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Chandigarh(VOP BUREAU)

The Punjab Government today promoted Dr Naresh Kumar IPS, Ram Singh IPS and S.S. Srivastava IPS as Inspector General of Police in the pay band-4 of 37400-67000+ grade pay 10000 with effect from 01.01.2012. Meanwhile 1994 batch IPS officers on central deputation namely Parveen kumar Sinha , B.Chandra Shekhar, Amardeep Singh Rai, Nirja Varuvaru and Anita Punj have been granted performa in the rank of Inspector General of Police with effect from 01.01.2012 .Besides that The Punjab Government has posted Mr Jatinder Jain IPS as IGP/intelligence and counter intelligence, Bathinda. In a separate orders S.Bhupati, Nilambri Jagadale vijay , Bikrampal Singh Bhatti and Rahul S (all IPS) have also been promoted in the senior time scale pay band-3 (15600-39100+6600 Grade pay) by the Punjab Government.

Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister, Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today felicitated the ace Cricketer Mr. Yuvraj Singh for bringing laurels to the country in general and Punjab in particular by his spectacular performance in the national as well as International Cricket. Addressing the gathering after honoring Mr. Yuvraj Singh with a cash award of Rs 1 crore in recognition of his sterling performance in the cricket world cup 2011, the Chief Minister said that the rare feat of this young cricketer would continue to inspire the coming generations to follow his footsteps in future. He expressed hope that Mr. Yuvraj would surely become a role model for the budding players of the state and the country to promote sports especially the Cricket at international fora. Mr. Badal said that the state government had already honored several eminent sportspersons hailing from Punjab who have brought laurels to the country in different sports events at the International forum viz. Olympics, Commonwealth and Asian Games, as per its sports policy. The Chief Minister said that the SAD-BJP alliance government had already taken several path breaking initiatives to promote sports in big way as it had appointed of 10 internationally acclaimed sportspersons from Punjab as DSPs Read the rest of this entry »

Montek Ahluwalia approves Rs 14000 cr annual plan of Punjab for 2012-13

Delhi/Chandigarh(Bureau)

PCI gives in principle approval to creation of industrial infrastructure in the border district.Montek assures to send a team of the Commission to Punjab for seeking their valuable inputs to control the menace of water logging in the Malwa Badal asks commission to accept the recommendations of Swaminathan commission for upliftment of farmers, Badal criticizes Centre for deliberately devising stringent parameters to exclude the progressive state from the ambit of central schemes. Badal demanded immediate debt waiver of small saving loan of Rs.23264 cr and immediate settlement of Rs.7461 crore on account of outstanding dues to FCI. Badal for free hand to State so that the specific issues related to them could be effectively addressedMontek appreciates superb performance & growth indicators of annualplan 2011-12 in health & educationNew Delhi 14 May. The Annual Plan of Punjab for 2012-13 was pegged at Rs. 14000 crore with an increase of 22% over the previous year in a meeting between the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission of India Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here at Yojana Bhawan. Informing this here today a spokesperson of the Punjab Government said that the approved plan outlay included one time Additional Central Assistance of Rs.480 crore, comprising Rs.144 crore as 30% GoI Read the rest of this entry »

Sukhbir seeks withdrawal of all unauthorized gunmen immediately

Chandigarh

The Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today listed out his priorities for next five years for make Punjab Police most professional police force of the country. Interacting with the SSPs of the districts, Range DIGs, Zonal IGs and Police Commissioners at Police Headquarter here today, Badal said that he had devoted last three years in fulfilling the aspirations and demands of Police personnel, giving them more what they demanded, just to raise their morale but he has not got from Punjab police force what he desired. Seeking to change common perception of corruption at Thana level, high headedness of Police force dealing with masses, perception of poor interface of police with common public, Badal said that Punjab police must instill a sense of security amongst the masses and a scare of law amongst the criminals. Asking for effective traffic control in the Corporation towns Badal said that he was committed to take war against Drugs to its logical conclusion to save our next generation. Giving a strong warning to all SSPs Badal said that it was the duty of the SSP to maintain command and control and to keep all DSPs/SHOs well disciplined. He said that he would not tolerate collusion of any police personnel in illegal possession of property especially of NRIs besides lodging of any false case against any innocent. He said that he has asked DGP to shift out all SHOs/DSPs who were posted in district since last five years and no SSP would be allowed to take his baggage of favorite SHOs/DSPs Read the rest of this entry »

