Some familiar faces return to 17th Lok Sabha
New Delhi: Some familiar faces, who were not part of the previous Lok Sabha, returned to the House taking oath as new members on Monday.
These include former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, DMK's top guns Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and T R Balu, senior Congress leader from Goa Francisco Sardinha and former union minister Manish Tewari.
Union Ministers Amit Shah, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Smriti Irani and DMK leader Kanizmohi, who were members of Rajya Sabha, became Lok Sabha members for the first time and attended the session on the opening day.
Union Ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and S Jaishankar, who are not members of either House, were also present in the House. While Akhilesh was seen sitting in one of the last rows, his father Mulayam Singh was seated in the first row.
NCP leader Supriya Sule, who was also a Rajya Sabha member till 2014, was seen giving a hug to Kanizmohi.
Before the House met for the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen greeting senior opposition leaders UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Mulayam Singh Yadav, TMC leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Banerjee besides Maran and others.
Sule was also seen introducing two other NCP MPs to some of the Union Ministers besides Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah and others.
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'Someone must be held accountable': HC converts civil suit on Goa nightclub tragedy into PIL
Panaji (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Monday converted a civil suit against Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) saying "someone has to be held accountable" for the tragedy in which 25 people were killed.In a stern observation, Goa bench of the High Court of Justices Sarang Kotwal and Ashish Chavan said the local panchayat had "failed to take suo motu cognisance" of the club and had taken "no action despite complaints."
The division bench directed the Goa government to file a detailed reply on the permissions granted to the nightclub.
The High Court, while fixing January 8 as the next date of hearing, pointed out that commercial operations were continuing in the structure despite it having been served a demolition order.
The original petition was filed after the December 6 tragedy by Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar and Sunil Divkar, the owners of the land on which the nightclub was operating.
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Advocate Rohit Bras de Sa, the lawyer representing the petitioner, was made amicus curiae in the matter and has been asked to file a detailed affidavit in the matter.
In their petition, Amonkar and Divkar highlighted "the alarming pattern of statutory violations that have remained inadequately addressed despite multiple complaints, inspections, show-cause notices, and even a demolition order".
They contended that these violations posed "immediate threats to public safety, ecological integrity, and the rule of law in the state of Goa."
Investigations by multiple agencies into the nightclub fire have revealed various irregularities, including lack of permissions to operate the nightclub.
The Goa police arrested five managers and staff members of the club, while co-owners Gaurav Luthra and Saurabh Luthra have been detained in Thailand after they fled the country.
