IEP Chandigarh, November 10

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) during its ongoing campaign against corruption in the State on Thursday nabbed an Inspector of Police Bakhshish Kaur, posted as Incharge/SHO police station women cell, Fazilka red handed for accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000.

          Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of the VB said the accused SHO has been arrested on the complaint of village Gurdial Singh of Mandi Hazoor Singh, Fazilka.

Giving details he said the complainant has approached the VB and alleged that the above said police official was demanding a bribe of Rs. 40,000 for taking action against the culprits who have abused her daughter but deal was struck at Rs. 20,000. The complainant has further alleged that the SHO has already taken Rs. 8,000 as a bribe in two instalments and demanding Rs 10,000 as a third instalment.

            The spokesperson added that after verifying this complaint, a VB team from Ferozepur unit laid a trap and the accused police official was caught red handed taking bribe money of Rs. 10,000 in the presence of two official witnesses. He informed that a case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the accused the woman SHO at VB police station Ferozepur and further investigation was under progress.

IEP Chandigarh, November 10

The Haryana government has invited comments and suggestions from the departments regarding the transfer drive of Group D employees who are covered under the Haryana Group D Employees (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2018. In a letter issued by Chief Secretary Sh. Sanjeev Kaushal to all administrative secretaries, comments and suggestions have been sought latest by November 25, 2022 through e-mail at hrdharyana@gmail.com and hrd-goh@hry.gov.in or through post addressed to Special Secretary to Government of Haryana, Human Resources Department (Common Cadre -I Branch), Haryana Civil Secretariat.

        Giving information in this regard, an official spokesperson said that the state government has received a large number of requests of newly recruited Group D employees from time to time regarding change of their post or the department on grounds of technical/educational qualifications. Keeping this in view, comments and suggestions have been invited regarding the transfer drive of Group D employees and a concept note has also been prepared.

        The note states that the state government vide notification dated March 28, 2018, enacted the Haryana Group D Employees (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2018 (referred to as the Group D Act) in which a Common Cadre of all the Group D posts of all the departments of the Haryana government was created. Thereafter, more than 18,000 posts were advertised and filled up by direct recruitment through Haryana Staff Selection Commission.

        In this common cadre, some of the posts were of semi-skilled nature and others were of unskilled nature. It has been observed that some persons appointed in Group-D are facing difficulties in performing their duties efficiently. Further, some of the employees have been posted at far flung places from their hometown and keeping in view their hardship, the government has decided to launch a transfer drive to give an opportunity to all the Group D employees of common cadre for appointment/adjustment in an office near their hometown and on a suitable post.

Purpose of transfer drive to remove difficulty of posts or station of posting of employees

        The spokesperson further said that the main objective of this transfer drive is to remove hardship of the employees regarding their station of posting, and also adjustment on the posts other than the posts on which they do not deem themselves fit for appointment. For this purpose, each employee will be at liberty to select three districts where he/she wants to be posted/transferred. Further, the employees can also select a maximum of 50 posts on which they do not deem themselves fit to work out of the list of all Group D posts. In this drive, efforts will be made to transfer the employees at any one of the three districts selected by them on priority basis and try not to appoint them to the posts on which they do not want to work. However, it will not be guaranteed that the employees will be able to get the station of their choice or avoid the posts they do not deem fit for themselves.

 Eligibility to participate in transfer drive

        The spokesperson said that in this transfer drive, all the Group D employees appointed after the enactment of Group D Act and posted in any department of the government are eligible to participate. However, the Group D employees posted in any Statutory Body, Board, Corporation, Public Sector Undertaking and Constitutional Body are not eligible to participate in this drive.

        Only those eligible employees who want to change their station or their post, and participate online on the portal within 15 days from the date fixed by the government; will be considered eligible for transfer drive. The employees, who will fail to register and apply on the portal by the said date, will not be considered eligible. The concept note include the criteria for transfer from one station to another or from one post to another, general instructions and necessary procedures and detailed format.

IEP Chandigarh, November 10

Haryana Police has busted an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) fraudsters gang with the arrest of two accused in Palwal district. Police has also recovered 209 ATM cards and a Paytm swipe machine from their possession.

Disclosing this here today, the Haryana Police spokesperson informed that the gang used to change ATM cards of innocent people in the name of assisting them and then commit the crime.

On November 9, 2022, Dharamvir Singh, a native of Uttrakhand presently living in NIT Faridabad had lodged a complaint that he went to an ATM to check his account balance. After some time, he received two SMSs about deduction of Rs 5000 and Rs 10000 from the bank account. Upon checking, he found that his ATM card has changed and fraudsters withdrew money.