Patiala Land Scam Inquiry handed over to DG Vigilance

Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today ordered the
immediate suspension of Mr. Vikas Garg, IAS along with other five
officers of revenue department for committing grave irregularities
for registering two sale deeds (No. 15901 and 15902) that were
registered by Joint Sub Registrar, Patiala on 14th. October, 2011.
Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s
office said that the other officers who were suspended included DRO,

Patiala  Rajbir Singh (under transfer), Tehsildar Patiala  A.S.
Thind, Naib Tehsildar Patiala, . G.S. Walia, , Kanugo  Priitpal
Singh and Patwari  Suresh Kumar. After examining the reports of
Commissioner Patiala division, Financial Commissioner Revenue and
Revenue Minister, the Chief Minister also marked an inquiry to the
vigilance department to be conducted by Director General of Police
(Vigilance) under his personal supervision besides, departmental
action against all the delinquent officials. Since the Read the rest of this entry »

Tota Singh files appeal: Challenges his sentence in the High court

Chandigarh

Convicted by Mohali court,Punjab agriculture Misiter Jathedar Tota Singh had offered to resign but has not formally submitted his resignation to CM Punjab till Tuesday night.He has not resigned from Badal Ministry.Talking to Voice of  Punjab in the late evening on Monday Jathedar Tota Singh said,I have offered to resign but not submitted my resign so far.Rather he was very upset over the news flash by a section of media about his resignation. He stated these reports as baseless. He told babushahi.com that he will abide by the decision of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Party President Sukhbir Badal in this regard .Meanwhile, Jathedar Tota Singh has challenged the verdict of Mohali court to sentence him for misusing the school board car. He has filed appeal to stay his sentence as well as applied for bail. The appeal is likely to be heard tomorrow.

Women from Haryana and Punjab secure top positions in UPSC civils exam

Chandigarh

Putting a pause over the old perception of boys preference in states of worst sex ratio in the country two young women, Shena Aggarwal and Rukmani Riar, from small towns of Haryana and Punjab have topped India’s most prestigious exam, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for appointment to the civil services. Some of the toppers from the region are Prince Dhawan, Sidharth Sihag, Jashandeep Singh Randhawa, DR Navjot Kaur, Piyush Singla and Himanshu Gupta, Navdeep Riar, Kanchan Garg etc. Shena Aggarwal (25), a resident of Yamunanagar in Haryana, secured the first rank in the civil services examination2011 followed Rukmani Riar, 24, of Hoshiarpur (Punjab) who got the second position in the exam of which the result were declared on Friday.Already having an MBBS from AIIMS New Delhi, Shena hit the bulls eye in her third attempt. She was also the all-india topper in the Pre-medical Test (PMT) in 2004.According to here family members in the Yamunanagar Shena is currently in Nagpur, undergoing 16-month training in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), which started in December last year. She started preparations for the exam after her internship at AIIMS in January 2010. She herself started brushing up her knowledge of current affairs and did not go for coaching, but joined a test series in New Delhi. Shenas father Dr CK Aggarwal is a dentist in Yamunanagar; her mother is a housewife.Shinas father Dr Aggarwal, who is a dentist in Yamunanagar said that She is in habit of securing top position. She stood first in the Class-12 CBSE examination in 2004, and was also the topper of the 2009 MBBS batch from AIIMS.Rukmani, who got second position is a goldmedallist in post – graduate in social sciences from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.However, another youth from the region Prince Dhawan of Chandigarh got the third rank.

Chandigarh

Putting aside his political differences Punjab Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday called on his ailing brother Gurdas Badal here. The CM remained with Gurdas for half an hour in the absence of his nephew Manpreet Badal to inquire about the health of Gurdas at his residence here. According to sources doctors attended Gurdas, who suffered from a heart ailment, in the presence of Badal. Family sources said Manpreet was away to Delhi. The brothers had strained relations after Gurdas badal’s  son Manpreet parted ways with the Badals and formed Peoples Party of Punjab. The brothers contested against each other from Lambi in the assembly elections. The senior Badal had also called on Gurdas a few days ago at Badal village. Sources also confirmed that DGP Sumedh Singh Saini also visited Gurdas, sources said.

