The 17 related ministries have been combined into seven different groups, including some infrastructure departments, in a bid to ensure synergy and better results.
The victim was a farmer apparently taking part in the protest in the district's Longowal area, where police were trying to stop protesters from blocking a national highway and a toll plaza, officials said.
'We always had a doubt that Sidhu would not campaign against the Badals.'
Badal said the farmers are waging a bitter struggle in the severe cold just to secure their fundamental right to life.
The red beacons were removed from the vehicles of the chief minister and other members of the council of ministers. Additionally, a ban on the foreign travel of ministers for two years and organising of banquets on state expense has been imposed.
After intense confabulations and consensus-building lasting over eight hours, BJP on Wednesday announced the names of 62 candidates for Delhi assembly elections and decided to field former state unit president Vijendra Gupta against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
Farmer outfits on Friday started mobilising more batches of peasants from Haryana and Punjab to head towards Delhi's borders to join the ongoing agitation against agri laws, even as political parties such as the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Indian National Lok Dal threw their weight behind them.
Asserting that he is neither retired nor tired, Singh says the urge to make Punjab and the country a better place keeps him going at this age.
At the time of ticket distribution, the top BJP leadership preferred the turncoats over its loyal workers.
In an apparent move to avoid stoking a fresh controversy as the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to terms with a bitter separation from the Janata Dal-United, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has declined an invitation to visit Ayodhya, his office said on Tuesday.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Congress on Friday downplayed Narendra Modi's anointment as BJP's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, while the Samajwadi Party said his "dream will never come true".
The prime minister addressed a gathering at Hussainiwala.
Leaders from all political parties welcomed the conviction of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Manoj Sonkar on Tuesday defeated Aam Aadmi Party's Kuldeep Kumar to win the post of mayor in the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday said he would file a defamation case against Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejirwal, who has dubbed him as a dishonest man after the Enforcement Directorate carried out raids at many places, including at the premises of the Congress leader's nephew.
Kumari, who is an MLA from Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh, was given one-year imprisonment by a Chamba court in February this year but is currently on bail.
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
The President's assent to these bills comes amid the Opposition criticising the manner in which they were passed in Parliament.
Amit Shah wants to increase the party's nationwide vote share by at least 10 per cent from the 37.7 per cent it secured five years ago and ensure above 50 per cent vote share in the states where it came close to that benchmark, but couldn't cross it.
Several candidates, including Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the BJP's Amritsar candidate, are promising resumption of India-Pakistan trade via the Attari-Wagah land route.
An explosion took place at the headquarters of the intelligence wing of the Punjab police in Mohali Monday night, sources said in Chandigarh.
With the talks between the Centre and the agitating farmer unions stalled since January, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday expressed readiness to resume the dialogue to resolve their objections to the three new agri laws, but the unions remained adamant on their demands for a repeal of the legislations and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price.
'This is evidently pure vendetta politics and may even end up helping the Akalis in the elections'
In a sarcastic move, some BJP MPs on Tuesday offered roses to their Congress rivals in the Lok Sabha who were protesting inside the well over alleged atrocities against Dalit youths in Punjab.
Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi's remarks on ending caste-based reservations and seeking a quota based on economic criteria created a stir on Wednesday, with the Samajwadi Party stoutly opposing the proposal and the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiromani Akali Dam questioning its timing.
Two lecturers -- one from Nabha and another from Patiala -- wanted to be posted to a government polytechnic institute at Patiala.
Lunch with BS: Sukhbir Singh Badal, deputy chief minister, Punjab
Punjab has over 400,000 employees and pensioners and about 125,000 staff members in its corporations and boards.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
In the 35-member municipal House, the BJP has 17 councillors. The number of BJP's strength increased from 14 to 17 after three Aam Aadmi Party councillors switched over to it on February 19. The AAP has 10 members while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor.
Before his legislative assembly debut this time, he has been elected twice as a Member of Parliament from Sangrur.
Among these are Labh Singh Ugoke, who defeated former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in the Bhadaur assembly segment by a margin of 37,558 votes, and Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, who beat Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal in his traditional Lambi seat by 11,396 votes.
Vowing to raise voice for farmers on very platform, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said government should take into account their concerns and not just extend monetary assistance.
Both the BJP and Congress understand that coalitions and alliances are not just about numbers, but have symbolic value.
"Making a person belonging to Dalit caste as the chief minister of Punjab is nothing but an election stunt. I have come to know through the media today that assembly elections in Punjab will be fought under a non-Dalit leader and not under Channi," Mayawati told newspersons in Lucknow
They try to hide behind the smokescreen that these are works of fiction inspired by real events. So, you can pick and choose from facts and fictionalise to push the right triggers with your audience or appease the powers that be, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday declared a list of 62 candidates out of a total of 70 for the February 7 Delhi assembly elections, with its chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi contesting from Krishna Nagar and former Union Minister Krishna Tirath from Patel Nagar seat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentary board has announced the name of Kiran Bedi as the chief ministerial candidate of the party for the Delhi assembly election on Monday. This was announced by party president Amit Shah. She will contest from the Krishna Nagar constituency in Delhi.
