IEP Chandigarh, April 10

The Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau has arrested a Sub-Inspector (SI) posted at Kalanwali police station in Sirsa district red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 7,000.Sharing this information here today, a spokesperson of the Bureau said that the accused police officer has been identified as Bhal Singh. The accused was demanding Rs 15,000 bribe in lieu of securing bail for a friend of the complainant who was arrested in a case registered under NDPS Act at Kalanwali police station.The Sub-Inspector posted at Kalanwali police station was arrested on the complaint of Gurvinder Singh, a resident of village Dadu in Kalanwali. In the complaint given to the ACB, it was alleged that the accused police officer was demanding Rs 15,000 bribe in lieu of securing bail in a case already registered at Kalanwali police station. The accused had already taken Rs 8000 from complainant.Upon receiving the complaint and after verifying the facts, a team of ACB was constituted which laid a trap and caught the accused Sub-Inspector red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs.7000.The spokesperson said that investigation is being done by registering a case against the accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

IEP Chandigarh, April 9

Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the present state government is committed to economically uplifting the poor and needy and every poor has first right on the government. He said that the present State Government is continuously working for the welfare of those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid.

“Devoted efforts have been made to ensure that the benefits of every single welfare scheme reach the actual beneficiaries. The biggest example of these steps can be gauged from the fact that ration cards of 2.30 lakh families whose cards were erroneously deleted due to income-related errors in the Parivar Pehchan Patra have been re-issued,” said Sh. Manohar Lal while interacting with some of such ration card holders through audio conferencing on Saturday.

Now the voices of the poor are also being heard, beneficiaries

Thanking the Chief Minister the beneficiaries said that now the voices of the poor are also being heard and it is only because of the transparent policy of the state government that now the eligible and actual citizens are getting the benefits of the schemes.

Beneficiaries said that the manner, in which their ration cards were re-made by taking quick action on the complaint raised before the Chief Minister regarding the discontinuation of ration benefits, shows the accountability and sensitivity of the government towards the beneficiaries.

Inspired by the request made by Haryana Chief Minister to the families who have risen above the BPL list to leave their benefits for those who actually deserve it, Ambala resident Ajay Kumar, a mechanic by profession promised Sh. Manohar Lal that the day his income will increase above Rs 1.80 lakh, he himself would give up all the benefits he is getting from the government.

Acting promptly on the request made by a BPL beneficiary Dalip Singh, resident of village Pichopa Khurd, district Charkhi Dadri regarding the issuance of an Ayushman card the Chief Minister immediately directed the Deputy Commissioner to ensure that Dalip’s Ayushman card is made at the earliest. Similarly, Bhim Singh, a resident of Prem Nagar, Hisar, also thanked the Chief Minister for getting his BPL card re-issued.

The Chief Minister said that many times the government has received complaints that the ration cards of actual beneficiaries have not been made, while the ineligible were taking the benefits. He said that in a bid to address all such complaints, a first-of-its-kind initiative was started by the state government and PPP cards of about 72 lakh families were generated. A survey of the families was conducted. Not only this, earlier the income eligibility limit of BPL was Rs. 1.20 lakh annually, which has now been increased to Rs 1.80 lakh.

“After all these procedures, the process of making automatic ration cards through PPP was started and in the month of January, about 12.5 lakh new ration cards have been made. Now only eligible people are getting the benefits of government facilities,” shared Sh. Manohar Lal.

The Chief Minister said that gradually it also came to the notice of the State Government that some families which were earlier included in the BPL category have become financially affluent. Besides this, it was also found that some members of these families who have now risen above the BPL slab had also got a job and were paying income tax as well.

He further shared that in January 2023 itself, the beneficiaries who claimed that their ration card benefits have been discontinued were requested to register their complaints through the portal. After receiving the complaints, the ration cards of about 2.30 lakh families were re-issued after a thorough verification process. Besides this, free ration of January month has also been given to all such families.

IEP Chandigarh, April 10

      With the flagging off bus service of Punjab Roadways/PUNBUS from Patti to Shimla by Punjab Transport Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, it is the first time in the history when the public bus service has been started on this prestigious route from the border area to hilly state.          The Cabinet Minister, while addressing the media persons at the Patti bus stand, said that keeping the convenience of the general people in mind, Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann led government is plying various inter-state buses from different cities of the state.          He informed that this bus will depart from Patti Bus Stand at 10:20 AM and reach Shimla at 10:30 PM via Amritsar, Jalandhar and Chandigarh. The next morning, it will return from Shimla at 7:10 AM and reach Patti at 7:30 PM via same route. The one way bus fare will be Rs.585, he added.          The Transport Minister said that Punjab Roadways/PUNBUS has registered a record increase in income during the last financial year. In the fiscal year 2022-23, Punjab Roadways/PUNBUS has collected Rs.700.88 crore against Rs.547.08 crore of the financial year 2021-22, and Rs.153.80 crore increase becomes 28.11 per cent. He said that the revenue of the Punjab Roadways/PUNBUS is in an upward trend, hence the more buses would run from other cities in the coming days.          The Cabinet Minister said, the officials of the department have already been instructed to prioritize plying of buses from the required destinations as per the demand of the people so that economical and comfortable bus service can be provided to the people.          S. Laljit Singh Bhullar said, with the transparent and seamless policies of the Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann, the transport department is on the path of progress. The Mann government has started luxurious volvo bus service at three times cheap fare from Punjab to Delhi International Airport and now about 25 buses are plying from various cities of the state.

