IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

          The Punjab Government led by Bhagwant Mann is committed to provide basic facilities and clean environment for the welfare of the people of the state. Taking a step in this direction, Local Government Minister, Dr. Inderbir Singh Nijjar said that Rs 734.98 lakh will be spent by the state government for the beautification and development of Malerkotla. The department has already started the process for these works.

          Giving more information, Dr. Inderbir Singh Nijjar said that, the services for various works will be hired so that the development, cleaning and maintenance work of Malerkotla can be done more efficiently. Apart from general repair, the work of tiling, interlocking, earth filling of various roads and streets in the city will be done. Likewise, beautification of Satta Chowk to Kelon Gate Malerkotla, Laying CC flooring, repair and maintenance of water supply line in the City, fixing of tree guard are also on the cards.

          Dr. Nijjar has directed the officials of the department to ensure the quality of work and follow the rules meticulously

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

          In a bid to ensure quick and timely disposal of applications for regularization of properties situated in unauthorized colonies in the state, Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government has introduced a facility of online submission and processing of applications on the regularization portal for obtaining NoC. The state government has also fixed a deadline of maximum 21 working days to complete the whole process to issue the NoC. 

          Revealing this, Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister Mr. Aman Arora made it clear that this facility of regularization could be availed only by those allottees/residents whose properties fall under the unauthorized colonies developed before March 19, 2018.

          Mr. Aman Arora said that the person concerned can now log on to www.punjabregularization.in portal dedicated to regularization of plots and buildings situated in unauthorised colonies, which will be processed online. Till now, the applications were processed offline so the applicants had to wait a long for getting issued the NoC.

          Due to ignorance, a considerable number of people had purchased properties in unauthorised colonies which had mushroomed in the past few years. These allottees/residents had invested their hard earned money to purchase plots or other establishments in these colonies, the Minister added.

          To give a reprieve to them the regularization portal has been revamped, said the Cabinet Minister, while adding that new features have been added on the portal to facilitate the allottees/residents of unauthorized colonies interested in applying for regularization of their property. Now, the portal extends a large number of facilities such as online submission of application, online payment, status checking of application and online disposal of the same. This one single portal is designed for regularization of plots and buildings falling within MC and outside MC area for quick disposal of applications, he added.

          To ensure quick and timely disposal of applications, the Housing and Urban Development Minister further stated that the officials involved in the process of dealing the applications would be required to take action in a fixed timeline which will be monitored. The whole process to issue the NoC would be completed maximum within 21 working days from the submission of the application on the portal, he said.

          Notably, Punjab Government had notified a policy on 18.10.2018 to regularize plots falling in unauthorized colonies developed before 19.03.2018. However, plot holders are facing issues for getting their plots regularized under this policy, since applications were processed offline.

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

            Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Dr. Baljit Kaur said that ‘Sakhi’ One Stop Centres are proving boon for women in the state and 10096 needy women and girls have been provided free legal aid, medical aid, police assistance and counseling in the centres so far. These one-stop centres provide various services like medical assistance, legal assistance, police-related assistance, psychological and counseling assistance under one roof to distress women, she added.

Giving more information in this regard, the Minister said that in these centres medical assistance has been provided to 1503 women, counseling to 7986, legal assistance to 5358, temporary shelter facility to 1020 and police assistance to 2988 till now. She said that since April 2022, various types of assistance has been provided in 10096 cases.

            Dr. Baljit Kaur said that the main objective of this scheme is to provide shelter and assistance to women who are in distress. Efforts are also made to settle the cases through counseling, So success rate of centres is very high.Sakhi Centres are running in civil hospitals of districts, she added.

            Minister said that needy women or girls can contact with  Sakhi centres at district offices phone numbers or can contact at helpline number 181 to avail services of the centre.

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

In line with the commitment of Punjab government led by Chief Minister Mr Bhagwant Mann to provide quality basic services to people,  Punjab Chief Secretary Mr. Vijay Kumar Janjua today underscored need to expedite work on Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project (PMSIP) that is revamping water supply schemes in Amritsar and Ludhiana towns.

          Chairing a meeting with a delegation of the World Bank to conclude the second joint implementation support mission for the Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project (PMSIP), the Chief Secretary said that The PMSIP is a 300 million dollar project jointly funded by The World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and GoP. He said that this ambitious project aims to improve drinking water supply for the towns of Amritsar and Ludhiana by building new surface water treatment plants and other bulk water supply infrastructure to improve the quantity and quality of water supply in these cities. He further said that the project will also undertake urban e-governance initiatives such as asset management and capital investment planning and help set up 100% ULB owned and dedicated water utilities for the two cities that will be accountable to citizens for improved water supply.

