IEP Chandigarh, March 1

          Following the commitment of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to supply sand to the people of the state at affordable rates, the number of public mines started by the mining department for common people has been set to increase from 32 sites to 50 by March 15.

          It was disclosed by Mining Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer today at Punjab Bhavan during a meeting held with all the district officials of the department to review the work of public sites. In a short period of three weeks after the inauguration of the supply of Rs 5.50 sand per cubic feet, the public has so far used 1,99,991.67 MT of sand through 19516 trolleys. The overwhelming response received from the people. Local labourers have also found work. This has directly and indirectly provided employment to many youths.

          Meet Hayer further said that if anyone wants to give his land for mining, he can approach the district mining officer of the department., he can also contact the department’s toll free number 18001802422 or can email chiefminingpb@gmail.com. He further said that because of the demand of the people and to increase the supply of affordable sand to the people of the state, today asked the district officials to identify more public sites in their respective areas. Ludhiana being the centre of the state asked to establish a maximum number of public sites in this district.

          As part of a major pro-people initiative, the Mining Minister said that 33 sites in 14 districts have been dedicated to the people. The government has set a target of starting 150 public sites for the convenience of the people, under which 50 sites will be made operational by March 15.

          During the meeting, the minister seeks feedback and reviews the work to ensure that every public site is functioning properly. On this occasion, the case of the panchayat obstructing the work at some places came to light, after which the mining minister asked the higher authorities to resolve the matter with the panchayat department. A new mining policy is also coming soon. The government has zero tolerance against illegal mining.

          The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Director DPS Kharbanda, Chief Engineer N.K. Jain and all district officials, zonal DSPs among others.

IEP Chandigarh, March 1      

    Punjab Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, on Wednesday, said that to economically strengthen the farmers community, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led government will promote Sahiwal cattle breed across Punjab by organizing the National Cattle Breed Improvement Fair every year.          Addressing the gathering after inaugurating Livestock Breed Exhibition and Sahiwal Calves Rally at village Dhinga Wali of Balluana constituency in district Fazilka, the Cabinet Minister said it is a matter of pride that district Fazilka, considered to be stronghold of Sahiwal breed, has been selected for the Sahiwal breed improvement program.          He informed that the best Sahiwal bulls are selected under this project and their sperm cells sent to other states of the country for artificial insemination, which consequently increasing the sources of income of the livestock farmers. Besides this, milking of Sahiwal breed cattle is being done by visiting keeper’s home and an incentive of Rs.1000 per cattle is given to the farmers for continuously milking of his cow till the milking is over.          Animal Husbandry Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar also announced resumption of tehsil and district level milking competitions and prizes for winners.          State government organizes rallies of Sahiwal breed calves to encourage and honour livestock farmers, said the Animal Husbandry Minister, adding that the calves of good milk production Sahiwal cows are bought by the animal husbandry department at a price of Rs.35000 to 40000.          Appreciating livestock farmers of village Dhingawali for rearing 4000 cattle of Sahiwal breed, Laljit Singh Bhullar said that the loss-making agriculture can only be saved by adopting animal rearing as this agro-auxiliary occupation is the second major source of income for the farmer after agriculture.          He said that the state government was constantly recruiting veterinary doctors to provide better facilities to the livestock farmers, thus Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has bestowed appointment letters to 315 newly appointed veterinary officers in the department recently.          While addressing, Balluana MLA Amandeep Singh Goldi Musafar said that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led government has initiated various projects worth crores in the Balluana constituency in the last one year, while the previous governments were reluctant to pay any attention towards the development of the constituency.          On his demand to improve bus service in the constituency, the Cabinet Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar, who also holds the charge of the transport department, said new permits will be issued as per the demand of the area. Earlier, Kuldeep Kumar Deep Kamboj also addressed the gathering.          Prominent amongst others who were present on this occasion included, Deputy Commissioner Dr. Senu Duggal, SSP Avneet Kaur Sidhu, SDM Akash Bansal, Deputy Director Animal Husbandry Rajeev Chhabra, Dharamvir Godara, Manoj Kumar, Sukhwinder Singh, Angrez Singh, Baldev Singh, Jyoti Prakash, Vijay Saharan.

