IT Chandigarh

1.47 lakh job cards given under rural employment scheme in Haryana

1.47 lakh job cards given under rural employment scheme in Haryana

Over 1.47 lakh households have so far been issued job cards under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Haryana and an expenditure of more than Rs. 60.18 crore has been incurred since its implementation.

While stating this today, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Dharambir Singh said that initially the ambitious scheme was launched in all gram panchayats of districts of Mahendergarh and Sirsa on February 2,2006 and it was extended to two more districts of Ambala and Mewat
during the current financial year.

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Chandigarh: As the SAD-BJP tests the waters before taking a final call on withdrawing freebies in Punjab, at least partially, the Congress’ stand on the issue could dampen the ruling party’s build-up of political will towards any such move.

Leader of Opposition Rajinder Kaur Bhattal today said the Congress feared that the government could roll back its decision on subsidies and octroi in the wake of dismal financial position of the state. The treasury benches, which included Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, found themselves in a precarious situation, looking for words after Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira sought a pointed reply from the minister on the governments’ plans to withdraw freebies.

Participating in the discussion on the Punjab Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill, 2007, Bhattal, who gave a blow-by-blow account of state finances, blamed the SAD for the mess.

Manpreet, however, stood firm and maintained that the state finances were improving. He cited a record excise revenue increase of 12 per cent besides an increase in VAT collections. “The politics in Punjab has been revolving around other issues and not economics. We need to bring the economic agenda on the political centre stage,” he said.
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Chandigarh: Teachers in Kapurthala district today boycotted their training programme— which is being conducted during their winter vacation from December 24 to December 31 under Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. Teachers protested in Jalandhar too, though they attended the programme.

Notably, as various teachers’ organisations were against seminars during vacation, the Punjab government had decided that while this year’s programme would be conducted as per schedule, appropriate adjustment would be made for the next academic session.

Sucha Singh, Kapurthala president of Democratic Teachers’ Front, said they have boycotted the first day of the training programme and would stay away for all eight days.

Surjit Singh, a union member in Jalandhar, said though they had undertaken the training programme, they were against it.

As per the Union government’s directions, it is mandatory to conduct 20-day teachers’ training programme during each academic session. For this academic year, 12 days’ training was conducted during summer vacation and for the remaining eight days’, a programme was scheduled for December-end.

The Punjab government had recently clarified that the training schedule will not be changed as all arrangements had been made.

Source: expressindia

Chandigarh: Four persons, who were arrested last year on charges of allegedly harbouring Jagtar Singh Tara, the absconding accused wanted in cases of assassinating Punjab’s former Chief Minister Beant Singh and the sensational Burail jail break, were convicted by a local court here today.

Those convicted include Dilbagh Singh and Ranjit Singh, both residents of Ropar, and Sukhwinder Singh alias Sukhi, a Kurali resident and Balbir Singh alias Nepali, resident of Kumarhatti. The convicts were booked on charges of possessing explosives, illegal weapons and for harbouring Tara after his escape from jail.

While Dilbagh Singh and Sukhwinder Singh were sentenced to five years imprisonment and Rs 5,000 fine each; Balbir Singh and Ranjit Singh were sentenced to three years imprisonment with Rs 3,000 fine each.

UT Police Crime Branch nabbed the four on March 20, 2006, at a bus stop opposite PGIMER while they were hatching a conspiracy to commit some untoward activity in the city.
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Chandigarh: After finding hoardings erected by shopkeepers, in violation of the norms, the MC recently launched a drive in Sector 34 to remove them.

Many of the shopkeepers in Sector 34 had put up hoardings which were bigger than the size allowed by the administration. Based on the complaints, MC officials launched a drive and removed the hoardings after going through the drawings.

Many of the buildings in Sector 34 had huge hoardings displayed on the walls as the entire area houses a mall besides many other institutions. For a long time, MC authorities had failed to take the note of violations there.

