IEP Chandigarh, February 10     

     To streamline the official functioning and provide hassle free citizen centric services, Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal on Friday instructed to install Biometric Machines to mark the attendance of employees in all field offices of the department.          Disclosing this, the Cabinet Minister informed that it has been observed that some of the employees were coming late in field offices across Punjab due to which public has to go through tough times thereby the department has started to mark the attendance on Biometric Machines to counter this problem and provide on time services to the masses. He instructed that the Biometric Machines would be installed up to February 28, 2023 at all field offices of the department so that the attendance would be marked from March 1, 2023.          Speaking about the initiative, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal informed that some of the other departments have already introduced Bio-Metric Attendance System a few years back but the same was discontinued due to COVID Pandemic. ‘’Other departments will follow the footsteps to install these systems, while some of them have already resumed this system to mark the attendance,’’ he added.          The Cabinet Minister said that the Punjab Government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann firmly committed to provide citizen services to the people at their doorsteps thereby the steps have been taken to counter the practice of absenteeism among the employees. He exhorted that the government would ensure that the people will not face any hardships for public utility services.

IEP Chandigarh, February 10

          Aiming to curb the menace of corruption in the state on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Friday nabbed a Forest Guard Munish Kumar, posted at Malerkotla and residing at Sunam road, Sangrur red handed for accepting a bribe of Rs. 15,000.

          Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of VB said the above said forest official has been arrested on the complaint of Nirbhey Singh, resident of village Burj, Malerkotla district.

          Giving more details he informed that the complainant has approached the VB and alleged that the above said official has been demanding a bribe of Rs. 15,000 for for not reporting the damage to forest park adjoining his plot.

          After verifying his complaint, a VB team from economic offences wing Ludhiana range laid a trap and the accused Forest Guard was arrested while accepting a bribe of Rs. 15,000 as a bribe from the complainant and the tainted money was recovered from him in the presence of two official witnesses, he added.

          The spokesperson informed that a case under prevention of corruption act has been registered against the accused official at VB police station Ludhiana range and further investigation was under progress.

IEP CHANDIGARH/JALANDHAR, February 10:        

  As part of the ongoing drive against anti-social elements launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Police arrested an associate of Canada-based terrorist Lakhbir Singh alias Landa and his three aides after recovering four pistols along with ammunition from their possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Friday.          The arrested key accused has been identified as Vijay Kumar alias Toti of village Bhikha Nangal in Kartarpur, Jalandhar, while, his three aides have been identified as Amardeep Singh alias Patwari, Sooraj Singh and Rahul Lahoch, all residents of Jalandhar. Whereas, all the accused persons are History-sheeters, the main accused Vijay alias Toti has been facing as many as 18 criminal cases pertaining to drugs, illegal weapons, kidnapping and extortion.          DGP Gaurav Yadav said that acting on a reliable input that accused Vijay along with his gang members were hatching a conspiracy to commit crime in Kartarpur area, Police teams from Jalandhar Rural promptly conducted special naka near Drain in Durgi area of Jalandhar and successfully arrested all the four accused persons, who were travelling on two motorcycles.          He said that the Police impounded both the motorcycles and have recovered four pistols including two .32 bore country-made pistols along with 10 live cartridges, one 9 mm country-made pistol along with two live cartridges and one .12 bore country made pistol along with one live cartridge from their possession.          Divulging more details, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jalandhar Rural said that two of the arrested accused persons were also wanted by Kapurthala Police in kidnapping case, wherein they had abducted a resident of Gaji Gadana village in Kapurthala district and sought Rs 3 crore as ransom for his release. The case FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Police Station Dhilwan in Kapurthala.          Meanwhile, a fresh case FIR no. 16 has been registered under sections 379-B, 386, 392 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 25 of the Arms Act at Police Station Kartarpur.

IEP SAS Nagar, February 10

 Special camps are being held on February 12 at SAS Nagar to link voter card with Aadhaar card. Giving this information, District Election Officer and Deputy Commissioner SAS Nagar, Mrs. Ashika Jain has appealed to voters to link their voter cards with Aadhaar card. In this regard, special camps are being organized as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India. These special camps will be organized on February 12, 2023 at all the polling stations.

Mrs. Jain said that, during the special camps BLOs will be present at their respective polling stations and collect Form 6B to link the Aadhaar card with the voter card. Apart from this, the District Election Officer has appealed to the voters to give full support to the BLO in this campaign so that the Aadhaar card of all the voters of the district can be linked with the voter card. Voters themselves can fill form no.6 on nvsp.in or Voterhelpline App to link their voter card with Aadhaar card. The purpose of this is to provide better electoral services to voters in future.

IEP Chandigarh, February 9

          Emphasizing more nutritious content in the mid day meals being provided to the children in the schools across the State, the Chairman, Punjab State Food Commission D.P. Reddy said that the cooks deployed for cooking the meals must ensure cleanliness.

