IEP Chandigarh, October 10

          Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua held a review meeting with Punjab top officials and all deputy commissioners of the state on stubble management and further reduce the stubble burning cases.

He said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is making concrete efforts to make farmers aware and to achieve this purpose, the concerned officials of the districts should intensify their campaign to ensure minimal cases of stubble fire across the state.

          Earlier, on September 22, the Chief Secretary also held a meeting and during this time, the Chief Secretary took the progress report from the Deputy Commissioner on stubble management in each district. He said that this time DCs should speed up in their respective districts to stop the incidents of stubble burning in Punjab by all means. He said that the farmers should be given maximum assistance to purchase Happy Seeder and other such tools/machines to prevent stubble burning.

          The Chief Secretary said that the Punjab government is assiduously  working on the management of stubble instead of burning it to protect the environment, especially the air and soil. He said that the farmers should be explained about the damage caused by stubble burning. He said that from mid-October to mid-November, the level of air pollution increases every year due to stubble burning, which has a very negative impact on people’s health, especially children and the elderly. Therefore, farmers should be made aware of stubble management instead of burning it.

          The chief secretary was informed that due to the awareness of the state government about not burning stubble and the damage caused by it, there is a possibility of a big reduction in stubble burning incidents this year. The Chief Secretary said that more awareness should be spread among the farmers by making announcements through different mediums especially religious places and through NGOs. He said that the farmers should be made aware that stubble and paddy burning has a lot of damage at the personal and social level.

          The Chief Secretary said that in the villages where  cases of stubble burning reported in the past, the administration has been more vigilant. He said that the farmers should also be made aware through the children studying in schools that burning the stubble will give the children a ‘deleterious and polluted’ future. The Chief Secretary instructed the Deputy Commissioners that this year the cases of stubble burning should be stopped at all costs and negligence in this regard will not be tolerated.

IEP Chandigarh, October 10

          With education being the top most priority of the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led state government, special attention is being paid to improve the quality of education. Steps are being taken in the higher education sector to make the students employable. This was stated by the Higher Education Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer while addressing a function organized by the Panjab University Teachers Association (PUTA) at Panjab University here today.

          Meet Hayer said that the state government has fulfilled the long pending demand of the teachers of the universities-colleges and given them UGC Scales. Most of the colleges are running with the support of guest faculty and part time lecturers due to non-recruitment in colleges for a long time. The government also increased the honorarium of these teachers. Apart from this, facilities for holidays etc have been given to this cadre.

          On PUTA’s demand regarding the restoration of old pension for government employees, Meet Hayer said that the Chief Minister has already instructed the Chief Secretary to look into the possibilities of restoring the old pension. He said that every promise made by the state government to the people is being fulfilled. Apart from this, the promises which have not been in list of manifesto are also being fulfilled, such as one MLA-one pension etc.

          Earlier, the Higher Education Minister was honored by Panjab University Taechers’ Association. PUTA President Mrintyjai Kumar welcomed Meet Hayer and thanked the state government for fulfilling the demand of college-university teachers pertaining to UGC scales. He also thanked Chief Minister and Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema.

          Prominent among others who were present at the occasion included MLAs Jagdeep Goldy Kamboj and Narinder Sawna, Punjab Youth Development Board Chairman Goldy Kharar, PUTA’s officer bearers Amarjit Singh Noura, Navdeep Goyal, Raunki Ram, Jitinder Grover, Rajat Sandhir, Dalwinder Singh, Keshav Malhotra and Yograj Angreesh, Senate member Sandeep Kataria, Shaminder Sandhu and Gurmeet Singh, former student leader Dr. Bhupinder Singh Batth.

IEP Chandigarh, October 10       

   With the transparent policies and concerted efforts of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, the Punjab Transport Department has collected total revenue of Rs.1957.64 crore with an increase of Rs 608.21 crore in its first six months.          Disclosing this here today, Transport Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar said, the three wings of the department i.e. State Transport Commissioner (STC), Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) and Punjab Roadways/Punbus earned Rs.1957.64 crore from April to September this year, which is 45.07 per cent higher than the same period of the previous year. Last year during the tenure of the Congress government this income was registered Rs.1349.43 crore, he added.          Giving wing-wise details of the increase in revenue collection, the Cabinet Minister said that the STC office has received a total income of Rs.1203.39 crore from April to September 2022, which was Rs.855.95 crore during the previous government. He said that this increase of Rs.347.44 crore becomes 40.60 per cent.          “The Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) has collected Rs.393.62 crore in the first six months of our government, while the earning during the same corresponding period in the previous year was Rs.246.13 crore”, informed the Cabinet Minister, while adding that PRTC has recorded 60% growth in six months with a profit of Rs.147.49 crore.          Sharing the details of the revenue collection of Punjab Roadways/Punbus, the Transport Minister said that with an income of Rs.360.63 crore from April to September 2022, the Punjab Roadways/Punbus has earned Rs.113.28 crore more than the previous year’s income of Rs.247.35 crore and the increase becomes 45.79%.          “This revenue has been increased this time due to the concerted efforts of the Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann to crack down on tax evaders, illegal activities and bus operators plying buses sans permits”, he added.