IEP Chandigarh March 1

          The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) during its anti-corruption campaign on Wednesday, nabbed a Sub Inspector (SI) Rachpal Singh, earlier posted as SHO and a Head Constable Sukhjit Singh, of police station, sadar Phagwara, Kapurthala district for extorting money through illegal confinement and demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000.

          Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the VB said the above said SI Rachpal Singh, now posted in police lines Kapurthala and Head Constable have been arrested on the complaint of Rajwant Kaur, resident of Fauji Colony, Randhirpur, in Sultanpur Lodhi who have lodged a complaint on the Chief Minister Anti Corruption Action Line in this regard.

          Giving details he added that the complainant lady has alleged in the online complaint that the above said police officials have demanded Rs 2,50,000 as a bribe to release her son who was illegally confined in the police station by them but the deal has been struck at Rs 50,000. She further added that her son was released by the accused police personnel from illegal confinement after 20 hours by taking this gratification.

          The spokesperson informed that the VB has investigated the complaint and the arrested both the accused police officials after finding them guilty for taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 and extorting money through illegal confinement from the complainant lady and others in this case.

          In this regard a case under section 347, 389, 120-B of IPC and section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against both the accused police personnel at VB police station Jalandhar. Further investigation in this case was under progress.

IEP Chandigarh, February 27

Chandigarh Smart City implemented the CCTV surveillance system in order to provide safety and security to the citizens.  In a significant move to improve monitoring of traffic and law & order situation on the roads, around 900 CCTV cameras have been installed at various locations throughout Chandigarh for surveillance which are being monitored through Command and Control Centre. Around 285 different locations in the city are being monitored on real-time basis by these advanced cameras. The locations include intersections, government schools, entry and exit points, water treatment facilities, parking lots, hospital entrances, gardens etc.

As per recent data, CCTV surveillance system has assisted Police in solving more than 250 cases in past seven months, which include cases like Murder, Snatching, Road Accident, Hit and Run, Motor Vehicle Theft, Burglary etc.

“This component of Smart City Mission went live in October, 2022 and was under stabilization period for three months till January, 2023. 

During stabilization period challenges like firmware upgrades, system failures, application issues, hardware compatibility issues, maintenance challenges etc. were faced. Despite that these CCTV cameras have been serving the city from the date of installation and have been helping the Police Department.”, said by Ms. Anindita Mitra IAS, Chief Executive Officer, Chandigarh Smart City Limited.

“During the month of the December 2022, all connected cameras were monitored by Enterprise Management System of ICCC. This Enterprise Management System (EMS) is being utilized to monitor the functionality of all field equipment. Chandigarh Smart City has entered into a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the system integrator for real time monitoring of cameras so that the quality of service does not deteriorate during the maintenance period,” she added. 

As per data from December 2022, according to the agreed SLA, 79% cameras were working within the maintenance range of SLA, 20% cameras were working outside maintenance range and only 1% remaining cameras had limited availability due to repair works on the field such as junction improvement, civil repair work, school building renovation, power cable repair etc.

Further, the system is built with local storage to reduce the impact of network outage. If for any reason, the camera-connected to local processing unit is unable to transfer data to the ICCC data centre, it has the capability to retain the data locally and resume sending data to the ICCC as soon as the network is reconnected. In the event of an emergency, this data can be gathered using LPUs, ensuring no data loss in the event of a network failure.

Now, that the CCTV surveillance system has successfully crossed the stabilization period, the system has become more robust and vigorous. After stabilization, our cameras are working at an efficiency of more than 97% at all the connected sites. The system has not only helped in keeping our citizens safe but has also reduced the crime rate in the city.

 5,47,900 challans have been issued from March 2022 till 26th feb 2023. This has resulted in improved road safety as well as reduction in traffic personnel deployed.