BJP to go to polls in Goa under CM Sawant

New Delhi: The BJP has decided to project CM Pramod Sawant, 48, as its chief ministerial face in the upcoming Assembly election early next year. Sources said BJP President JP Nadda gave indications during his recent Goa visit that they will go to polls only under the leadership of Sawant, who had taken over as the CM on March 19, 2019, after the demise of Manohar Parrikar. The party admonished Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, who had defected to BJP in the last Assembly poll, to stop lobbying for the CM’s post and fall in line.

India slams ‘removal’ of Nishan Sahib from Afghan gurdwara

New Delhi: India has conde­m­n­ed the reported removal of a Sikh religious flag atop the roof of a gurdwara in Paktia province of Afghanistan, sources said on Friday. India’s firm belief has been that Afghanistan’s future must be the one where the interests of all sections of the Afghan society, including minorities and women, are protected, they said. “We have seen media reports on Nishan Sahib, a Sikh religious flag, having been removed atop the roof of Gurdwara Thala Sahib, Chamkani in Paktia province of Afghanistan,” said a source. “We condemn this act and reiterate India’s firm belief that Afghanistan’s future must be the one where the interests of all sections of the Afghan society, including minorities and women, are protected,” he said.

JEE-Mains results announced, 17 candidates score 100 percentile

New Delhi: Seventeen candidates have scored 100 percentile in the third edition of engineering entrance exam JEE-Main, results of which were declared by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Friday. The perfect scorers included Karnam Lokesh, Duggineni Venkata Paneesh, Pasala Veera Siva and Kanchanapalli Rahul Naidu from Andhra Pradesh, Vaibhav Vishal from Bihar, Anshul Verma from Rajasthan, Ruchir Bansal and Pravar Kataria from Delhi, Harsh and Anmol from Haryana, Gaurab Das from Karnataka, Polu Lakshmi Sai Lokesh Reddy, Madur Adarsh Reddy and Velavali Venkata from Telangana and Pal Aggarwal and Amaiya Singhal from Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 7.09 lakh candidates had registered for the exam conducted at 915 examination centres in 334 cities, including 12 cities outside India in Bahrain, Colombo, Doha, Dubai, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Lagos, Muscat, Riyadh, Sharjah, Singapore and Kuwait.

Anil Vij’s surprise check: 4 cops axed

Chandigarh: Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Friday cond­uc­ted a surprise inspection of Sector-5 police station in Panch­kula and ordered suspension of 4 personnel for alleged derelic­tion of duty. The 4 sus­pended cops include the station in-cha­rge and a police inspector, an official statement said. Vij said work is not being done in adhe­r­ence to law in the police station. Several applications were lying whose record has not been maintained or have not been registered by the "munshi" (police official) posted in the police station.

ED summons Mufti’s mother on Aug 18

Srinagar: ED on Friday summoned Gulshan Nazir, mother of former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti, on August 18. A summon issued by ED assistant director Sunil Kumar Meena has asked her to be present for questioning before the investigating officer on August 18.