          The Chief Secretary said that five year Project was started in October 2021 and a team of World Bank had visited Amritsar and Ludhiana this week to review the project progress and implementation.He emphasised Punjab Government’s commitment to ensure successful implementation of PMSIP as with this Project, Amritsar and Ludhiana will be able to get clean and reliable water supply for the next three decades.

          During the meeting, the Chief Secretary was apprised on the progress made so far. In Amritsar, the $90 million design build and operate contract for the water treatment plant is underway and will be completed in mid-2024. Similarly, in Ludhiana, the proposal for floating the bid for Ludhiana is in final stage of approval and will be launched soon. The project team agreed on the next steps for GIS mapping, Financial Management, Property Tax administration, GRM and citizen outreach. It was also agreed that the Project will utilize the committed $10 mn to strengthen emergency response and relief centers in all 13 MCs of Punjab by rehabilitation of existing emergency response structures with improved facilities such as testing centers, storage, removable partitions for common hall and equipment.

          The Principal Secretary, Department of Local Government, Principal Secretary, Department of Water Resources and CEO, PMIDC were also present in the meeting.

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

          Under the visionary leadership of S.Bhagwant Singh Mann, Chief Minister, Punjab and on the directions of Minister for Investment Promotion Ms Anmol Gagan Mann, Government is committed to increase the Industrial investments in Punjab.

          In this direction an outreach programme was organized jointly by NASSCOM and TiE Chandigarh in association with Invest Punjab through Video Conference. This interaction was held with leaders of IT industry across the country under the chairmanship of Mr Dilip Kumar IAS Principal Secretary IP, l&C and IT

          Mr. Dilip Kumar, IAS, Principal Secretary Investment Promotion, Industries & Commerce, and IT invited the IT industry to establish their business units in Punjab. He said that homogeneous urbanization, liberal & pro-industry policies, clean & healthy environment with high-quality of life, and high connectivity in terms of road, railways, and airways are significant advantages of being in the State. He highlighted the fact that Invest Punjab has been instrumental in attracting major investments in various sectors like IT/ITeS, Steel, Pharmaceuticals, Textiles, Sports Goods, Agro and Food-Processing.

          Positives of Mohali emerging as a preferred IT destination and the support and handholding being provided to IT companies by Invest Punjab were among the issues discussed.

          During an outreach programme, the Invest Punjab team presented the strength of the industrial environment in the State to the leaders of IT industry who had joined through Virtual Conference

          The programme also attended by Shri Uma Shankar IAS ACEO Invest Punjab and the IT sector team of Invest Punjab.

IEP NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

            Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today extended invitation to President of India Mrs Draupadi Murmu to visit the state.

            The Chief Minister called on the President at Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning and invited her to visit PUNJAB-the land of great Gurus, saints, seers and prophets.

            The Chief Minister apprised Mrs Murmu that Punjab is the cradle of civilisation and inherits a rich culture which can be observed only by visiting this pious soul. He said that the President of India must visit the state and have a feel of this glorious cultural heritage besides enjoying the warm hospitality of the Punjabis. Mr Bhagwant Mann said that entire Punjab will give a red carpet welcome to country’s President during her visit to the state.

            Later, interacting with mediapersons the Chief Minister said that his tour to Germany will give a major impetus to the economic activity in the state. Mr Bhagwant Mann said that during his visit to Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt, he will be meeting leading companies in the field of manufacturing, tourism, pharmaceuticals and others who are keen to invest in Punjab. He said that the entire effort is aimed to make sure that Punjab emerges as the most preferred investment destination in the country and across the globe.

            The Chief Minister reiterated his commitment to emerge state as an industrial hub adding that the state government is leaving no stone unturned for it. Mr Bhagwant Mann said that strenuous efforts are being made to propel the industrial growth of state on one hand and open new vistas of employment for youth on the other. He said that Punjab has a conducive environment for industrial growth due to which investors are keen on coming in the state and expand their business.

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 

          Slamming the Union government for pulling its hand from ensuring viable solution for paddy straw burning, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday said that the state government is mulling to introduce more than one lakh machines for insitu management of the paddy straw from its own resources.

“We had offered a joint resolution of this menace but instead of helping us the Centre government has dragged its feet from it. But it doesn’t mean that it will deter us from ensuring the well-being of our farmers and protection of environment” said the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister said that in Punjab paddy cultivation is done over 75 lakh acre of land. He said out of this the farmers having 37 lakh acres don’t burn the paddy straw. However, Bhagwant Mann said that some major steps needs to be taken for ensuring management of remaining 38 lakh acres. 