          Chairing a meeting with the School Education Department here at MGSIPA regarding Mid Day meals in the State, the Chairman said that health checkups of the children at regular intervals are also the need of the hour besides taking steps to ensure the making of health profile of the children soas to have proper assessment about their well being.

          The Chairman also exhorted the officers of the department to arrange funds under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to make sure that the ROs are installed in all the schools in the coming 6 months across the State to provide clean drinking water to the students. Besides, Mr. Reddy also said that the short film made by the commission on the mid day meals should be uploaded on the EDUSAT platform of the department. Depending upon the resources, the exhaust fans should be provided to get rid of smoke thus protecting both the children as well as the cooks, said Mr. Reddy underscoring the importance of learning from the best practices adopted by the other states in this regard.

          Stressing the significance of social media in spreading awareness about the commission’s activities, the Chairman batted for the Education Department to follow the social media handles of the commission so as to ensure a wider reach for various initiatives of the commission. The notice boards and complaint boxes must be installed at all the places to generate more awareness among the people apart from enabling them to offer suggestions.

          The Chairman& Members shared their experience of field visits & gave some important suggestions. It was assured by the School Education Department authorities that the same will be kept in view & will be taken care of properly.

          Among others present on the occasion included A.K. Sharma, IRS (Retd.), Preety Chawla, Indra Gupta, Vijay Dutt, Chetan Prakash Dhaliwal, Members and officers of the Punjab State Food Commission, Director General School Education Vinay Bublani and officers of the School Education Department.

IEP Chandigarh, February 9   

       The Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Bram Shanker Jimpa has informed that about 98 percent of the complaints received in the Shikayat Nivaran Kender (SNK) of the department during last 11 months have been resolved. He said that under the dynamic leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, it is the priority of the State Government to provide clean drinking water in the villages of the state and for this purpose the department is working with all sincerity and diligence. He said that many schemes are also being initiated to keep the villages clean and garbage free.          Jimpa said that on toll free number 1800-180-2468 issued by the department, 18,693 complaints have been registered from 1 March 2022 to 6 February 2023 regarding water supply, R.O. plants, sewage, Individual Household Latrine and others. Out of these, 18,308 complaints have been redressed with the rate of redressal being 97.94 percent.          He further said that after resolving the complaint, feedback is also taken from the complainant and if he/she is not satisfied, appropriate action is taken again on his/her complaint. The Minister said that the State Government is making all efforts to provide clean drinking water and adequate sewage facility to the residents of State villages.  He said that as per the instructions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the Department of Water Supply and Sanitation has also started an online Janta Darbar so that citizens can raise their complaints and problems directly before the Minister.          Jimpa appealed that if any village resident has any kind of complaint or suggestion regarding water supply and sanitation, then he/she should not hesitate to submit his/her views. The State Government will leave no stone unturned for people’s welfare and lifting the standard of living, added Jimpa.

IEP Chandigarh/SAS Nagar, February 8  

        In order to provide an opportunity to buy a property in the model city of Punjab, Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) will conduct an e-auction of around 77 properties situated in different projects/sectors of SAS Nagar (Mohali).          Revealing the details about the e-auction, Punjab Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Minister Mr. Aman Arora said that the e-auction will commence on February 17 at 9am and will conclude on March 6 at 1pm. The total reserve price of all the properties offered in the e-auction stands at around Rs2100 crore.          On the directions of Mr. Aman Arora, GMADA has released an email helpdesk@gmada.gov.in to smoothen the process and help the bidders in case they have any query or face any problem in placing the bids.          The H&UD Minister said that GMADA has offered a mix bag of properties including six group housing sites, one school site, one hotel site, one nursing home site, nine IT Industrial plots, two commercial chunk sites and around 57 SCOs & booths. These sites are situated in Aerocity, Sector 83-Alpha, Sector 66-Beta, IT City Sector 101-Alpha and other locations in SAS Nagar.          He said that interested participants can visit the e-auction portal https://puda.e-auctions.in for accessing the details pertaining to properties available for bidding. The procedure of registration to participate in the bidding process, payment schedule, size of sites, location etc. would be uploaded on the portal before commencement of the e-auction. The bidders will have to place bids up and above the reserve price fixed for a particular site. There would be no bar on the number of bids to be placed and bidders could revise their bids multiple times, he added.          The Authority will allot the sites to the successful bidders on receiving 10% payment of the final bidding price and possession of sites would be handed over as per terms and conditions of the auction policy, stated the H&UD Minister.

IEP Chandigarh/Nawanshahr, February 8

          Punjab Mining and Geology Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said here, today, that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led state government has broken the backbone of sand mafia by bringing transparency in the sand supply. 

          The Minister of Mines and Geology, who inspected the public sand mining site at Khoja village in Nawanshahr, today, said that the Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government has fulfilled the promise of providing sand from the sand mines for Rs 5.50 per cubic feet to the people and has also proved that the transparency in governance and honesty towards public interest is the biggest priority of the state government.  He said now onwards neither any goon will be found for extortion in the name of mining nor there any illegal mining.  He said that for the Punjab government, the interests of the common people are above the revenue from sand.

