IEP CHANDIGARH, September 11, 2022

As the Punjab Police arrested the sixth and last shooter identified as Deepak Mundi in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case along with his two aides from the Indo-Nepal Border in West Bengal when the trio were attempting to escape to Nepal, the entire conspiracy and modus operandi as also the link-ups of these gangsters was revealed. The operation was carried out jointly by the Punjab Police’s Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) along with Delhi Police and Central agencies.          As part of its ongoing war against gangsters launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav, addressed a press conference here on Sunday, where he informed that Deepak Mudi, the main assassin, had fired indiscriminately at Shubhdeep Singh, the Punjabi Singer killed by gangsters on May 29th. .           The other two arrested along with Mundi are, Kapil Pandit and Rajinder alias Joker from near Indo-Nepal checkpoint in the area of Kharibari Police Station in Darjeeling district of West Bengal on Saturday. A team of AGTF led by AIG Gurmeet Chauhan and DSP Bikram Brar brought Mundi and his two aides to Punjab by air on Saturday late night.          With these three arrests, the total number of arrests in the Sidhu Moosewala Murder case are 23, and two shooters identified as Manpreet Singh alias Manu Kussa and Jagroop Singh alias Roopa were neutralized during an encounter in Bhakna village of Amritsar. Other shooters, who were arrested earlier, have been identified as Priyavrat Fauji, Kashish and Ankit Sersa.           DGP Gaurav Yadav, who was accompanied by ADGP Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) Promod Ban, said that after killing Sidhu Moosewala both Mundi and Kapil have been staying together and were constantly shifting their locations on the directions of Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar, who is the main conspirator. “Mundi and Kapil stayed in states including Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, UP and West Bengal,” he said, adding that Joker, who was already stationed in Nepal, had come to West Bengal to facilitate the entry of Mundi and Kapil to take them to safe house in Nepal.          He informed that Goldy Brar had promised Mundi and Kapil to settle them in Dubai on fake passports. “Both were supposed to receive their fake passports in Nepal or Thailand, and after which they were to fly to Dubai,” he added.

IEP Chandigarh, September 11, 2022

In order to make SAS Nagar (Mohali) and New Chandigarh a model cities by ensuring ultra-modern amenities, Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister reviewed the progress of various projects and development works being carried out by GMADA, on site to assess the development at the ground level. He also directed the officials concerned to complete all development works within the stipulated time but cautioned them, that there should be no compromise with the quality of work being executed.

          The Cabinet Minister visited Aero-city, IT City, Sector 88-89, Sports Complex in Sector-78, Purab Premium Apartments, Eco City 1 & 2, Medicity, 20 MGD water treatment plant in village Sinhpur, Sewerage treatment plant (STP) in Sector-83 to review the progress of ongoing projects in Mohali. He also reviewed the construction of PR-7 road to New Chandigarh and construction of other master plan roads.

          Asking the officials that the delivery of property possession on time should be the top priority, the cabinet minister said that Chief Minister S Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government is committed to ensure planned commercial and residential development in urban areas equipped with state-of-the-art facilities.  

          Keeping in view the future demand of developing Mohali, Mr. Aman Arora was apprised that GMADA has already initiated the process of upgrading capacity of existing Sewerage treatment plant (STP) situated in Sector-83 from 10 MGD to 15 MGD on the latest SBR technology. He directed the officials that the treated territory water shall be utilised for flushing and plantation and the project should meet the deadline of June, 2023.

          The GMADA officials informed the minister that the Authority has also operationalised 20 MGD water treatment plant in village Sinhpur to treat water coming from kajauli headworks to ensure potable water supply to the residents of Mohali and New Chandigarh. Mr. Aman Arora asked the officials to accelerate the pace of execution of ongoing projects so that people dont face any problem.

          During the visit, the Housing and Urban Development Minister was accompanied by Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development Mr Ajoy Kumar Sinha, Chief Administrator GMADA Mr. Amandeep Bansal and Chief Town Planner, Punjab Mr Pankaj Bawa and Chief Engineer GMADA Mr. Balwinder Singh.

IEP Chandigarh, September 11, 2022-09-11

          With a vision to foster a Progressive, Innovative and Sustainable Industrial and Business Ecosystem in state by transforming it as the most preferred destination for doing business, the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has approved the draft Industrial and Business Development policy.

A file to this effect was cleared by the Chief Minister on Saturday.