The Chief Minister said that the state government is mulling to introduce one lakh machines for this purpose. He said that these machines with capacity of managing crop residue of 8-10 acres daily will solve this vex problem. Bhagwant Mann said that it is in consonance with the commitment of state government to make Punjab clean, green and pollution free.

Quoting verse ‘Pawan Guru, Paani Pitaah, Mata Dharat Mahat’ from Gurbani, the Chief Minister said that the great Gurus have equated air (pawan) with teacher, water (paani) with father and land (dharat) with mother. Bhagwant Mann said that now the time has come when we must imbibe the teachings of Gurbani in our lives for restoring pristine glory of state by resolving not to burn crop residue. He said that the state government will leave no stone unturned for this noble cause.

IEP CHANDIGARH, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022

The Department of Hematology and the Department of Clinical Hematology & Medical Oncology at PGIMER, Chandigarh organized the Annual Conference of the North-West Chapter of the Indian Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusion on September 10, 2022. The meeting was attended by over 250 delegates from across the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and others from Rajasthan, New Delhi, and Jammu.

The event marked the successful completion of one-year of the new Department of Clinical Hematology and Medical Oncology at PGI, which caters to a large load of cancer patients as well as those suffering from benign blood diseases in the region. Prof. Pankaj Malhotra, the Head of the CHMO department, said that he was proud to note that specialist services were now available in the most premier institute of the region, and that oncology patients did not have to run from pillar to post, or travel long distance distances to get high-quality healthcare.

In the meeting, Dr. M. Joseph John from CMC Ludhiana highlighted “near-miss” events that were avoided, and how learning from them is the key to making patient care safer and more effective. Dr. Rishi Dhawan from AIIMS, New Delhi talked about care of a very common childhood cancer, A.L.L., and how to ensure that nearly 80-90% of children with this dreaded disease can be cured. New techniques of diagnosis were discussed: sequencing by Dr. Neeraj Arora from Ahmedabad, and flow cytometry by Dr. Kunal Sehgal from Mumbai. Dr. Shaji RV from CMC Vellore and Dr. Ganesh Kumar from AIIMS, New Delhi talked about the diagnosis of bone marrow failure and hemolytic anemias respectively. Each of the talks was followed by a presentation of examples of patients with these blood diseases by PGI faculty.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Reena Das, Head of the Department of Hematology, told the gathering how this annual conference was part of the efforts of PGIMER to revive the tradition of knowledge sharing and expertise development in medical institutions of the North-West region of India. Dr. Sreejesh from the same department expressed the hope that collaborative work will speed up the path to enhanced patient care and development of newer and better technologies to diagnose and manage these serious and common blood illnesses.

IEP Chandigarh September 11, 2022

Dr Aman Sharma, Professor, Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology services, Department of Internal Medicine delivered the NIAMS (National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases), National Institute of Health USA Rheumatology Grand rounds. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases is one of the institutes and centres that make up the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

This is an honour for any Indian Rheumatologist to deliver the NIAMS NIH grand rounds. The title of his talk was “Exciting world of vasculitis and Relapsing Polychondritis: care and clinical research’. The faculty and residents of NIH attended this round held virtually in this era of COVID Pandemic. Dr Aman shared his rich experience of published work done at PGIMER, Chandigarh in the field of Systemic Vasculitis and Relapsing polychondritis.

 Dr Aman has been working in these fields for nearly two decades and has established himself as an international expert in these two fields. He was a local investigator and an expert reviewer of the ACR EULAR study on the classification of systemic vasculitis, He is credited with description of new disease entity DADA2 in adults for which he was invited for the Inaugural lecture during the international DADA2 Conference hosted from NIH in 2020. He also expanded the spectrum of clinical presentations of a newly described disease entity VEXAS syndrome.

 He has been selected as incoming Editor in Chief of the Indian Journal of Rheumatology ,the official, peer-reviewed publication of the Indian Rheumatology Association. Prof Aman is presently the executive Editor of IJR and Associate Editor of International Journal of Rheumatic diseases(official journal of the Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology) and Frontier in Medicine(Rheumatology).He is on the editorial board of various other international journals and served as peer reviews of various major international journals like NEJM, Lancet, Annals of Rheumatic diseases and Arthritis and Rheumatology etc. He has more than 450 publications in peer reviewed journals, more than 60 book chapters and has edited many books including popular Textbook of Systemic vasculitis. He is also the current Honorary Secretary of Indian Rheumatology Association

IEP Chandigarh, September 10, 2022

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday directed the officials of the Archaeological Survey of India to swiftly complete the excavation work of the protected site at Rakhigarhi. Besides this, the security of these historical sites should also be ensured so that no person can cause any damage to these sites. State Government is ready to extend all possible help in this work, assured Khattar.