IEP Chandigarh, April 10

     In view of the upcoming paddy season, Punjab Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO on Sunday visited ongoing Ranjit Sagar Dam and Shahpurkandi projects.          The Cabinet Minister assessed the ground reality of the work at power house & grid sub-station and assured that Ranjit Sagar Dam project will be functional on its full capacity to supply power during the ensuing paddy season.          While visiting the Shahpur Kandi Dam project, the Power Minister directed officials of PSPCL and Water Resources Department to complete the project within the certain amount of time. Expressing satisfaction with the ongoing works at Ranjit Sagar Dam and Shahpurkandi, Harbhajan Singh ETO said that these projects will play a vanguard role in the field of power generation after completion.          On this occasion, the Power Minister also visited the Martyrdom Memorial of Ranjit Sagar Dam and paid homage to the workers who were martyred during the construction of this prestigious dam.          PSPCL Chief Engineer Hydel Projects Inderpal Singh, Deputy Chief Engineer Ravinder Kumar, Water Resources Department Engineer Jasveer Pal and Executive Engineer Lakhwinder Singh were present on this occasion. 

IEP Chandigarh 

Prof. Sonu Goel from Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh was awarded prestigious Dr. J.E Park Oration at National Conference of Indian Public Health Association (IPHA) at Kolkata, thus becoming youngest public health fraternity in the country to have been bestowed this oration. He had already received fellowships from all 3 prestigious public health organizations namely Indian Public Health Association, IAPSM and International Medical Science Academy and MNAMS before attaining age of 40 years, besides bestowed with Dr. Vasudeva Oration and Dr. Harcharan Singh Oration by Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine at very young age. The presentation during oration on ‘Public Health Leadership: Transformation of Dream to reality’ summarised his journey of taking specialisation of management and leadership from local to national and international level. His inspiring talk was a tribute to young and emerging leaders in the discipline, and also provided leadership and management lessons to them to excel higher in career and life.  Dr. Goel has over 200 publications, edited 3 text-books on management and administration (by Elsevier’s and Oxford University Press), produced 12 films on national health programs and wrote 35 chapters in various books on public health. He has Independently completed over 80 projects with around 25 sub-national, national, and international public health organizations.  Dr Goel had also conceived two flagship programs of Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India namely International Public Health Management Development Program and Public Health Policy and Management in which trained over 1000 senior executives from over 85 countries in last 6 years and initiated Executive Leadership Program for Government of Odisha and National Health Mission, Uttarakhand in collaboration with Mahidol University, Thailand and National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Dr. Goel is adjunct Professor at two eminent global universities- Swansea University, United Kingdom and University of Limerick, Ireland. He is Chair of The Union’s Tobacco control Section and Chair-MPOWER Global Working Group on Tobacco Control.  He had also received visiting scholarships from Johns Hopkins (United States), International Union against TB and Lung Diseases, University Grants commission, Indian Council of Medical Research. He had won ‘Public Health Excellence of India’ award in 2016 and many other awards including best researcher award (twice) by PGIMER, Chandigarh. He is an Aluminus of Maastricht University, The Netherlands and John Hopkins School of Public Health, United States. He is widely travelled and had visited more than 45 countries to disseminate his research findings. 

IEP Chandigarh

The 2day workshop and CME organized at PGIMER, Chandigarh by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in collaboration with Obstetrics and Gynecology Society of Northern India (affiliated to  FOGSI ) concluded on Sunday. The CME on day 2 saw participation of more than 150 delegates from  city beautiful and nearby areas. The day began with a plenary session on “Anemia Mukt Bharat” by Dr Manju Puri from Delhi. This was followed by lectures on fetal medicine and complications of multiple  pregnancy by experts of international fame like Dr. Mandakini Pradhan from SGPGI Lucknow and Dr Suresh Seshadri from Mediscan Systems, Chennai. Practical tips from Dr. J.B. Sharma (AIIMS, Delhi) kept the gathering amused. The session on Gynecological Oncology and panel discussion on new Indian  Regulations on ART and Surrogacy made the academic program complete. Inspite of scrotching heat, the  budding gynecologists left no stone unturned in displaying their research work in the form of posters and paper presentations. Overall, the weekend was an academic feast in itself and was a huge success.