate many projects in Ahmednagar which would solve long-pending issues of the city, and he wants me to be present," Pawar said. Very often nothing happens once the stone-laying ceremony takes place for a project, the NCP leader said, adding, "But when it comes to Gadkari's projects, within a few days of the function one sees the work starting.

"Gadkari is a great example of how a people's representative can work for the development of the country," Pawar added. "I remember that before Gadkari took over this responsibility (of the ministry of road transport and highways), about 5,000 km of work had been done. But after he took over, the figure has crossed 12,000 km," the NCP chief said.

The much-awaited national rollout of Zydus Cadila’s Covid vaccine, ZyCoV-D, is going to take two more weeks.

“Different batches of ZyCoV-D are undergoing a final round of quality checks at the vaccine testing laboratory in Himachal Pradesh. If everything goes as per plan, the vaccine will be introduced in the immunisation programme by October 15-20,” NK Arora, chairman of the Centre’s Covid working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI), told to reporters on Sunday.

The three-dose needle-free ZyCoV-D vaccine, manufactured by Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila, is the first vaccine in India that has received emergency use authorisation (EUA) for being administered to people aged 12 years and above.

New Delhi: Army Chief Gen MM Naravane said on Saturday said that the Chinese troops have been deployed in “considerable numbers" across all eastern Ladakh and northern front, right up to India’s eastern command. Calling it a “matter of concern", the Army chief added that there has been an increase in the PLA’s deployment.

“Chinese have deployed in considerable numbers all across Eastern Ladakh and Northern front right up to our Eastern command. Definitely, there has been an increase in their deployment in the forward areas which remains a matter of concern for us," he was quoted as saying by ANI in Ladakh.

Naravane was in Leh town where world’s largest Khadi national flag was installed on October 2, on the occasion of 152nd birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.