 The Chief Minister asked the industry department to invite Comments of the Industrial Fraternity by uploading the policy on website www.pbindustries.gov.in. He said that suggestions regarding the policy can be sent by email at suggestions.ind@punjab.gov.in and can also be submitted on portal itself. Bhagwant Mann said that the policy has been meticulously drafted for giving major push to industrial development on one hand and providing employment to youth on the other.

 The Chief Minister said that policy aims at Promoting Punjab as the preferred Investment Destination by accelerating industrial growth and job creation. Likewise, he said that it will accelerate growth of Startups and promote entrepreneurship by nurturing innovation, improving competitiveness and enhancing capability. Bhagwant Mann said that policy will also accelerate growth of MSMEs and develop world class infrastructure for the industry including quality and affordable power.

The Chief Minister said that policy will also facilitate availability of skilled manpower to the Industry, create opportunities for moving up the Global Value Chain and bring synergy between State programs and Central schemes to achieve Global scale. He said that it will also help to have a Circular and sustainable economy, attract Rs. 5 lakh Crore of investment in five years, increase the Share of Secondary sector in GSDP to 30% and Tertiary sector to 62% and increase the employability of the youth through skilling and increase employment opportunities in the State. Bhagwant Mann said that policy will also facilitate the development of at least 15 Industrial Parks in the State, attract at least one anchor unit in various Manufacturing and Service Industry Sectors, provide power at affordable and fixed tariff for 5 years to the Industry and upgrade power supply infrastructure to all the industrial areas to provide quality and uninterrupted power.

The Chief Minister said that draft policy also envisages to carryout in depth study of 10 clusters every year for specific interventions to increase their competitiveness, to upgrade and set up common facility centres in five clusters every year, to upgrade and set up 10 Technology centres in the State, to facilitate 1000 start-ups in five years and to facilitate setting up of 10 incubation centres/ accelerators in the State particularly focusing on Digital manufacturing, Lifesciences (Biotechnology), Agro &Food Processing and Information Technology. He said that it will also help to build strong linkages with all the major educational institutions, to facilitate setting up of 50 Entrepreneurship Development Centres in colleges, to set up one Skill University in the State, to set up one Skill centre for each identified industrial cluster and to set up advance skilling centre on hi-tech manufacturing, design and IT skills for five identified sectors. Bhagwant Mann said that to facilitate investors the draft policy proposes to scale up Invest Punjab Business First portal for a single unified interface to the Industry and Businesses for all regulatory and fiscal services throughout their lifecycle and its Integration with National Single Window System, to re-engineer the processes of seven core departments on priority namely Industry, Power, Pollution Control, Labour, Housing & Urban Development, Local Department and Taxation to make them extremely simple, industry friendly and completely digital and to rationalise document/checklist of various regulatory services at all levels of processing.

The Chief Minister also said that the draft policy also stipulates to restructure existing entities and empower them through statutory powers to translate the vision and mission into reality, to set up a Policy Implementation Unit to support the implementation of various aspects of the policy and monitor the progress, to set up effective mechanism for talent acquisition for specialized projects, organizations and other initiatives and to set up effective mechanism for partnering with various national and international agencies and develop effective PPP model for infrastructure, technology support, skills and other requirements of the Industry. He said that while formulating Draft Policy stake Holder consultations were held with prominent Industrial houses both at state and district level. Bhagwant Mann said that the draft Policy has Provision for Fiscal and Non Fiscal Incentives for new as well as existing units across all category of units like MSME, Large, Anchor, Border Districts, Border Zone, Thrust sectors, Private Industrial Parks and Sick Units. The Chief Minister said that Policy has Ten Core Focus areas including Infrastructure, Power, Skill, StartUps, MSMEs, Ease of Doing Business , Fiscal/ Non Fiscal Incentives, Export Promotion, Logistic, Grievance Redressal and Stake holder consultations  to strengthen the ease of doing Business ecosystem in the state to provide facilitation and support to industry in an efficient and Transparent way.

Meanwhile Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce Dalip Kumar informed that Final Industrial and Business Development Policy 2022 will take into account the suggestions of Industry who can  submit them at the earliest. He said that as the new policy has to be notified by October 17, 2022 so the industrialists should to send suggestions within a fortnight.