IEP CHANDIGARH, October 10    

    Adopting a pro-active approach against anti-social elements on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Police has busted five major terrorist modules after arresting 17 terrorists in the last 10 days.            The Police have also recovered four rifles including AKs/MP-9/MP-5 and 25 revolvers/pistols from their possession. Apart from this, the Police teams have also recovered three hand grenades and one IED, he added.            Inspector General of Police (IGP) headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill, while addressing his weekly press conference here on Monday said that as per the vision of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Police has not been leaving any stone unturned to ensure maintain peace and harmony in the state.            He said that in the last 10 days the Police teams have managed to strike a major blow to the terrorist modules being operated by Gangsters-turned-Terrorists including Lakhbir Singh alias Landa, Harvinder Singh alias Rinda and Arsh Dalla from out of India.            On October 1, Punjab Police busted a module after arresting three operatives of an ISI-backed terror module jointly handled by Canada-based Lakhbir Landa and Pakistan-based Harvinder Rinda after recovering one sophisticated AK-56 assault rifle along with two magazines, 90 live cartridges, and two bullet shells from their possession, he said, adding that earlier on September 28, an operative of Canada-based terrorist Lakhbir Landa gang was arrested from Bihar for his involvement in several heinous crimes pertaining to murder, attempt to murder, assault, robbery, and snatching.            The IGP said that on the next day, an ISI-backed drone-based Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) terror module being operated by Canada-based terrorist/gangster Arshdeep Singh alias Arsh Dala was busted with the arrest of its two operatives from the Chamkaur Sahib area. The Police have also recovered two illicit weapons including a .22 bore revolver and .32 bore pistol along with 21 live cartridges from their possession. Two days after, the Police arrested one more operative of the same module after recovering three hand grenades and two pistols from his car.            On October 4, Amritsar Rural Police busted an ISI-backed Narco-Terrorism module after arresting its main operative and one RDX loaded Tiffin Box fabricated into an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) or Tiffin Bomb; two sophisticated AK-56 assault rifles along with two magazines and 30 live cartridges; one .30 bore pistol along with 6 live cartridges; and 2 KG Heroin was recovered from his possession.            The next day, another drone-based arms/ammunition smuggling module was busted with the arrest of its two members including a prisoner after recovering 10 foreign-made pistols including five .30 bore (made in China) and five 9mm (made in USA Beretta) from a location pinpointed by them, he said, adding that three more members of this module were arrested with fresh cache of sophisticated arms and ammunition from their possession including 17 pistols and one MP-4 rifle, besides,  Rs 1.01 crores cash and 500 grams heroin.On October 9, a Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) module linked with Gurdev Singh (lodged in Faridkot jail) being operated by Germany based Gurmeet Singh alias Bagga was busted with the arrest of its five members for arranging smuggled weapons and providing logistic support. The police also recovered two 9mm foreign made pistols and one .32 bore pistol.            Giving weekly updates on drugs, the IGP said that last week, the police arrested 314 drug smugglers after registering 240 FIRs including 32 related to commercial quantity, and recovered 18Kg Heroin, 16Kg opium, 4Kg Ganja, 5 quintals of poppy husk, and 3.71 lakh tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids, besides, recovering Rs 9.73 lakhs drug money.            He said that with 11 more Proclaimed Offenders (POs)/Absconders in NDPS cases arrested this week, the total number of arrests reached 365 since the special drive to arrest POs/absconders was started on July 5, 2022.            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 10

 Under the able leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab government will establish horticulture estates in 4 districts namely Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Faridkot and Ludhiana, equipped with latest technological information and machinery etc to provide all the facilities to the horticulturists thereby helping them in producing high quality fruits and cutting cost of fruit production.          This information was shared today by Fauja Singh Sarari, Minister of Horticulture, Food Processing, Ex-Serviceman welfare and welfare of Freedom Fighters, Punjab, during a meeting with Horticulture Department officials here at Punjab Bhawan.          Addressing the heads of different districts in the meeting, he instructed them to bring maximum area under horticulture crops by motivating the farmers to come out of the current wheat-paddy crop cycle. He also asked the horticulture officials to create awareness to save the ground water which is going down day by day in Punjab. He said that best performing officers in this regard will be honored at the state level.          He said that 40.00 lakh and 64.00 lakh liters per acre of water is consumed for the production of wheat and paddy crops grown in Punjab respectively, while only 17.00 lakh liters per acre of water is required for the production of horticultural crops. In this way, 86 lakh liters of water pr acre can be saved. The horticulture officials were instructed to prepare and send recommendation to give financial assistance to the land holders who bring the area under horticulture crops for saving water.          He also said that compared to water recharge in 57 blocks of Punjab, up to 200 percent of water is being taken out and used for crop production, which is a matter of concern and proper efforts are needed to save water in Punjab. He emphasised that by turning to horticilture Punjab’s fertile land can be saved from becoming barren due to the present cropping pattern. He further informed that department is contemplating to establish one nursery in each district so as to provide quality fruit plants and seeds to the horticulturalists.          Minister asked the officers to promote the nurseries for Palm trees and other ornamental plants in Punjab as these plants sell at huge premiums and can be a profitable venture for the farmers.          The Horticulture Minister also informed that during the next 5 years, by bringing 1.5 lakh hectares under horticulture crops, 39772 crore rupees will be added to the Punjab’s GDP.Under the scheme Agriculture Infrastructure Fund being run in the department, 365 crore rupees have been approved under this scheme due to new projects worth 1600 crores in Punjab.          Horticulture Minister Sarari also informed that Punjab is the largest producer of potato seed in the country and keeping in view the future demand, an aeroponic unit and tissue culture lab will be established in Jalandhar with Rs.10 crores passed in the budget this year. He instructed the concerned officials to make this on an urgent basis.In order to streamline the functioning of the department Mr. Sarari also ordered for timely promotions of the employees. Grievances relating to employees must be disposed off in a time bound manner.          Among others present in the meeting includes Sarvjit Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Horticulture, Gaggandeep Singh Brar, Secretary Horticulture, Shailinder Kaur, Director Horticulture, Punjab besides Joint Director Horticulture, Dinesh Kumar and heads of all districts were also present in this meeting.