News Analysis India

Tag: Jai Ram Thakur

  • Efforts on to bring Hindu man’s body from Saudi Arabia after exhumation: Himachal CM

    By PTI
    SHIMLA: Efforts are being made to bring back the mortal remains of a Hindu man hailing from Himachal Pradesh who was wrongly buried in Saudi Arabia as per Muslim custom, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said in the Assembly on Saturday.

    Speaking in the Assembly on the last day of the Budget Session, Thakur said the state government took up the matter with the Centre and the Saudi Arabia Consulate General after it was raised in the House on March 16.

    The chief minister said that he had also personally talked to the external affairs minister.

    Raising the matter in the Assembly, Una MLA Satpal Singh Raizada said Sanjeev Kumar Sharma died due to cardiac arrest on January 24 in Saudi Arabia where he had been working for three years.

    His mortal remains were buried “due to a mistake committed by the official translator of Indian Consulate, Jeddah, who wrongly mentioned his religion as “Muslim’ in the death certificate”.

    Thakur said that the Consulate General of India in Jeddah informed through an e-mail that “we have taken up the matter with the local Foreign Office, Governorate Office, Jijan and other local authorities to exhume and repatriate the mortal remains of late Mr.

    Sanjeev Kumar Sharma at the earliest. ” “Officer of Consulate are on visit to Governorate, Jizan to expedite exhumation of mortal remains,” it added.

    The e-mail further stated that the Consulate General had also taken up the matter with the local foreign office to instruct the authorities concerned to probe into the circumstances leading to the burial without any information even to Sharma’s sponsor.

  • Himachal Pradesh MLAs to get full salary from April, MLALAD fund fully restored

    By PTI
    SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur announced on Saturday that the salaries of state MLAs will be paid in full from April 1 and the MLA local area development (MLALAD) fund will be fully restored.

    The state government had last year decided to cut 30 per cent salaries of its MLAs and suspend the MLALAD fund for two years to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Presenting the budget for the fiscal 2021-22, Thakur announced in the assembly that the MLAs will get their full salary from April 1.

    Thakur, who also holds the finance portfolio, said the MLALAD fund will not only be restored but it will be hiked by Rs 5 lakh from the earlier Rs 1.75 crore to Rs 1.80 crore.

    Presenting his fourth budget, Thakur said the Planning Department of the state would be renamed as Niti Vibhag.

  • Himachal Governor ‘manhandled’ in Assembly complex, five Congress MLAs suspended

    By PTI
    SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh Governor Bandaru Dattatraya was allegedly manhandled by some Congress members in the Assembly complex on Friday, following which five MLAs were suspended for the remainder of the Budget Session.

    The incident took place outside the Speaker’s office when the Governor was leaving for the Raj Bhavan after he cut short his adresss in the House following a ruckus create by the Congress on the opening day of the Budget session.

    Speaker Vipin Parmar said the Opposition members tried to stop the Governor, who was accompanied by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, when he was going towards his cavalcade.

    They hit on the Governor’s back with copies of his address.

    They also hit the bonnet of the Governor’s car, the Speaker said, adding that he is examining the Assembly rules to lodge an FIR against the Congress legislators.

    The Speaker told PTI that this is for the first time in the history of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly that a Governor was manhandled by Opposition members.

    After the incident, the Speaker suspended Leader of Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri and four other Congress MLAs Harsh Vardhan Chauhan, Satpal Raizada, Sunder Singh and Vinay Kuma for the entire Budget session till March 20 on a motion moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj.

    Earlier, the Congress MLAs created a ruckus in the House during the Governor’s address.

    He then skipped to the last sentence after reading initial few pages and stated that the entire speech should be deemed as read.

    Suspended Congress MLA Harsh Vardhan Chauhan told PTI that they were waiting outside the Speaker’s office and just wanted to ask the Governor why he cut short his address but they were not allowed to do so.

    He alleged that it was Deputy Speaker Hans Raj who manhandled the MLAs, a charge denied by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Bhardwaj, who said the Congress legislators had planned to create a scene.

    Chauhan also said they did not have any intention of manhandling the governor.

    “If any FIR is registered against us, we will not go to the court for bail, rather we will prefer to be arrested,” he said, adding that the suspended Congress MLAs will sit outside the Assembly during the Budget session.

    Earlier, while moving the motion in the House, Bhardwaj said Chief Minister Thakur had termed the manhandling an “attack on the governor”.

    It reflected the frustration of Congress MLAs after the party’s defeat in the recent panchayat elections, Bhardwaj added.

    The Assembly, which was adjourned till 2 pm on Monday earlier in the day, was reconvened at 1 pm on Friday to consider the motion moved by Bhardwaj.

    No Congress MLA was present in the House at the time of suspension of the five MLAs.

    The session is scheduled to conclude on March 20.

    The chief minister will present the Budget for 2021-22 in the Assembly on March 6, Speaker Vipin Parmar had said on Thursday.

  • Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur tests positive for Covid-19

    Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur has tested positive for coronavirus. Thakur has gone into home isolation after he tested positive for Covid-19.

    “A few days ago, due to in contact with a corona positive person, I was quarantined at my residence for the past one week, due to some symptoms of the virus from last two days, I got a Covid-19 test done today, which has been reported positive. I am isolated in my official residence on the advice of doctors,” the Chief Minister tweeted, roughly translated from Hindi.