IEP SAS Nagar, October 11

Punjab School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Tuesday gave away Prizes and Certificates of Appreciation to those schools who topped in various categories of Swachh Vidyala Awards of session 2021-22 during a function organized at the head office.

Appreciating the work of principals and teachers of the concerned schools, the Education Minister said that these teachers and their teams brought laurels for the state with their constructive approach. He also urged these teachers of the winning schools to play vanguard role to improve the situation of sanitation in nearby schools so that more schools can get this national distinction next year.

Notably, Government of India has selected these schools in various categories on sanitation parameters under the Swachh Bharat Campaign. The selected schools included government and private ones. In the overall category of elementary schools in selected rural areas included Government Middle School Kingra (Faridkot), Government Primary School Inderpura (Patiala), Government Primary School Suhali (SAS Nagar), Government Primary School Fatehpur (SAS Nagar), Government Primary School Mukandpur (SBS Nagar) and Government Primary School Katarian (SBS Nagar).

However, the overall category of elementary schools in urban areas included Government Primary School Sheikhupur (Kapurthala), Golden Era Millennium School Mandi Killianwali (Sri Muktsar Sahib), Government Primary School Chohak Kalan (Jalandhar) and Government Primary School Sensi Wehra Amloh (Fatehgarh Sahib).

Similarly, DAV International School Verka Chowk (Amritsar), Government Senior Secondary School Bhawanipur (Kapurthala), Government Senior Secondary School Pakki Tibbi (Sri Muktsar Sahib), Pioneer Convent School Gurmukh Nagar (Malerkotla), The Town School (Malerkotla) and K.V. Barnala was given the Swachh Vidyala were awarded in overall category of secondary schools of rural areas.

While Government Senior Secondary School Model Town Patiala, SGRM Government Girls Senior Secondary School Zira (Ferozepur), B.V.M. Kichlu Nagar Ludhiana and Government Senior Secondary School Boys Amloh (Fatehgarh Sahib) were felicitated with the Swachh Vidyala award under overall category of secondary schools of urban areas.

Apart from this, six schools were also awarded under various sub-categories. These schools included Government Middle School Kingra for Capacity Building and Behaviour Change, Sacred Heart School Dosanjh Road Moga for preparedness and response to cope with Covid-19 pandemic, Sita Grammar School Malerkotla for hand washing hygiene, SGRM Government Girls Senior Secondary School m Zira (Ferozepur) for maintaining good environment and better water supply and efficient use, Government Middle School Kingra (Faridkot) for better hygiene in toilets.

During the award ceremony Director General School Education Pradeep Kumar Agarwal, DPI Secondary Education Kuljit Pal Singh Mahi, Director SCERT Dr. Maninder Singh Sarkaria, Deputy SPD and State Nodal Officer Swachh Vidyala Campaign Gurjit Singh and other concerned officials were present.

IEP SAS Nagar, October 11

In order to reform government procedures that impact the common man,  a landmark decision of the Bhagwant Mann  government became a reality with the discontinuation of physical filling of application forms and submission at Sewa Kendras.
Today Governance Reforms Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer made surprise visit at the Sewa Kendra situated at District Administrative Complex, SAS Nagar, checked working of Sewa Kendra and interacted with citizen to know about the issues.
The Minister asked service Operator (M/s DSSPL) to increase the quality of service delivery and ensure that every citizen is being dealt with utmost priority and provide services without any hassles. Further, the minister also launched a new concept with name of form less services by starting 6 services in phase 1.
Disclosing more about the new initiative Meet Hayer said that in this reform now citizen can avail the services e.g. Income Certificate, Rural area certificate, Addition of name in birth certificate, Income and Asset Certificate, General Caste Certificate & Senior Citizen ID Card without filling the physical form.
To avail these services, citizen has to visit Sewa Kendra with only original Proof of Identify & Proof of Address (already notified by Punjab Government) along with the service specific documents e.g. Self Declaration form.
On the basis of citizen’s documents Sewa Kendra operator shall apply the service by filling the online form and getting the citizen’s signature on the system generated form.
Above reform will reduce 4 steps (e.g. Form procurement, Form Filling, Document Photo Copy attachment and Form checking) from 7 steps to 3 to avail the services. In subsequent features more services will be added in form less service gamut.
With the launch of form less services and acceptance of digitally signed certificates on mobile phone, citizen visits to collect the certificates shall be reduced significantly along with time take taken to fill the applications forms or file making.
The minister also interacted with the citizens who obtained certificates on their mobile phones/SMS. Recently an initiative of doing away holograms and physical signature was announced by the Minister Governance Reforms for which  notification was issued by governance reforms department. This has been implemented across the state. The citizens expressed their satisfaction & delight to obtain certificates on mobile phones.
Prominent among others who were present at the occasion included Director Governance Reforms Girish Dayalan, Deputy Commissioner SAS Nagar
Amit Talwar, ADC Amaninder Kaur Brar, SDM Mohali Sarbjit Kaur, DeGC Mohali Kuldeep Singh, Vice President Dr. IT Diljit Singh and District Manager Sewa Kendra Amandeep Singh.