The Chief Minister gave this direction while chairing an important meeting with the officials today regarding the development of this area as an archaeological site. The meeting was held at the under-construction museum building in Rakhigarhi. Development and Panchayats Minister  Devender Singh Babli also present in the meeting.

 He said that Rakhigarhi has historical importance, hence safeguarding these mounds is of utmost importance. Proper security arrangements will be ensured by the police here after having a discussion with the Director General of Police. Besides this, the Archaeological Survey of India, on its behalf,  should also ensure the deployment of private guards to ensure additional security. Furthermore,  no soil excavation in the protected area should also be ensured.

 The Chief Minister directed the officials of the Archaeological Survey of India to formulate a master plan for all the 11 mounds of Rakhigarhi. He said that a long-term rehabilitation policy should be formulated for the rehabilitation of the displaced.

 While drafting the policy,  emphasis on ensuring the means of livelihood of such rehabilitated families should be given along with providing them the best residential facility. Arrangements should be made for rehabilitation by talking to the villagers with the help of local MLAs, Panch-Sarpanches, said Khattar.

The Chief Minister said that Panchayat and Animal Husbandry Department should jointly prepare a plan for such displaced families who are doing animal husbandry work. Under this, the Panchayat land should be given on lease to the Animal Husbandry Department and the Animal Husbandry Department should construct a combined shed or separate small sheds for 10-20 animals on the said land. Accordingly, these sheds can be given to such families for livestock, directed Khattar.

        The Chief Minister said that a Home Stay Policy has been prepared by the Haryana Government, under which the villagers can offer  one or two rooms in their houses to the tourists. For this, licenses will be given by the tourism department. With this Home Stay Policy, the people of Rakhigarhi will get new employment opportunities. The State Government aims  to popularize the homestay culture in the State, so that while the local people get new employment, the tourists also get a chance to know the culture of Haryana closely, asserted Khattar. Citing the example of Tikkar Taal in Morni Hill, the Chief Minister said that there are about 30 families  who have been given licenses under the Home Stay Policy and they are taking complete  advantage of it.

 The Chief Minister directed the officers to strengthen the three side road network  starting from Hansi, Jind and Barwala till Rakhigarhi. Besides this, the road having a cumulative length of 5.5 kilometers from Gaibi Nagar (Kinnar) to Rakhigarhi should be widened and strengthened and additional land should be purchased soon through the e-bhoomi portal for this purpose.

 Sign boards highlighting the historic importance of Rakhigarhi should be installed on National Highway and State Highway. Besides this, the historical importance of Rakhigarhi should  also be displayed on the premises of Haryana Tourism Corporation and other tourist places so that the people of the state and the country can get information about Rakhigarhi and tourism in Rakhigarhi should be promoted in the coming days. Khattar said that all the artefacts found from the excavation of Rakhigarhi are the valuable property of India, hence ensuring their security along with  preserving it is of utmost importance.

 A list of artefacts and other old items found from the excavation in Rakhigarhi should be prepared. Besides this, if the villagers also have such artefacts, then a list of them should also be prepared. He said that arrangements should be made to keep these artefacts in the museum after talking to the villagers and villagers can also be informed that the name of those who will give these artefacts will be displayed in the museum.

 The Chief Minister directed the officials of the Archaeological Survey of India to give permission for the beautification of the ponds present inside the protected area of Rakhigarhi and prepare designs and hand over them to the Pond Authority.

 The Chief Minister was apprised that a coordination committee has been formed by the Government of India for the work of the Rakhigarhi site and a task force has been constituted by the State Government. In the meeting, a detailed presentation of all the mounds of Rakhigarhi was given by the Archaeological Survey of India. In addition, a walk-through documentary of the museum was also shown.

 Vidhan Sabha Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa, MP, Brijendra Singh, Rajya Sabha MP,  Lt.Gen.(Retd.) Dr. D. P. Vats, MLA, Vinod Bhayana, Jogi Ram Sihag, Sh. Ram Kumar Gautam, Principal OSD to Chief Minister Sh. Neeraj Daftuar, Additional Chief Secretary, Public Works (Building and Roads) Department, Ankur Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Development and Panchayats Department, Anil Malik, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Dr. Amit Agrawal, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department, MD Sinha, Commissioner, Faridabad Division, Faridabad. Vikas Yadav, Director General, Development and Panchayats Department, Sanjay Joon, Director General, Archeology and Museums Department, P C Meena, Commissioner, Hisar Division, Hisar, Geeta Bharti, Deputy Commissioner, Hisar, Uttam Singh and other officers of the district administration also remained present.