Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said that ‘dawn of new era’ has taken place in the state with the unprecedented pro-people initiative of changing office hours which will save 350 Megawatts (MW) of power daily and around Rs 40-45 crore from May 2-to July 15.

Apart from facilitating the people, the landmark move will also help in enhancing the efficiency of the government employees, asserted the Chief Minister while interacting with the media persons here at the committee room in the Punjab Civil Secretariat I.

CM, who set the example by arriving in his office at 7:28 am, said that this decision has been taken after taking the consent of the majority of the stakeholders in a series of deliberations. He said that this decision will act as a catalyst in saving the people from scorching heat that is expected to be witnessed in the coming months. Bhagwant Mann said that though the tradition of setting watches in accordance with change of weather has been a routine feature in many western nations but in India this historic initiative has been taken for the first time.

Dwelling more details, the Chief Minister said that it will enable a common man to do his work early in the morning without taking leave from his work. Likewise, he said that this will also facilitate the employees as they will be able to attend the social functions after the office hours. Similarly, Bhagwant Mann said that the employees will also be able to spend more time with their children who will also come home at the same time.

Mann said that this decision is likely to save 350 MW of power daily in government offices thereby curtailing the power expenditure of the government offices considerably. He said that as per statistics of the POWERCOM 1:30 pm to 4 pm is the peak hour of the power usage but as now the offices will be closed at 2 pm so it will help in cutting power usage. Bhagwant Mann said that on an average Rs 16- Rs 17 crore will be saved every month adding that from May 2- July 15, the state government is expected to save Rs 40- Rs 42 crore.

He said that the new time table will also ensure that maximum sunlight is utilized in the government offices. He said that after July 15 the decision will be reviewed after taking feedback from all the stakeholders, especially the common man. Bhagwant Mann assured the people that the state government will take more such citizen centric decisions in the coming days too for which advance planning has already been done.

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New Delhi: In the Delhi liquor scam case, a supplementary charge sheet has been filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi Excise Policy case. In this charge sheet, name of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha has also come up. Many big revelations have been made in this charge sheet of the ED.

According to the ED charge sheet, Manish Sisodia’s former secretary Arvind has named Raghav Chadha in his statement.

According to the charge sheet, Arvind in his statement said that a meeting was held at the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in which Raghav Chadha, Excise and Taxation Officers of Punjab and others were present. Raghav Chadha has been named in the charge sheet but he is not named as an accused.

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Chandigarh: The Punjab Cabinet Minister Lalchand Kataruchak has termed the allegations of Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira as baseless and false. He said that my son has never been my official phone attendant. There is no truth to Khaira’s words.

Minister Kataruchak said that for the last 11 months my official phone attendant is Sandeep Kumar. His father’s name is Shiv Lal. He is a resident of Sharna village of our assembly constituency Bhoa. And my cook’s name is Lekh Ram Sunar. His father’s name is Maun Singh. He is a resident of Dinanagar in Gurdaspur district.

He said that Sukhpal Khaira is making false allegations against me by taking the name of my son with the intention of defaming me. I have never misused my position for the benefit of my family.

He said that Khaira’s main job is to remain in the media by creating sensationalism and take political mileage out of it. I appeal to the people of Punjab not to take his words seriously.

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Jalandhar: The Aam Aadmi Party has raised serious questions over Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Harjinder Singh Dhami campaigning for the Akali Dal (Badal) candidate and seeking votes in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha by-election.

In a press conference held in Jalandhar on Monday, senior leader of Aam Aadmi Party and Agriculture Minister of Punjab Government, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that SGPC’s job is to propagate Sikhism, not to promote any political party.Therefore, SGPC chief should not do anything to hurt the dignity of his position.

He said that the top leadership of the Akali Dal, for whom SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami is campaigning, has faced serious allegations like sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and firing at Sikh Sangat. By propagating such a party, he has hurt the sentiments of the Sikh Sangat.

Questioning the SGPC head, he said “Why does he remain silent on the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and the incident of firing on Sikh Sangat in Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan?” Dhaliwal said that he has not spoken anything on this matter till date. He always kept his silence. While both these incidents have hurt the sikh sangat deeply.

He said that the duty of SGPC is to provide religious and social education to the children of Sikh community and to protect Sikh culture. It is quite wrong to use such an organization for political gains. He appealed to the SGPC chief that he should fulfill his responsibility honestly as per the laws of SGPC and should stay away from political activities

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New Delhi: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu today met wrestlers protesting against National Wrestling Federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Earlier in a tweet, Sidhu had termed the protest as ‘Satyagraha’ and said that he would meet the wrestlers who were staging the sit-in.

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New Delhi: The price of a commercial cylinder of LPG (COOKING GAS) has come down by Rs 171.5 today after the softening trend in the international market. According to state-owned oil marketing companies, a 19-kg commercial cylinder is now priced at Rs 1,856 in Delhi. Earlier on April 1, it was reduced by Rs 91.5 per cylinder.

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New Delhi: As many as 186 more Indians today returned to india’s home country as part of India’s ‘Operation Cauvery’ campaign to bring back its nationals from the violence-hit Sudan. India launched ‘Operation Kaveri’ last week to evacuate its citizens from violence-hit Sudan.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted, “A plane with 186 passengers on board arrived in Kochi under Operation Cauvery.”