According to an official, as per the drawing of the building, a shop-cum-office (SCO) can erect a hoarding not more than 16 feet in height and 2.25 feet in width. “But in Sector 34, the hoardings were much bigger so we removed them after detecting the violation,” said the official.

He said the 3-bay SCO can have three hoardings only, one on each bay. “But during our recent visit, we found that SCOs had more hoardings in complete violation of the norms,” he added.

According to MC officials, the violations are continuing in many sectors and they will be removed by launching special drives. They added that many of the SCOs also had wall paintings which need to be removed too.

Chandigarh: Two persons, Rajan Sharma and Inder Singh alias Inder Bahadur, were nabbed at ISBT 17 for allegedly attempting to intoxicate a Sector 18 resident Shiv Prasad, who was waiting for his friend at the Delhi counter.

Both the accused were arrested at about 7.30 pm and on searching them, the police recovered 70 tablets of Larpose, a mild tranquilizer.

According to the police, Shiv Prasad was waiting for his friend at the Delhi counter, who was coming in a bus from Delhi to Chandigarh. Both the accused allegedly approached Shiv and befriended him. “They indulged in conversation with him, initially asking him if they could board a bus to Delhi from the same counter and then his purpose of waiting for somebody there and so on. After conversing with Shiv, they decided to have a cup of coffee. Despite Shiv’s reluctance, they went and brought three cups of coffee, one of which they had allegedly laced with Larpose tablets. Shiv, after tasting the coffee, got suspicious and cleverly called the police constable on patrolling duty. He informed the police about the two boys and the cup of coffee. Both were immediately detained and on searching them, we found the tablets,” informed SI Ram Rattan, incharge, police post ISBT 17.

Incidentally, in July this year, the body of a Vardhman Manager, Omit Ghosh, was recovered from one of the buses parked at ISBT 17. During the post-mortem examination, it was indicated that he was intoxicated with the overdose of a similar drug.

Source: expressindia

Chandigarh: The Chandigarh traffic police have initiated a week long drive to check drunken driving and use of high-beams on city roads. The drive has been issued on the orders of the UT administrator.

Police officials said that special nakas shall be set up at eight points such as near the South End roundabout, Housing Board lightpoint, Kalagram lightpoint, Poultry farm roundabout, ISBT-17, Kaimbwala turn, Vikas Marg etc. The nakas will operate from 8 pm-11 pm. Five Traffic Interceptors; equipped with Alco sensors will also be put on special duties at these nakas.

Official sources said that the police had booked 41 people on charges of drunken driving and issued nearly 1,150 challans for various traffic violations. Senior Superintendent of Police (Traffic) AS Ahlawat said, “ We have to take a strict stand against traffic violations. The drive has been initiated to ensure that no untoward incidents occur during the holiday season.”

Source: expressindia

Chandigarh: The first major controversy erupted when many of the new councillors returned their mobile phones claiming them to be of inferior quality. The issue brought the officials and the councillors at loggerheads. This year, the Mayor had to face the no-confidence motion moved by the Congress on her alleged statement over the status of Chandigarh as UT.

Later, Mayor Harjinder Kaur’s decision to hold Teej festival at Shantikunj, much against the wishes of Municipal Commissioner and UT Administration, generated a new controversy. It was during Teej festival, the issue of protocol of the councillors popped up and later a nominated councillor even raised the issue in the House.

The House was divided over another controversial issue of providing “necklace of authority” to the Mayor. The controversial agenda was withdrawn only after the issue created uproar in the House meeting. While the Congress councillors made it very clear that they were not happy with the idea of “decorating” the Mayor with a necklace, then Municipal Commissioner P S Aujla had also ridiculed the proposal.

Even the foreign junket of the councillors, too, courted controversy. Earlier, the Mayor and Municipal Commissioner drawn daggers over the issue, later some of the councillors on their return from the study tour of Singapore and Bangkok questioned the utility of such tours.
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