New Delhi
BJP’s SS Ahluwalia was defeated in a three-cornered contest for two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand today. He lost to Pradeep Kumar Balmuchchu of the Congress and Sanjeev Kumar of the JMM, causing loss of face to the BJP. His party was, however, able to save the coalition government in the state.Balmuchchu got 25 votes despite the fact that the Congress has only 13 MLAs in the Assembly. Five RJD and seven other MLAs also voted for Balmuchchu.The JMM candidate got his party’s 18 votes, besides five votes from the alliance partner AJSU. Ahluwalia got 20 votes. These included 18 votes from the BJP MLAs and two from the JD-U legislators.The JVM led by Babulal Marandi, which has 11 MLAs in the House, boycotted the poll because Marandi was unhappy with the Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi

Noted Bollywood actor Vidya Balan was roped in by the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation as brand ambassador to spread awareness about sanitation and cleanliness in the country. Talking to the media after meeting Balan here, Union Rural Development Minister Shri Jairam Ramesh said she will appear in ad campaigns to propagate construction and use of toilets. The Minister informed that Balan is the first brand ambassador of the Ministry. According to UNICEF-WHO Joint Monitoring Programme Report 2010, nearly 60 per cent of India`s 1.1 billion people still practice open defecation and close to 58% of all open defecations in the World is in India. Shri Ramesh said that Vidyas involvement will make the campaign to end open defecation a national obsession. The key areas of intervention on sanitation that may be focused upon are- propogating construction and use of toilets by all, habits of hand washing, personal hygiene Read the rest of this entry »

Ludhiana

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singhs wife Gursharan Kaur on Thursday visited the city to inspect about health of her elder sister, who is reportedly undergoing treatment in a hospital.
Dr Gursharan Kaur arrived the city to meet her elder sister Thananter Kaur (85), who is suffering from liver cancer. Thananters situation got serious in the mid night following which she was rushed to DMCH at around 12-30 am on Thursday. Gursharan Kaur went to see her sister at 6.25 pm in the hospital, close relatives of Thananter Kaur were also present.Since midnight, Thananter Kaur is undergoing treatment in ICU bed (No 10) of the hospital. According to sources in the hospital, Thananter Kaurs intestine was bleeding when brought to the hospital at around 12.30 am Thursday. Bleeding from intestine had stopped now, they said, adding haemoglobin count had also increased from 8.1 to 9.1 after admission into the hospital. The Gursharan Kaur Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi(POOJA SINGH)
The Gujarat Government today came under sharp attack in the Lok Sabha from non-NDA parties when a Congress member from the state claimed she was manhandled by the police, putting the BJP on the back foot.Members of the Left parties, SP, BSP, Trinamool Congress, AIADMK and RJD got together and said swift action was necessary.Some members said it should be referred to the Privileges Committee and stern action should be taken against the guilty.Girija Vyas (Congress) raised the issue on behalf of party colleague Prabha Kishore Taviad and said the latter was not allowed by the police to attend the Gujarat Divas celebrations at Dahod.She claimed that Taviad and some Congress MLAs were manhandled by the police and taken 300-400 km away in a police vehicle yesterday.Taviad, according to Vyas, was provided medical help only at 8 pm and later allowed to board a train for Delhi.As a visibly upset Taviad showed bruises on her arms, Vyas claimed that she was pulled by her hair and manhandled. This prompted Congress members to shout ’shame, shame’ as their BJP counterparts remained silent.Leader of the Opposition Read the rest of this entry »

No official communication from NDA so far: SAD

Chandigarh
The name of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is doing the rounds as a potential candidate for the post of the Vice-President of India.Sources in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said the party has not so far received any official communication from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to field Badal as the alliance nominee, but politicians in Punjab have started debating if he would be willing to shift base to Delhi.Those who think that the five-time Chief Minister of Punjab will not say no, if made an offer, feel so mainly because it will result in a very smooth transfer of power from father to son in Punjab.If Badal moves to Delhi, SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the heir apparent, will be the natural choice for handing over reigns of the Punjab Cabinet. In fact, there are unconfirmed Read the rest of this entry »

Chandigarh

Tightening his noose over the bureaucracy of the state Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today called upon the top brass of the civil administration of the state government to keep a close liaison with Government of India for getting centrally sponsored schemes sanctioned for the state on the top priority. Presiding over a maiden meeting of the Financial Commissioners, Principal and Administrative Secretaries after taking over as Chief Minister of the state for the second consecutive term of SAD-BJP alliance, Badal asked them to personally meet the concerned officers in Centre so as to make optimum utilization of these schemes and also offered his support by way of personal intervention wherever needed to get these schemes through and funds released. He underscored the need to develop a knack for human relationship which was the basic factor to get the desired results through maintaining cordial relations. He also asked the officers to never shy of meeting the officials of lowest rung in the different departments and ministries of GoIs for the development of the state in the public interest. Mr. Badal said that he never hesitated to meet even such officials for the welfare of the state and had been immensely benefitted by this approach for getting many schemes and plans sanctioned for Punjab and Read the rest of this entry »

