IEP Chandigarh, September 19

Four top cabinet ministers of the Bhagwant Mann government on Monday got together with experts to formulate a joint strategy to deal with stubble burning and safeguard the environment.

          The four ministers, agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Higher Education and Environment Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, New and Renewable Energy Minister Aman Arora and School Education Minister Harjot Bains chalked out a comprehensive plan which shall begin from September 27 with  a Mega Awareness Campaign to make farmers aware of the ill effects of paddy stubble burning and its management. 

          Under the first phase of this campaign, the youth of universities and colleges will be enrolled and they will be trained by experts about the harmful effects of stubble burning and absorption of stubble into the soil. After Punjabi University, special training programs will be conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana on September 28 and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar on September 29. Later, these youths will visit the villages across the state to make people aware against this deleterious activity.

          Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal further said that a 15 days deadline has been extended for farmers to apply for subsidy on the Happy Seeder so that maximum number of farmers can plant wheat without burning the stubble by taking Happy Seeder under this scheme. Happy Seeder machines have been provided to the agriculture block development officers for the use of marginal farmers at free of cost. ‘In order to absorb the stubble in the soil without burning, the Agriculture Department will also spray 5000 acres of D-decomposer solution as a pilot project as an experiment’ said Dhaliwal.

          Higher Education and Environment Minister Meet Hayer during the press conference said that such eco-friendly industries will be encouraged by the Punjab government which uses paddy straw as fuel. He said that the Farmers also get assistance of Rs 3000 per acre through the scheme. Along with this, the government is working on a module to make it mandatory for the brick kilns to use some percentage of paddy straw as fuel and this will also be implemented in other industries also.

          Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister A. Venu Prasad and Additional Chief Secretary Agriculture Sarvjit Singh discussed various crucial issues meticulously pertaining to this matter with the concerned officials of the state government.

          After this meeting, Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Higher Education Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said that the concrete steps have been taken by the Punjab government to prevent the menace of stubble burning. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that a massive awareness campaign is going to be launched from Punjabi University Patiala to sensitse the farmers not to burn stubble.

          Earlier, during the meeting, all the ministers including New and Renewable Energy Minister Aman Arora and School Education Minister Harjot Bains stressed that joint efforts are needed to provide a clean environment to the over 3.5 crore people of Punjab and the future generations. The Ministerial Group emphasized the need to find urgent initiatives to conserve stubble besides encouraging the use of stubble as fuel and preparation of stubble as compost without burning.

          In the meeting, Dr. Sukhpal Singh Chairman of the Farmer Commission, Prof. Adarsh Paul Punjab Pollution Control Board Chairman Vig and Karunesh Garg Member Secretary Engineer, Dr. SS Gosal Vice Chancellor Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana, Dr. Arvind Vice Chancellor of Punjabi University Patiala and Jaspal Singh Sandhu Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, Arpit Shukla ADGP and Gurvinder Singh Director Agriculture suggested vital ideas for handling paddy straw without burning and using it as fuel.

IEP Chandigarh, September 19

As the sub-national immunization round of pulse polio drive is underway in 12 districts of Punjab, on the first day of the campaign 701675 migrant children were immunized in Punjab which translates to achievement of approximately 47 % of the targeted children.

          Giving details, regarding the smooth conduct of this campaign, Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra said that as per the directions of the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann this campaign will immunize 100 percent of the targeted children. He further stated that in this campaign all 0-5 children will be covered with a special focus on migrant children. As Punjab has a sizable migrant population and most of their children are not able to take advantage of the routine immunization sessions, which makes them vulnerable to various diseases. To safeguard these children this special Pulse Polio campaign is being organized from 18-20 September 2022, he added.

          While giving details about the first day’s coverage Mr. Jouramajra stated that District wise performance has been satisfactory. Achievement of various districts on first day has been as follows- Pathankot 70.43 %,Tarantaran 58.17%, SBS Nagar 54.02%, Patiala 49.93%, Amritsar 47.12%,Fatehgarh Sahib 43.41%, Mansa 42.83%, Fazilka 42.61%, Moga 42.30%,Bathinda 41.97%, Muktsar Sahib 38.77% and Faridkot 37.53%.

          The Minister further said that on the first day of the campaign, polio booths were set up to administer polio drops to the children and now the teams of the Punjab Health Department will visit house to house to cover the remaining children.

          Mr. Jouramajra made an appeal to the parents of the children that they should get their children of up to 5 years of age immunized against polio in this campaign and make the future of their children as well as the nation safe from Polio.

          The Minister also lauded the efforts of the Health department and other departments involved in making this campaign a success.

IEP Chandigarh, September 19

As part of the ongoing decisive war against drugs launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Police have arrested 392 drug smugglers/suppliers after registering 294 first information reports (FIRs), including 33 commercial, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act across the state in the last one week.          Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill, while addressing his weekly press conference here on Monday said that the Police have also recovered 5.56Kg Heroin, 21.52Kg opium, 5Kg Ganja, 6.26 quintals of poppy husk, and 93261 tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids besides recovering Rs 8.92 lakh drug money after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas beside laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state.          He said that with 25 more Proclaimed Offenders (POs)/Absconders in NDPS cases arrested this week, the total number of arrests reached 305 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 the 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, September 19

 In a major relief to the Lakhs of employees of the state government, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced that the state government is considering to revert to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Divulging more details, the Chief Minister said that he has asked the Chief Secretary of the state to explore the feasibility and modalities of implementation of the scheme that is likely to give major relief to the employees of the state. Reiterating the firm commitment of his government to ensure well being of the employees, Bhagwant Mann said that no stone will be left unturned for this noble cause.  He said that employees are the backbone of the government and every effort will be made to ensure their welfare. The Chief Minister said that his government had already taken several path breaking pro-employees initiatives in last few months. He said that his government has introduced policy for the regularisation of the contractual employees in the state. Likewise, Bhagwant Mann said that his government has also embarked a major recruitment drive in government so that youth can get jobs on one hand and performance of departments can be optimised by overcoming shortage of staff on the other. Pertinently, the Old Pension Scheme for employees was discontinued in year 2004 and ever since then the employees are being given New Pension Scheme.  However the employees have been since long demanding the restoration of Old Pension Scheme.