From the Newsroom: PM Modi launches the second phase of the Ujjwala cooking gas scheme

Supreme Court fines all major political parties after holding them guilty of contempt of its 2020 order on disclosing criminal antecedents of candidates and the reasons for selecting them during the Bihar Assembly polls; Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai gives a slew of directions to the police including a tight vigil in the districts bordering with neighbouring states where the Covid-19 cases are on the rise and PM Modi launches the second phase of the Ujjwala cooking gas scheme.

In a development to check the criminalisation of politics, the Supreme Court on Tuesday fined all major political parties after holding them guilty of contempt of its 2020 order on disclosing criminal antecedents of candidates and the reasons for selecting them during the Bihar Assembly polls

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and B R Gavai stressed on the need for amendments in law to check criminals entering into polity, saying "a major surgery" was required for "weeding out the malignancy of criminalisation in politics".

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Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday gave a slew of directions to the police including a tight vigil in the districts bordering with neighbouring states where the Covid-19 cases are on rise, zero tolerance towards crime and crackdown on drug cases.

Hailing the police force in the state for their exemplary work during a review meeting at the Vidhana Soudha, Bommai directed the officials to create a peaceful environment in the state. The Chief Minister laid emphasis on containing Covid-19 to avoid a third wave.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said it was unfortunate that people had to wait decades for basics like hospitals, roads and electricity, indirectly targeting the previous governments as he launched the second phase of the Ujjwala cooking gas scheme.

"As we will be celebrating 75th year of Independence this year and look at the progress in the past seven-and-a-half decades, we feel that some situation and conditions should have changed decades ago," the prime minister said in his address.

Source: DHNS/ PTI