IEP Chandigarh, October 9

Punjab Transport Minister S. Laljit Singh Bhullar, on Sunday, conducted a surprise check at the bus stands of Sri Anandpur Sahib and Nangal City and Nangal Bus Depot.          At Sri Anandpur Sahib Bus Stand, the Transport Minister directed the depot officials to immediately start the public bus service between Sri Anandpur Sahib and Amritsar, the two centers of Sikhism, from tomorrow i.e. October 10. He inquired about the details regarding non-operation of buses on this route at the General Manager’s office and instructed the General Manager Paramvir Singh that there is anger among public due to non-operation of buses, so it should be ensured that buses continuously ply on this important route in future.          Reviewing the cleanliness at the bus stand, shops and toilets, the Transport Minister directed the General Manager to pay more attention towards cleanliness of the bus stand. S. Bhullar, while interacting with the passengers and listening to their problems, said that Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann is paying much attention for making the public bus service more reliable and comfortable.          The Transport Minister also paid obeisance at Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib. He was bestowed the siropao by the management.          While visiting the bus stand and bus depot at Nangal city, Transport Minister S. Bhullar enquired about the income deficit of the depot and reason for the stationary buses. The Minister was apprised that due to the construction of a RoB over the railway crossing on the Una highway, many routes are closed and around 18 buses have been shifted to Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana, due to which the income has decreased. The Cabinet Minister, while taking stock of the stationary buses in the Depot, instructed the General Manager Gursewak Singh Rajpal to immediately making arrangement for passing of the buses so that these can be operationalized and the loss of income of the depot could be met. He also instructed the GM to ensure that there should be no shortage of buses’ spare parts in the depot.          On the demand of the depot employees, the Transport Minister assured that the concrete bus washing dug will be constructed soon. He also said that he will visit the bus stands across the state in coming days and take every possible step to make the public bus service meet the aspirations of the people.

IEP Chandigarh, October 8:     

      Punjab Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer has congratulated Indian Hockey team vice-captain Harmanpreet Singh for being selected as the best hockey player in the world for the year 2021-22 by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). Indian hockey team defender and ace drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh have been chosen FIH Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.          Meet Hayer personally congratulated Harmanpreet Singh and said that it is a matter of pride for Punjab that our player has been selected as the best player in the world for the second year in a row. Harmanpreet Singh got this honour last year too.          Harmanpreet Singh, a resident of Timmowal village in Amritsar district, scored 6 goals in Tokyo Olympic Games last year and 9 goals in Birmingham Commonwealth Games this year. India won the bronze medal after 41 years at the Olympics while winning the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games. Harmanpreet Singh has played 155 international matches for India so far and has scored a total of 115 goals.          The Sports Minister said that it is a matter of pride for India that apart from Harmanpreet Singh, Indian men’s team goalkeeper P.  Sreejesh and women’s team goalkeeper Savita Punia have also been chosen FIH Goal Keeper of the Year in men’s and women’s categories respectively. Meet Hayer said that with this proud achievement of the Indian players, budding hockey players in the country will be inspired. 

IEP CHANDIGARH/AMRITSAR, October 4 

With Punjab Police having further intensified vigil and alertness against anti-social elements ahead of the festival season on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Amritsar Rural Police has busted an ISI-backed Narco-Terrorism module. Its main operative has been arrested after recovering arms and explosives from his possession, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Tuesday.The module is being jointly operated by Canada-based Lakhbir Singh alias Landa, Pakistan-based Harvinder Singh Rinda and Italy-based Harpreet Singh alias Happy.The arrested accused has been identified as Yograj Singh alias Yog, resident of Village Rajoke in Tarn Taran, besides, the Police have also identified five more accomplices, who were part of the module in carrying out illegal activities across Punjab and adjoining states.The police have recovered a 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 from the accused.DGP Gaurav Yadav said that the arrested accused Yograj is the main operative of this module and wanted by the state police and Central Enforcement Agencies in at least five criminal cases including the one wherein five AK-47 assault rifles were seized in Tarn Taran in September 2019.He said that preliminary investigations have revealed that the cross-border operations of arms-explosives-drugs smuggling was mainly handled by Yograj on the directions of terrorists/gangsters Landa, Rinda and Happy and jailed smuggler Gurpavitar alias Sai of Lakhna, Tarn Taran. Yograj had been active in recovery and further delivery of consignments of Arms and Drugs at a large scale, he added.Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amritsar Rural Swapan Sharma said that the Police has made a major strike in exposing members of Landa-Rinda terror module. In the present module, the Police have managed to identify five operatives of the gang and manhunt has been launched to nab them, he added.He said that further investigations are on, and more recoveries of arms and explosives are expected soon.Meanwhile, FIR no 107 dated 04/10/2022 has been registered under sections 21/27-A/29/61/85 of the NDPS Act and sections 25/54/59 of Arms Act at Police Station Ramdas in Amritsar Rural.