Chandigarh

Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains, both independent MLAs from Atam Nagar and Ludhiana South constituencies respectively, today announced their return to their parent party by extending unconditional support to SAD in the presence of Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister, Punjab.
Escorted by Youth Akali Dal President Mr. Bikram Singh Majithia, Observer Ludhiana district and Irrigation Minister Mr. Janmeja Singh Sekhon, accompanied by four councilors, both MLAs announced that they have realized that Shiromani Akali Dal is the only party in Punjab that can fulfill th Read the rest of this entry »

Women Constable of Punjab Police and her girl friend want to marry

Chandigarh

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday asked Bathinda police to ensure protection of lesbian couple facing death threats from their families. Alleging threats for their lives from their family members twenty years old Swaran Kaur , a police constable, and her childhood friend, Harsharan Kaur, 28, demanded security from the court saying they have been forced to go into hiding as their families were threatening to kill them for their relationship. The lesbian couple, from Blahar Vinjhu village of Bathinda district have been staying together for the last nine months. They told the court that Hardeep Kaur (mother), Harbhajan Kaur (sister), Jaswinder Singh (brother) are family members of Harsharan Kaur, and Jagpal Dass (father), Mukhtiar Kaur (mother), Bhupinder Singh (brother) are family members of Swaran Kaur, who are opposing their relationship. . The couple sought protection citing the Delhi high court’s 2009 judgment legalizing same sex relationship. The two pleaded that that they are in a lesbian relationship which is not punishable under any Read the rest of this entry »

New Delhi
President Mrs Pratibha Devisingh Patil has approved nomination of veteran cine actor Rekha and Batting Maestro Sachin Tendulkar to Rajya Sabha. 39-year-old Tendulkar, who has brought many a laurels to the country through his exploits in the game and Rekha, known for her brilliant and emotional portrayals in Hindi cinema in the 80s, will become members of Parliament under a provision of the constitution that allows the President to nominate 12 members to the Upper House.Article 80 of the Constitution provides for nomination of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in matters such as literature, science, art and social service.

New Delhi(Shiv Poojan Singh)

The Congress dream of winning Delhi civic polls was shattered as the BJP won all three Municipal Corporations for the second consecutive time. The saffron party made a clean sweep in East, North and South winning 138 seats out of the 272. The Congress won 77 seats, the BSP 15 and others 24.In East Delhi Municipal Corporation comprising 64 wards, considered a Congress stronghold, the party managed only 19 seats, while the BJP bagged 35, the BSP three and others six.The 104-seat North Delhi Corporation, the BJP bagged 59 seats. The Congress had to remain content with 29 seats. The BSP emerged winners on seven seats and others got four.The South Delhi Municipal Corporation poll saw the BJP bagging 44 seats, the Congress 29, the BSP five and others 14.As the candidates of 17 political parties waited for the results with bated breath at the 33 counting centres, the BJP established lead in the South and North, considered its stronghold. In East, however, the Congress candidates put up some fight against the BJP candidates.In the 2007 municipal polls of undivided civic body, the BJP had bagged 167 seats. The Congress candidates emerged winners at 67 seats, while the BSP’s tally stood at 12.The chances of the Congress during elections this year were marred by alleged corruption during the Commonwealth Games in 2010.The results are seen as a debacle for the Congress which was expecting to gain after the trifurcation Read the rest of this entry »

Chandigarh (BUREAU)

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday issued notice the Central Bureau of Investigation and Punjab home department seeking their replies on appointment of Sumedh Singh Saini as the state director general of police (DGP).
The division bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover issued the notice over a petition filed by an NGO, Voice for Freedom. The petitioner has sought removal of Saini as DGP on the grounds that he was facing criminal charges in a CBI court in Delhi. The high court has also issued notices to Saini and CBI.During the hearing Punjab additional advocate general Rupinder Singh Khosla placed before the court an old write-up and activities of the said NGO in an attempt to connect the organisation with militant activity. He also stated that the website of an international news wire agency reveals that the said organization was providing a platform to terrorist Read the rest of this entry »

New face of Amarinder Singh

Taran Taran/Chandigarh(Jyoti Singh)