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Chandigarh: Lok Insaaf Party president and former MLA Simarjit Singh Bains and former MLA Balwinder Singh Bains announced their support to BJP candidate Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal in Jalandhar by-election.

In the presence of former Gujarat CM and Punjab in-charge Vijay Rupani, Union Minister of State Som Prakash, former minister Rajkumar Verka and many big BJP leaders, Bains brothers praised PM Modi’s policies. They said that PM Modi has increased the honor of 70 years by opening the Kartarpur Corridor, a symbol of faith of Sikhs and declaring the martyrdom of four Sahibzadas as Veer Children’s Day.

PM Modi has faith in Punjab, Sikhs and ‘Dastar’. Influenced by PM Modi’s policies, their party supports BJP candidate Atwal.

They said that development and law and order of Punjab can be achieved only when the BJP government comes to power. Attacking the AAP leadership, Bains said that they too has been in alliance with them in past, they are here only for looting the Punjabis.

There was talk of ending VVIP culture and sand mafia. The sand mafia formed during the Badal government is growing today under the patronage of the Aam Aadmi Party. It had promised to end drugs within days, but now they are patronizing the mafia, Bains said.

The post Lok Insaaf Party’s Bains brothers extend support to BJP, say impressed by PM Modi appeared first on TV Punjab | English News Channel.

Chandigarh: The ongoing drive against anti-social elements launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann got a major breakthrough after Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) of Punjab Police arrested three persons of a gang involved in procuring and providing passports on fake particulars to gangsters/criminals of Punjab and other states to facilitate their escape from the country, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Friday.

Those arrested have been identified as Onkar Singh of village Kaki Pind in Jalandhar, Sukhjinder Singh alias Sharpy Ghumman of village Karhali in Patiala and Prabhjot Singh Baheri in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. Police teams have seized at least nine passports, besides, recovering several photocopies of passports of absconding gangsters prepared using fake particulars.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that acting on reliable human inputs about the involvement of an inter-state travel agents in preparing passports using fake particulars to help gangsters/criminals to flee from law of the country, AGTF teams headed by ADGP Promod Ban and assisted by AIG Sandeep Goel in an overnight operation busted this gang with the arrest of its three members.

“Investigations reveal that this gang, having linkages in states including Delhi, UP, Kolkata, Gujarat and Maharashtra, had facilitated a number of gangsters/criminals from Punjab and other states to flee from the country on fake passports,” he said.

The DGP said that the Police teams have rounded-up five more persons linked with this gang and further investigations are on to unearth their entire network.

Divulging more details, ADGP Promod Ban said that accused Onkar, who runs an illegal immigration firm in Jalandhar, was involved in making passports for gangster/criminals using fake particulars and duping innocent people on the pretext of sending them abroad.

He said that during questioning, accused Onkar disclosed that he had procured passports on fake particulars for gangsters including Varinder Pal Singh alias Veena Butter (Bambiha gang) and Jaswinder Singh alias Khattu (Dharminder Gugni gang involved in the target killings in Punjab), to help them flee the country.

During the preliminary interrogation, the accused Prabhjot Singh has revealed that one of his conduits Charanjit Singh alias Bareilly (who has been arrested by Delhi Police), had made a passport using fake particulars for gangster Deepak Boxer, who was recently deported from Mexico.

The third accused Sukhjinder Singh alias Sharpy Ghumman has disclosed to have procured a passport on fake particulars for Deepinder Singh alias Deepu of Ajnala, who has a criminal background and is an associate of absconding gangster Harry Chatha.

A case FIR no. 2 dated 26-04-2023 has been registered under sections 420, 468, 471, 473 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), section 25 of the Arms Act and section 12 of the Passport Act at Police Station State Crime SAS Nagar.

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Ludhiana: In a major relief to the people of the state, the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday further extended the date of exemption of 2.25% stamp duty and fees on land registration till May 15.

A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting of the council of ministers held here under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister at the local Circuit house.

Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said that keeping in view the larger public interest, the Cabinet has given its consent to extend the exemption of 2.25% stamp duty and fees for those registering their property/land by May 15. Those opting for registration of land will continue to be exempted from 1% Additional stamp duty, 1 % PIDB fees, and 0.25 % special fees. Pertinently, the scheme was initially notified by the state government for such an exemption by March 31. However, observing the response of people it was extended up to April 30 which is now extended to May 15.

*APPROVES THE CREATION OF SEVEN POSTS IN THE DRUG TESTING LABORATORY*

The Cabinet also approved the creation of seven posts in the Drug Testing Laboratory (Ayurveda) Patiala in the larger public interest. The recruitment for these posts will ensure that the laboratory works efficiently to benefit the common man and that theAyurveda medicines are tested regularly sothat they can be supplied to the state government’s Ayurvedic hospitals, dispensaries, and others. The move will help in maintaining the quality and purity of Ayurvedic medicines in the state.

*GIVES THE GREEN SIGNAL FOR ROPING IN EXPERTS/ CONSULTANTS ON AGRARIAN ISSUES*

The Cabinet also gave the green signal for roping in experts/ consultants for the improvement of the environment, checking the depleting groundwater table, bringing farmers out of the rut of the wheat/paddy cycle, and improving the financial situation of the farmers. These experts will be hired by the Agriculture and Farmers welfare department, Punjab to benefit the food growers of the state in a big way.

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