IEP Chandigarh, September 11, 2022    

      The Punjab School Education Department will conduct a special lecture on 13th September to provide information about the many scholarship schemes that are available for students studying in government schools.          Giving further information, an official spokesperson of the department said that this lecture will be held from 11:00 to 11:40 AM through Eduset system and all the School Heads and Principals of the state have already been issued instructions to attend the same.          The Heads of the schools wherein the Eduset system is not in working condition have been asked to visit nearby schools to attend the lecture, said the spokesperson, adding that the purpose of the lecture is to give maximum benefit of scholarship schemes to school students.

IEP Chandigarh/ Ludhiana, September 11, 2022

Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that the state government would take every possible step to stop stubble burning in the upcoming paddy harvesting season.Dhaliwal, who was addressing a press conference in Ludhiana said that Agriculture department had pulled up all socks to manage the stubble and it will distribute 56000 machines under in-situ management of stubble  this season taking the total tally of machines to 146422 machines as 90422 machines were already given to farmers from 2018-2022.Pointing about new development in program of machines’ distribution this year, Dhaliwal said that now small farmers would also get machines like super seeder, happy seeder, zero drill as 500 such equipment will be sent to 154 blocks of state. He said that after September 15, from class-IV to director rank officer of Agriculture Department including himself, will stay in the fields and visit door to door for sensitizing the food growers against stubble burning.The Minister said that a massive awareness drive would be launched in the rural belt of Punjab in coming days comprising officials of Rural Development and Panchayat, Environment departments, NGOs, Students of schools and colleges and others to exhort the farmers for adopting in-situ crop residue management wholeheartedly to manage the stubble.Lashing out at Union Government for turning down cash incentive proposal to farmers for not burning stubble, he called it anti-farmer, anti-Punjab and said that the state government had proposed to give Rs 2,500 per acre to paddy growers suggesting that the Centre will pay Rs 1,500 per acre while Rs 1,000 per acre will be borne by Punjab and Delhi governments.Coming heavily on the previous governments, he said that several farmers failed to get the benefit of the subsidy on agricultural implements and a scam of Rs. 150 crores had been surfaced. Its report has been handed over to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and nobody will be spared.Soliciting support of farmers to wipe out menace of stubble burning, Dhaliwal expressed hope that this year not a single farmers will indulge in this practice.Prominent among present on the occasion included MLAs Rajinderpal Kaur Chhina, Jiwan Singh Sangowal, Daljit Singh Grewal, Hardeep Singh Mundian, Kulwant Singh Sidhu and others.

IEP Chandigarh/Sangrur, September 11. 2022

            Punjab Information and Public Relations Minister Aman Arora said that Sohian Bir will be developed as an eco-tourism center by the state government. Mr. Arora disclosed this while talking to reporters after holding a detailed meeting with

Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab Praveen Kumar, Chief Conservator (Wildlife) Gitanjali, Wildlife Institute Dehradun experts Dr. Habib Bilal and Dr. Samrat and Divisional Forest Officer Ms. Monika Devi Yadav here at Sohian Bir.

The minister said that this Bir has been spread over an area of more than 700 acres, which is bigger than Chhatbir.  He said that in order to make this location full of natural beauty and a center of attraction for people at the national and international level, he will soon take up this matter with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann following which the case will be sent to the union government for approval.

Cabinet Minister Aman Arora said that as an effort to save the endangered species, bringing black buck to Sohian Bir has also been discussed in the meeting. He said that according to the opinion of wildlife and forest experts, such trees will also be planted in the Bir which will become a habitat for animals and will add more beauty to this place.

The Cabinet Minister said that about two and a half months ago, he along with the Minister of Forests and Wildlife Protection Punjab Lal Chand Kataruchak visited this place and since then he has continuously been working with the officials of the Wildlife and Forest Department for the revitalization of this Bir.  He said that a preliminary plan has been prepared to develop Sohian Bir as eco-tourism and the improvement process will start soon.

IEP Chandigarh, September 11, 2022

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau during its ongoing campaign against corruption on Sunday nabbed Jarnail Singh API-cum-Panchayat Secretary of Harayau Khurd, Patiala district red handed while taking a bribe of Rs 6000.

            Disclosing this here today an official spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau (VB) said Panchayats department official Jarnail Singh was arrested on the complaint of Ajaib Singh of village Harayau Khurd, Block Patran, Patiala.

            He informed that the complainant has approached the VB and alleged that the above said Panchayat Secretary was demanding Rs. 6,000 more to provide some record pertaining to development works executed in his village by the Gram Panchayat under RTI Act. The complainant further alleged that the above mentioned accused has already taken Rs 4,000 to hand over the copies of record under RTI Act.

