07:41 Parrikar spoke to Shah, to continue as Goa CM: BJP leader: Manohar Parrikar, who has been admitted to hospital, spoke to Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah on Friday and it was decided that he would continue as the chief minister of Goa, a party leader said.
“Parrikar spoke to Shah and briefed him about the political situation in the state, and also informed him about his health condition. It was decided that Parrikar will continue as the chief minister but he might give some of his portfolios to his cabinet colleagues,” he told PTI.
“By next week, the government will work out the exact arrangement through which the work burden on Parrikar could be reduced. A thought would also be given to replacing the two ailing ministers in the cabinet, Pandurang Madkaikar and Francis D’Souza,” the leader said.
Both Madkaikar and D’Souza are currently hospitalised.
Earlier in the day, Goa BJP held a meeting of its state-level core committee.
The core committee later met Parrikar.
Parrikar, who returned from the United States after medical check-up on September 7, was admitted to a private hospital at Candolim in North Goa district on Thursday evening.
Earlier this year he underwent three-month-long treatment in the US for a pancreatic ailment. — PTI
00:08 Blast in Jalandhar police station, terror angle not ruled out:
A blast occurred in Maqsudan police station in a busy area of Punjab’s Jalandhar city on Friday evening, in which a police personnel sustained minor injuries, police said.
They said the possibility of a terror angle or even plain mischief could not be ruled out at this stage.
The blast, caused by some crude explosive, in all likelihood was triggered after the explosive material was hurled inside the police station, the police said.
The incident created panic as the police station is located in a busy area.
“The police station is housed in a building of a primary health centre. It appears that someone hurled some explosive from outside. The police station is open from two sides and has low boundary wall,” Jalandhar Police Commissioner Praveen Kumar Sinha told PTI over phone.
At the time of the incident, Maqsudan Police Station’s SHO was holding a meeting with some other personnel posted there. Sinha said a police personnel sustained minor injuries.
“We will investigate case from all angles,” he said.
Asked if it was an attempt to blow up the police station and if there was a terror angle, he said, “it’ll be presumptuous to say anything at this stage, but at the same time nothing can be ruled out. It can be anything. It can also be a mischief on someone’s part. But we are taking it very seriously.”
“We have cordoned off the area and security has been stepped up in entire Jalandhar,” he said.
A case has been registered against unidentified persons under provisions of the IPC and the Explosives Act, he added. Forensic team has been summoned and the CCTV footage will be examined, he said. — PTI
Source: Rediff