          Meet Hayer said that in view of the massive response to the public sand mines in 7 districts of Punjab launched by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday from Ludhiana and the ease of providing sand to the common people, the scope of these mines will be extended by the end of this month.  The number of public sand mines will be increased to 50 in 14 districts.  He said that the target has been set to increase this number to over 150 by next year.

          Responding a media query whether all ‘clearances’ have been taken from the competitive authorities to operate these public sand mines, the Minister said that there was a special instruction in this regard by the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, according to which these mines have been opened to the public only after taking necessary approvals from the the Honorable High Court and State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).

           Mining Minister Meet Hayer, who visited Khoja to intercat with the people who came to procure sand and the labourers who loaded the sand, walked barefoot through the river water to them and asked about any kind of additional charges, if taken by anyone and also took their feedback.  The people who came there to buy sand and the sand loading labor said on this occasion that after about 15 years, open sale and supply of sand has to be found in Punjab like old times.  The tractor-trolley owners apprised the Minister that earlier, the sand loading work and transportation was limited to machines and cranes and heavy commercial vehicles that rendered many people jobless but now the days have changes.

          Meet Hayer said that he is satisfied that the Bhagwant Mann government’s initiative of throwing open public sand mines has benefited the common people at the ground level.  He said that the purpose of his inspection of these sites is to speed up the work of other public mines to be opened in the next few days.  Priority is being given to those places where the public mine is close to the main road, the road leading to the quarry is almost government owned, there is no charge for using the private road.  He said that with the opening of more public sand mines in the state, there will be no paucity of sand for the needy persons who want to have a roof over their heads. Similarly, to benefit the districts having no sand mine, a sufficient number of public mines would be opened in the districts, next to them. 

          Director Mines and Geology Davinder Pal Singh Kharbanda, who was present on the occasion, told the Minister of Mines that to maintain transparency in the working of public sand mines and to check illegal mining, a ‘QR code’ will be sent to the buyer’s mobile phone, in which sand  Information related to site name, payment, date and sand slip duration can be viewed by scanning by the enforcement agencies.

          On this occasion, AAP’s Nawanshahr senior leader Lalit Mohan Pathak specially thanked the Minister of Mines Meet Hayer and appreciated the efforts to provide big relief to the common people by the Bhagwant Mann government through opening of public sand mines.  He said that with this, the common people have not only got cheap sand, but hundreds of households have also got employment through filling and tractor transportation.

          On this occasion, SSP Bhagirth Singh Meena, ADC (G) Rajiv Verma, SDM Nawanshahr Major Shivraj Singh Ball, DSP Nawanshahr Ranjit Singh Badesha, Superintending Engineer (Headquarters) Manoj Bansal of Mines and Geology Department,  Executive Engineer Happy Kumar, SDO Gurjeet Singh, Tehsildar Sarvesh Rajan, AAP District Secretary Gagan Agnihotri, Sarpanch Pargat Ram, Numdar Bhupinder Singh and a large number of local people were present.

IEP Chandigarh February 8

          The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) during its ongoing campaign against corruption in the state, on Wednesday arrested a Panchayats Secretary, Hardyal Singh,  posted in block Valtoha, Tarntaran district and resident of village Dasuwal, in Tarntaran for amassing wealth than his known sources of income.

          Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the state VB said in this regard a case has been registered against the above said Panchayats Secretary after investigation of a vigilance enquiry regarding the allegations of disproportionate assets created through corruption.

          Giving details he further informed that during the investigation, his total income during the check period was Rs. 47,65,188 and total expenditure was found to be Rs. 1,06,98,926. It has came to light that the total expenditure incurred by the accused has increased by Rs. 59,33,738 as compared to the income received by him during the check period, he added.

          He informed that a case under prevention of corruption act against the accused Hardyal Singh has been registered at VB Police Station, Amritsar.

IEP Chandigarh, February 8      

     The Punjab government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is making all-out efforts to provide basic facilities, clean and pollution-free environment to the residents of the state. Under this series, development works are being conducted across the state by the Punjab government.          Giving more details, Local Government Minister Dr. Inderbir Singh Nijjar said that the Punjab government has decided to spend around Rs 16 crore on development works for the beautification of Amritsar city.          Cabinet Minister said that Rs 15 Crore will be spent for re-conditioning and development of GT Road from India Gate to the railway station. Apart from this, About Rs 48 lakhs will be spent on painting of bridges (second attempt) with cement based paint for beautification.          He further said that about Rs 25 lakh and Rs 49 lakh will be spent for repair of Footpath in Kabir Park Extension Scheme and supply/construction of road safety signs and features (second attempt) respectively.          He said that about Rs 49 lakh will be spent for repair and painting (second attempt) of centre verges,Kerb stones, street light poles and gantries etc.          He said that the local government department has started the office process for these works. He also said that big population of Amritsar city will benefit from these development works.          Minister said that providing basic facilities and clean environment to the people of the state is the top priority of the Mann government.          He instructed the officers of the department to ensure transparency and quality in the development works.