IEP Chandigarh, October 31

Haryana Police has arrested the kingpin of cattle thieves’ gang of Uttar Pradesh region, who stole cattle from Haryana and Punjab areas, from Hisar district. A reward of Rs 25,000 was declared on his arrest.

Sharing the information here today, a Haryana Police spokesperson informed that the arrested accused had been identified as Arshad aka Data, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. The arrest of the accused has helped the police to solve many cases of buffalo theft registered in Hisar, Bhiwani, Jind, Hansi, Ambala, Panipat and Sonipat districts.

It has also been revealed that he along with his associates had stolen cattle from Bathinda, Rampura and Barnala areas in Punjab. He was arrested from Barwala bus stand after getting a secret input. Also, he has been found involved in 25 criminal cases registered in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.

During preliminary interrogation, the accused confessed that after stealing the buffaloes, he sells them to cattle fairs and other places in Uttar Pradesh. The accused kept hiding in Himachal, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad to evade arrest.       

Three of his aides namely Gufraan, Dharmendra and Sajid, all natives of Uttar Pradesh with whom he used to steal cattle have already been arrested soon after the matter was reported to the police in  2019. The kingpin of the gang Arshad was absconding since then.

It was also revealed that during the theft, the accused have also committed incidents of murder and attempt to murder. On being chased by the police, the accused have also attacked the police parties and also hit the police vehicles. Gurfaan, already arrested in the case, is the brother of accused Arshad.

IEP Chandigarh, October 31

To commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Haryana Police today observed Rashtriya Ekta Diwas also known as National Unity Day across the state.

On this occasion, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Admin & IT, Haryana, Dr. A.S. Chawla administered the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas pledge to the officers and staff posted at Police Headquarters. The senior police officers were also present to take part in the event.

Remembering Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s contribution in nation-building, Dr. Chawla said that everyone should dedicate themselves to preserve the unity, integrity and security of the nation and also strive hard to spread this message among all fellow countrymen.

Prominent amongst those present on the occasion are Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Sh. Sandeep Khirwar, AIG (Provisioning) Sh. Kamaldeep Goyal, SP Law and Order Smt. Smiti Choudhry, SP Welfare Sh. Rajiv Deswal, Additional Director Legal, Sh. Sat Parkash and other officers.

To mark the event, a pledge-taking ceremony to maintain the unity, integrity, and security of the nation was also organized in all Police ranges and Police Commissionerates, besides the district police headquarters.

IEP Chandigarh, October 31

Under the efforts of the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led government to curb the stubble burning incidents in the state, Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua, on Monday, instructed to effectively control the incidents of paddy stubble burning in probable areas where such incidents are likely to take place.

The Chief Secretary, while presiding over a high-level meeting on stubble management, took stock of the incidents of stubble burning with the Secretary in-charges of the districts, who recently visited their allotted districts and received suggestions from them as per the local situation. Mr. Janjua instructed to determine the responsibility of the Numbardars to prevent paddy stubble burning incidents, saying that the Numbardars should be entrusted upon the duty to sensitize farmers not to burn crop residue, and the accountability of the Numbardars should be fixed if the fire incidents take place in their concerned villages.

The Chief Secretary directed the officials to pay more attention during the next few days to prevent incidents of stubble burning and control fire incidents. “There should be more focus on hot-spots of stubble burning and the administration should be more vigilant in the villages, where cases of fire have been reported in the last few years”, said the Chief Secretary, adding that physical and satellite verification of stubble burning sites should be conducted more thoroughly. Expressing concern over the difference in number of stubble burning incidents through physical and satellite verification, he categorically asked the officials to focus on area captured by optical satellite data analysis by the Punjab Remote Sensing Center (PRSC).

The secretary-in-charges, who visited the districts recently, apprised the chief secretary that reduction in fire incidents in the state has been noticed and informed that area under which stubble was burnt till 27th October 2021 was 400.35 thousand hectares which has been brought down to 295.60 thousand hectares on the 26th October 2022. On this, the Chief Secretary directed the officials to ensure maximum awareness among farmers not to burn stubble. He said that crop residue burning Incidents on government land given on lease, will not be tolerated at any cost.

While appreciating the initiative of the Gurdaspur district administration for utilizing fire tenders for dousing farm fires, the Chief Secretary instructed all the Deputy Commissioners of the state to rope the fire tenders into service in their respective districts. Whenever stubble fire incidents to be noticed, fire tenders should be sent immediately to douse the farm fire and further action should be taken, he added.

Taking stock of the in-situ and ex-situ management of crop residue, the Chief Secretary also instructed the officials to explore the possibilities of setting up paddy straw bale plants at cluster level of villages, adding that this will help in immediate management of stubble.

