Swearing-in of new Chhattisgarh CM on December 13 in Raipur; PM Modi to attend
Raipur, Dec 11: Chhattisgarh's chief minister-designate and BJP leader Vishnu Deo Sai will take oath along with his cabinet colleagues on December 13 at a ceremony in Raipur in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other dignitaries, it was announced on Monday.
Besides Sai (59), who will be the BJP's first tribal CM, his council of ministers will also be sworn-in at the ceremony, an official release said.
As per constitutional norms, Chhattisgarh, which has a 90-member assembly, can have a maximum of 13 ministers, including the CM.
The swearing-in ceremony will be held at Science College Ground in the state capital at 2 pm, the release issued by the state public relations department said.
Besides Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya, party's Chhattisgarh in-charge Om Mathur and CMs of some other states will be present at the function, it said.
Sai, a prominent tribal face of the saffron outfit in the state, was on Sunday elected as the legislature party leader at a meeting attended by all the 54 newly-elected BJP MLAs here.
The BJP won 54 out of the total 90 assembly seats in the state.
The Congress, which won 68 seats in 2018, was reduced to a tally of just 35 this time around. The Gondwana Gantantra Party, a regional outfit, managed to win in one segment.
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Kashmir reels under intense cold conditions; Srinagar experiences coldest night
Srinagar (PTI): Srinagar experienced the coldest night of the season so far as Kashmir reeled under intense cold conditions with the minimum temperature plummeting several degrees below the freezing point, officials said here on Thursday.
A thin layer of fog was also witnessed in many parts of Srinagar city which recorded a minimum temperature of minus 6 degrees Celsius, down from minus 4.5 degrees Celsius the previous night, the officials said.
Wednesday night was the coldest of the season so far in the city, and the night temperature was 4 degrees below the normal for this part of the season.
They said the intense cold conditions led to the freezing of the fringes of several water bodies, including the famous Dal Lake here, while water supply lines in many areas of the city here and elsewhere in the valley were also frozen due to the biting cold.
The long dry spell in the city and other areas in the plains has resulted in the increase in ailments like cough and common cold.
Tourist resort Pahalgam in south Kashmir, which also serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath Yatra, recorded a low of minus 6.8 degrees Celsius, a degree down from the previous night.
The famous ski-resort of Gulmarg recorded a low of minus 5 degrees Celsius. Konibal, a hamlet on the outskirts of Pampore town, was the coldest weather station in the valley as the minimum settled at the low of minus 8.4 degrees Celsius.
The minimum temperature in Qazigund -- the gateway to Kashmir -- was minus 7 degrees Celsius, Kupwara in north Kashmir minus 6.2 degrees, and Kokernag in south Kashmir minus 5.3 degrees.
The Met office has forecast mainly dry weather till December 26 with a possibility of light snowfall in higher reaches of the valley on the night of December 21-22.
It said light snow over few higher reaches is also possible from December 27 night to the morning of December 28.
However, the minimum temperature is forecast to fall further in the valley and there will be a cold wave at isolated to scattered places during the next few days, it said.