Taking cognizance of the complaint, a police team based on the intelligence and other inputs arrested two accused with in few hours identified as Akram and Mohammad, both residents of Palwal district.

 Police also recovered 209 ATM cards belonging to nationalized and other private banks and a BharatSwipe machine from them.

During the probe, it was revealed that both had a criminal past and had executed many incidents of ATM card fraud in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana’s Palwal since 2014. Both fraudsters make people a victim of their fraud by putting money in a fake account through the swipe machine and then withdrawing the money. Six cases of similar fraud were found to be registered in different police stations against accused Akram in Ujjain (MP).

The accused will be taken on remand to find out their involvement in other cases, he added

IEP Chandigarh, November 10

 The efforts of the Manohar Lal-led government in making Haryana a farmer-oriented state have brought positive outcomes; as Haryana has been awarded the India Agribusiness Best State Award- 2022 by the Union Government for its outstanding contribution in the agriculture sector. Issued by the Indian Chamber for Food and Agriculture, Haryana has been accorded the award for its distinguished contribution in the areas of agriculture friendly policies and programmes, production, inputs, technologies, marketing, value addition, infrastructure, and exports in the state.

Expressing gratitude to the Centre government, Chief Minister Sh. Manohar Lal said that the effort is now to make Haryana a farmer-oriented state from agriculture-oriented. “For this, along with modernity in agriculture, the big goal is to increase the income of the farmers. While the state government is buying more than 14 crops at MSP, it is also encouraging the farmers to adopt modern farming,” he said.

Sh. Manohar Lal said that to get more yield at less cost, the farmers should adopt crop diversification and move towards natural farming. “The State Government has taken several steps to improve the agriculture and horticulture sector including proper use of water for irrigation and adoption of less water consuming crops by the farmers,” he added. The Chief Minister also congratulated the officials and the employees along with the people of the state for the achievement.

It is noteworthy that the state government is paying special attention to promote agribusiness and make farmers self-reliant. For this, companies in the agriculture sector, farmer’ producer organisations have been identified; so that by organizing the farmers, the system of their production and marketing can be ensured collectively. Also, special emphasis is being laid on reducing the cost of agriculture and horticulture by providing investment, technology and new equipment.

IEP Chandigarh, November 10

Haryana Chief Secretary, Sh. Sanjeev Kaushal said that five districts including Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Mahendragarh, Faridabad and Kurukshetra have been included in the tourism hub to promote tourism in the state. In addition, a detailed project report is being created for infrastructure development of District Panchkula from the tourism point of view.

        The Chief Secretary was presiding over a meeting of the first State Steering Committee organized for the development of tourism infrastructure under the Swadesh Darshan-2.0 scheme of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, here today. He said that this is a better effective scheme to promote tourism. More effort should be put into it for the expansion of tourism in the state which will directly give a boost to employment.

        He said that there are 55 tourist places in Panchkula like Morni Hills, Yadavindra Garden, Kaushalya Dam, Nada Sahib etc.. The proposal to include Mahendragarh and Faridabad districts in this scheme will also be sent to the Ministry of Tourism so that tourism can be promoted in these districts as well. He said that Mahendragarh has many ancient monument sites like Madhogarh Fort, Birbal Ka Chatta, Jal Mahal, Dhosi Parvat which are being developed from the tourism point of view.

        He said that there are 17 tourist places in Faridabad like historic Surajkund, Damdama Lake, Aravali Golf Club, Sohna Water Springs etc. He said that work should also be done on creating a modern level special tourism block in Surajkund as per the directions of Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal so that it can become a centre of attraction for the tourists. There are many tourist places in Yamunanagar like Adi Badri, Lohgarh, Hathni Kund Barrage, Kalesar National Park, etc.

        The Chief Secretary stated that work on tourism and related infrastructure, tourism services, human and capital development, site management and promotion, etc. must be done in order to implement the Swadesh Darshan Scheme 2.0. Additionally, facilities and services related to wellness and rural tourism, adventure tourism, cultural and heritage tourism will be worked on. Apart from this, meeting, conference and exhibition venues and places to promote tourism promotion are also to be selected.

        He said that under the Swadesh Darshan 1.0 scheme, eco-tourism, wildlife, intellectual, spiritual, hilly inaccessible areas, pilgrimage places etc. were selected. In this scheme, tourism infrastructure is being developed at a cost of Rs. 97.34 crore by including the Krishna Circuit project in Kurukshetra, Haryana. In these, work is being done on 5 schemes like Multipurpose Tourism Information Centre, Railing of Sarovar, Abhimanyu Ghat, Light and Sound show which will be completed and operated in the month of November. He said that Thanesar Sheikh Chilli Tomb of Kurukshetra should also be included in this scheme and developed.