Notably, the Chief Secretary had recently deputed 23 senior IAS officers as Secretary in-charges of all the 23 districts, who are consistently monitoring the situation and accordingly giving directions to the district administration. Besides this, the Chief Secretary was intensive reviewing the situation on a weekly basis to curb the stubble burning incidents.

The Chief Secretary said, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led government was working hard to shun the trend of stubble burning incidents this year. He reiterated the Deputy Commissioner should specially honour such farmers at the district level, who shun the practices of stubble burning so as to sensitize other farmers to curb the farm fires.

IEP Chandigarh, October 31

With the decisive war against drugs waged on the directions of Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Mann to root out drugs entered fifth month, Punjab Police have arrested as many as 6997 drug smugglers including 1097 big fish since July 5, 2022. The Police have registered a total of 5346 first information reports (FIRs) of which 580 are related to commercial quantity.Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill, who was addressing his weekly Press Conference here on Monday said that the Police teams have recovered 259.7Kg Heroin from across the state after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas besides laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state. Additionally, 147.5Kg heroin was recovered by the teams of Punjab Police from Seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra, taking the total effective recovery of heroin to 406.5Kgs in just four months, he said.Apart from seizing big-haul of heroin, the IGP said that Police have also recovered 300Kg opium, 197.2Kg Ganja, 293 quintals of poppy husk, and 27.56 lakhs tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids from across the state. The Police have also recovered Rs 4.49 crores of drug money from the possession of drug smugglers arrested in these four months.Giving fortnightly update, the IGP said that in last two weeks, the police have arrested 508 drug smugglers/suppliers after registering 399 first information reports (FIRs), including 54 commercial, and recovered 26.5Kg Heroin, 17Kg opium, 13.8Kg Ganja, 19 quintals of poppy husk, and 1.20 lakh tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids besides recovering Rs 4.5 lakh drug money from their possession.He said that with seven more Proclaimed Offenders (POs)/Absconders in NDPS cases arrested in the last two weeks, the total number of arrests reached 383 since the special drive to arrest POs/absconders was started on July 5, 2022.Pertinently, Director General of  Police  (DGP), Punjab Gaurav Yadav had given strict instructions to all the CPs/SSPs to investigate backward and forward linkages minutely in each and every case, especially related to drug recoveries, even if they recover a meager amount of drugs. Meanwhile, on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Mann to make Punjab a drug-free state, extensive anti-drug drives have been launched by the Punjab Police to combat the menace of drugs from the border State. The DGP has also strictly ordered all the CPs/SSPs to identify all hotspots where drugs are prevalent and all top drug smugglers in their jurisdictions. He also directed the Police chiefs to effectively forfeit the property of all the arrested drug smugglers so that their ill-gotten money could be recovered.

IEP Chandigarh, October 31

On the occasion of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal paid homage to the ‘Iron Man of India’ Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

        The Chief Minister paid floral tributes to the portrait of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and urged the society to follow the path shown by him.

        “The Youth of the Nation should inculcate the spirit of Rashtriya Ekta among themselves as only then the country can move forward on the path of progress,” said Sh. Manohar Lal while speaking at the oath ceremony organized on the occasion of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas held at Haryana Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh on Monday.

        The Chief Minister said that October 31 is celebrated as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas across the country to mark the birthday celebrations of former Home Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

        He said that Sardar Patel played a significant role in the freedom struggle, while after independence also dedicated his life to the Unity and Integrity of the country. 

Sardar Patel played a pivotal role in uniting 562 princely states

Sh. Manohar Lal said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played an important role in uniting 562 princely states that were left by the British when India became independent. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took charge of the country’s Deputy Prime Minister as well as Home Minister, and with his wisdom, he united the  562 princely states to create a united India, said the Chief Minister.

Hence in this way he played an important role in strengthening the unity of the nation by facing the challenges after independence, the country will always be indebted to him, added Sh. Manohar Lal.

Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi installed the Statue of Unity

        The Chief Minister said that the under the leadership of Prime Minister, Sh. Narendra Modi first of its kind memorial ‘Statue of Unity’ dedicated in the memory of Sardar Patel has been constructed. The foundation stone of ‘The Statue of Unity’ was laid on October 31, 2013, and later it was inaugurated on October 31, 2018.

Sh. Manohar Lal said that the dream of a united India was realized by the Prime Minister with the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A. 

Chief Minister administered Rashtriya Ekta Diwas Oath

        Chief Minister administered the oath of unity and integrity of the nation to his officers and officials, other officers and employees present in the Oath Ceremony.

‘I solemnly pledge that I dedicate myself to preserve the Unity, Integrity and Security of the Nation and also strive hard to spread this message among my fellow countrymen. I take this pledge in the spirit of the unification of my country which was made possible by the vision and actions of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. I also solemnly resolve to make my own contribution to ensure the internal security of my country.’