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President and former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh today served a two week ultimatum to the Akali-BJP government for withdrawing all alleged false cases registered against the Congress workers. If the state government did not take action in two months the Congress workers from across the state will come on roads and bring Punjab to halt, said Amarinder while addressing a protest demonstration organized here today by the in-charge of the Patti constituency Harminder Singh Gill.Capt Amarinder reminded the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that this was a peoples government aimed at serving the people and not victimising them.Today I want to ask Chief Minister Badal that he has learnt from such a long innings in politics; just to victimise the political opponents, he remarked, adding that Badal had gone back on his commitment to stop and look into the cases of vendetta against the Congress workers.The PCC President disclosed that very soon he will be calling a meeting of the party workers where he will move a resolution against the vendetta and the follow up action to be taken. Amarinder said, it is only a month when the Akalis were in the government and they had already resorted to their old habits of harassing and victimising the Congress workers.This will not work and we will hold you in the dock, he told the government Referring to the vendetta cases in Patti, he said, in the last one month 11 false cases have been registered against the Congress workers including one against two brothers who were not even present when they were alleged to have committed the crime. He said, similarly in Dayalpura village in Rampura Phull an 11 year old boy had been put behind bars for ten days.Speaking on the occasion Congress in-charge for Punjab Read the rest of this entry »

BAISAKHI MELA

Talwandi Sabo (Bathinda)/ Tejinder Singh

Enthusiasm was lacking in the rallies of the ruling SAD as well as the Opposition Congress. There was no visible show of strength by any of the two parties as the Assembly elections were over. During last year’s rallies, both parties had put in extra effort to demondtrate their strength. But this time, it was a routine affair. No Congress leader from New Delhi participated in the rally while the BJP ministers were conspicuous by their absence from the SAD rally.Former Congress Legislature Party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal today skipped the Congress rally at Talwandi Sabo where PCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh was the main speaker. The local party leadership had earlier announced that Bhattal would attend the Baisakhi rally. However, neither she nor her supporters turned up at the rally. Local MLA Jeet Mohinder Sidhu single-handedly organised the rally.A few legislators loyal to Amarinder accompanied him. Among them were Ajit Singh Mofar, Joginderpal Jain, Arvind Khanna, Gurkirat Kotli, Rana Gurjeet Singh and Ajaib Singh Bhatti.Amarinder warned that he would not sit quiet if the SAD-BJP government continued to harass Congress activists by implicating them in false cases.“We will stage dharnas outside police stations where fake cases have been registered against the activists”, he said. To a question, the PCC chief denied reports of infighting and claimed the party stood Read the rest of this entry »

Panchkula(Vikramjit Mann)
It was an impressive spectacle — of a confluence of technology and the folk arts of India. On a massive stage built on the Parade Grounds, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, National Advisory Council, inaugurated the silver jubilee celebrations of the seven Zonal Cultural Centres of India in a traditional manner by beating a nagara (drum).The first Zonal Cultural Centre was conceived and established by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at Patiala in November 1985.The purpose of setting up of the seven cultural zones was to initiate a kind of osmotic process between the cultural traditions of different regions of India and to take the cultural richness of the country to remote villages. But over the years, the ZCCs, as these are known, have become too urban-centric.“It is a pity that the artistes, who carry the responsibility of preserving our tradition, have feeble shoulders due to economic limitations…and many art forms are fading. The zonal centres will have to take up these challenges,” said Sonia Gandhi in her address.Tracing a chronology of major cultural landmarks, established by leaders like Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru and Dr Maulana Azad, Dr Manmohan Singh urged the ZCCs and the people of India to recognise, reward and propagate folk arts so that coming generations can identify with the spirit of unity in diversity that is unique to India.Others who spoke were Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana CM, and Kumari Selja, Minister of Culture, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, in whose constituency the celebrations Read the rest of this entry »

Badal asks people to follow pathways of Ambedkar

Chandigarh

The Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal today felicitated the people of the state on the 121th birth anniversary of Bharat Rattan Baba Saheb Dr. B R. Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution. In a message, Chief Minister said that one should be committed to realize the dreams of Dr. Ambedkar, who had a vision of great democratic India to ensure equality for all. The Chief Minister said that Dr. Ambedkar had always advocated democracy in every field, be it social, economic and political. For him social Justice meant maximum happiness to the maximum number of people said Badal. In his message on Deputy Chief Minister described Ambedkar as him as a social evolutionary of great vision, legal luminary of great acumen, staunch champion of human rights, who was still fondly remembered for his pioneering role in the drafting of Indian Constitution. He said that Dr. Ambedkar was a many-faceted personality known for his uncompromising advocacy of the cause of the weak and the oppressed. Badal said that on this day we all should resolve to build a just and humane society fulfilling the dreams of Baba Saheb.