PARRikAR ADmittED tO DELHi AiimS
NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, was on Saturday admitted at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for further treatment and examination. Sources said Parrikar, 62, came to Delhi by a special chartered flight and reached AIIMS around 1.10 pm. He will be under observation of Dr Pramod Garg, Professor of Gastroenterology and Associate Dean (Research). No medical bulletin has been issued by the premier medical institute. Parrikar has been in and out of hospitals in US, Mumbai and Goa since February. The Goa CM also held meetings with Speaker Pramod Sawant and Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo amid talks of distribution of some portfolios currently being looked after by him. “Portfolios would be distributed today to existing ministers so that the administration of Goa can run smoothly and ministers can take decisions on any files. He will distribute 48 portfolios, but will keep two or three like Home, Finance, GAD for himself,” Lobo told reporters after meeting Parrikar at a private hospital in the beach village of Candolim, located 15 km from Panaji. Apart from key portfolios, Parrikar also holds charge of ministries allocated to Francis D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar, both of whom have been hospitalised due to severe ailments. The Election Commission (EC) is considering holding election to the Telangana Assembly along with those of four states—Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram—sometime in December. This is the picture that emerged after the two-day tour of an EC delegation headed by Senior Deputy Commissioner Umesh Sinha to Hyderabad on 11 and 12 September.
A few days ago it was rumoured that the EC might order polls in Telangana, where the ruling TRS government has dissolved the Assembly on 6 September, much ahead of the four state Assembly elections, possibly by the end of November.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in a party meeting claimed that elections will come within six weeks and he would be sworn in by early December.
The EC’s decision to suspend the revision of electoral rolls which would go on till 1 January 2019 and publication of draft rolls by 8 October 2018, fuelled the speculation that Telangana would be delinked from the four other states and polls here would be advanced. However, Sinha, at his wrap-up meeting with state officials and district collectors, hinted that they should be prepared for December polls.
Sinha met different stakeholders—officials and representatives of political parties—during his visit, and expressed satisfaction over the arrangements for elections at any time in the state.