        A presentation on Swadesh Darshan 2.0 scheme was also shown in the meeting. Additional Chief Secretary, Development and Panchayats Department, Sh. Anil Malik, Additional Chief Secretary, Public Health Engineering Department, Sh. Apoorva Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary, Haryana Tourism Department, Sh. MD Sinha, Director, Tourism, Special Secretary to Government, Tourism Department, Sh. Pankaj, Director, Art & Cultural Affairs and Special Secretary, Art & Cultural Affairs Department, Sh. Mahavir Kaushik and many senior officers were present.

IEP Chandigarh, November 10

The Chief Minister Sh Manohar Lal today released a coffee table book titled ‘Hari Sadan’ highlighting the new initiatives taken in the 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha in the last three years at a function here today. 

Speaking on this occasion, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the manner in which the Speaker Vidhan Sabha, Sh. Gian Chand Gupta has conducted the House proceedings during these three glorious years is really commendable.

Regulating the debates and proceedings of the House in an unbiased manner is certainly not a simple task, but Sh. Gian Chand Gupta while rising above the party’s ideology has always ensured to give equal chance to the leaders of both Ruling and the Opposition party, added Sh. Manohar Lal. 

He said that as the Speaker of the Assembly, Sh. Gian Chand Gupta conducted the Assembly in a dignified and constitutional manner. 

The Chief Minister said that the proceedings of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha have been conducted very well as compared to the Legislative Assemblies of other states.

Haryana Vidhan Sabha has become e-Vidhan Sabha 

Sh. Manohar Lal said that Sh. Gian Chand Gupta has brought many revolutionary changes to the Vidhan Sabha. Taking a new initiative, the Vidhan Sabha has been made e-Vidhan Sabha. At present, in the first year, the proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha will be conducted in both ways, but in the coming years, the State Vidhan Sabha will be made completely paperless. This move of making Assembly paperless is a big change in itself.

Many revolutionary changes were brought in the State Assembly

The Chief Minister said that various  changes have been brought in the Vidhan Sabha. A new food arrangement for the MLAs has been made in the Vidhan Sabha wherein the MLAs can pay Rs.100 to eat food. Apart from this, the timing of the proceedings of the House has also been changed. Now the proceedings of the House begin at 11:00 am and continue till the completion of legislative business in the evening. 

Introducing yet another first-of-its-kind initiative in Haryana Vidhan Sabha, MLAs were provided training regarding the legislative work. For this, Lok Sabha Speaker was also specially invited for the said training session, added Sh. Manohar Lal.

He said that in these 3 years another new tradition was started. During the budget session, a holiday was observed in the house for 4 days so that the MLAs could read the budget well in advance and during these 4 days, suggestions were also taken from MLAs of both the ruling party and opposition.

Steps taken towards construction of new building of State Vidhan Sabha

The Chief Minister said that the Speaker has also made efforts for the construction of a new building of the State Vidhan Sabha. Now the site for the building has been earmarked and consent has been given for the same. The new building will be constructed soon after completing the necessary procedures. The unique beginning of selecting the Best MLA of the Year was also done during the tenure of Sh. Gian Chand Gupta, shared Sh. Manohar Lal. 

Many first-of-its-kind initiatives introduced in the Assembly, Speaker

Speaking on the occasion, Sh. Gian Chand Gupta expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister for releasing the Coffee Table Book. 

In these three years, the legislators of both the ruling party and the opposition have played an instrumental role in the smooth functioning of the House, implementing new initiatives for the betterment functioning of the Assembly, added Sh. Gian Chand Gupta. 

He said that new initiatives were introduced to maintain the dignity of the House. The questions to be asked during the Question Hour are selected through draw of lots. Similarly, by changing the Punjab Legislative Assembly rules, new rules of the Haryana Legislative Assembly were introduced. Besides this, the statue of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was also unveiled in the premises of Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

He said that provision has also been made for the legislators to get questions and bills well in time. Now questions and Bills are given to the MLAs almost five days prior to the session, so that the MLAs can read them well in time.

Not only this, biometric attendance was started in the Assembly office. Apart from this, timely execution of files is also being ensured under the Right to Service Act.

On this occasion, Transport Minister, Sh. Mool Chand Sharma, Deputy Speaker, Sh. Ranbir Gangwa, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Sh. O.P. Yadav, Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Smt. Kamlesh Dhanda, MLAs and other officials were present.