            After verifying his information, a VB team from Patiala range laid a trap and the accused Panchayat Secretary has been arrested on the spot while accepting a bribe of Rs. 6,000 from the complainant in the presence of two official witnesses.

            He informed that a case under Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against the accused at VB police station Patiala and further investigation was under progress.

IEP SAS Nagar/Chandigarh, September 11, 2022

The Punjab government led by Bhagwant Maan is working hard to increase the interest of the youth towards sports.  Working in this direction, Sports Minister Punjab Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer inaugurated the Rana Green Field cricket stadium at village Cholta Kalan of Kharar constituency today.  On this occasion, he himself went to this cricket stadium playing field and played cricket and enjoyed the game.  Cabinet Minister Madam Anmol Gagan Mann was specially present with him.  Madam Anmol Gagan Mann announced to pave the dirt road leading to the stadium.Addressing the gathering at the Rana Green Field Cricket Stadium, Sports Minister Meet Hayer said that the Aam Aadmi Party government is committed to the all-round development of the state.  He said that Punjab has given such players to the country whose record has not been broken till date.  He said that cricket is a popular sport.  He said that youth and children show more interest in cricket.  He said that with the opening of the stadium, the youth will get a big benefit.  Along with this village, players from nearby villages can also come and play in the ground. He also congratulated the local people and said that many big players can be born in this stadium.  Apart from this, he said that the Punjab government is taking many other initiatives related to the development of sports.  He said that Punjab will be brought back to number one in the sports competition.On this occasion, Cabinet Minister Madam Anmol Gagan Mann, during her address, assured the people of the constituency that all the promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party government will be fulfilled.  She also encouraged the youth and the elderly to take more interest in sports.  She said that if any player faces any kind of problem, they should bring it to her notice.  She assured to solve all the problems of the players on time.  She said that only with the support of the youth, Punjab can be brought back to number one in terms of sports.  Meanwhile, she also congratulated the residents of the constituency on the opening of the playground.            On this occasion, MLA from Chamkaur Sahib Constituency Dr.  Charanjit Singh,  spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party Mr. Malvinder Kang, SDM Kharar Mr. Ravinder Singh, DSP Rupinder Kaur Sohi and other administrative officers, Head of Management Committee Jitinder Rana,  Mr. Ram Babu, a fan of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the villagers were specially present.

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau during its ongoing campaign against corruption on Saturday has arrested two retired inspectors of Punjab Roadways who had been indulged in changing the departure timing of government buses to private buses in lieu of bribes. Both the accused were on the run in a case registered against them on charges of bribery.

          Disclosing this here today, a spokesperson of Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) said some employees of Punjab Roadways were accused of collecting daily/monthly bribes by changing the running timings of state passenger buses from the bus stand to favour the private buses. In this regard the VB had registered a case FIR No 5 dated 30-04-2021, under section 7, 7-A of Prevention of Corruption Act and section 120-B of IPC at Vigilance Bureau Police Station, Amritsar.

          He informed that among the accused involved in this case, retired inspector of Punjab Roadways Depot Amritsar-2, Raj Kumar Raju, resident of village Fullra, Pathankot district and Tarsem Singh, retired inspector of Punjab Roadways Depot Jalandhar-1, resident of village Chakkhelan, Hoshiarpur district were evading arrest in this case.

          Both the above mentioned accused have been arrested by the Vigilance Bureau. Further interrogation of the said accused is going on.

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

          Punjab School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains today earnestly appealed to the divyang students studying in government schools, to take benefit of Pre-matric, Post-matric and Top class scholarship scheme.

           Mr. Bains said that the Punjab government led by Chief Minister  Mr.Bhagwant Singh Mann has given top priority to education and he wants to no child of the state deprived of quality education.

The School Education Minister said that the registration for these schemes, which are being run with the support of Social Security, Women and Child Development Department, has started from 20 July 2022.  The last date to apply online for Pre Matric Scholarship Scheme is 30th September, 2022 while the last date to apply online for Post Matric and Top Class Scholarship Scheme is 31st October, 2022.

          Harjot Singh Bains has  ordered the heads of all the government schools in the state to create maximum awareness about the pre-matric, post-matric and top class scholarship scheme for the Divyang students so that maximum number of students registered themselves.