Patiala: Protesting farmers of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) on Friday announced to call off their strike held outside Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s house in Sangrur after a meeting between the farmers and Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal at Circuit House here on Friday. The farmers announced to lift the dharna on Saturday.

Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that the farmers and government have reached a consensus on all the demands of the farmers after a meeting with Union leaders of BKU Ugrahan. He said that the farmers have agreed to call off their protest.

Meanwhile farmer union leader Joginder Singh Ugrahan disclosed that the government had agreed to fulfil their demands and got written assurance from the government that their demands will be fulfilled therefore, they are calling off the protest.

The post Farmers to call off protest in Sangrur on 29th October appeared first on TV Punjab | English News Channel.

New Delhi: Rain is constantly becoming a villain in the T20 World Cup 2022. Today, both the matches of Group-1 were canceled due to rain. In both the matches, the effect of rain was such that the toss could not be done.

After this, there have been some changes in the points table. Let’s know what is the status of the points table at the moment.

Group-1 Points Table: Today was a very disappointing day for the teams of Group-1 as two matches of this group were washed out. For Afghanistan, the second match of the tournament was washed out due to rain and now the hope of going to the semi-finals for them is almost over. Despite the cancellation of the match between England and Australia, the English team has suffered less damage than Australia.

Group-2 Points Table: In Group-2, India and South Africa are frozen in the first two places. Pakistan’s team is in fifth place here. Teams like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are also above Pakistan.

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Chandigarh: The Punjab State Vigilance Commission (REPEAL), Bill was introduced by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann which was also passed unanimously on Friday. At the same time, the performance of Congressmen also continued. They protested against the dismissal of Minister Fauja Singh Sarri and raised slogans of Murdabad against the Punjab government. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appeared furious. Responding to the opponents, CM Mann said that these people call the speaker of the assembly fake, while their Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh himself was fake and worked for BJP not for Congress. Congress is the B team of BJP and these ministers who were in his tenure are raising slogans of Murdabad here today. CM Mann further said that the house belongs to the people, so do not waste the time of the people and the house. There are very big issues of the public which need to be discussed and laws should be made.

Proceedings adjourned till 2 pm on October 3

At the same time, after the uproar in the House, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan also slammed the Congress MLAs and said that they wasted two days of the House. An answer will be sought from him on Monday as to why he wasted the time of the House and the people. After which the session was adjourned till 2 pm on October 3.

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Ludhiana: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today said that the state is fully ready to adopt crop diversification but the Government of India must provide assured mechanism to give remunerative prices for these crops.

“The centre must take this step for ensuring that farmers of the state shift from water guzzling crops to less water consuming crops”, said the Chief Minister while addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Kisan Mela here at Punjab Agriculture University and Pashu Palan Mela at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.

The Chief Minister said that instead of paddy, the farmer of the state is ready to sow sunflower, maize and pulses but for that they must get adequate and assured price. He said that this will help in checking the depleting water table in the state on one hand and making agriculture a profitable venture on the other. Bhagwant Mann said that this is the need of hour to avert water crisis in the state.

The Chief Minister said that the farmers of the state are really worried about the depleting water table and pollution of environment due to paddy straw burning. However, he said that they are not able to come out of rut of wheat/ paddy cycle as they don’t want to loose assured price mechanism associated with it. Bhagwant Mann said that Punjab is blessed with fertile land where anything can germinate but efforts must be made to save this fertile land and it’s water.

However, the Chief Minister said that the crisis of water can never be ignored as we are pumping out water at the same depth in which Gulf countries are taking oil, which is alarming for us. He said that rice is not our staple food but for producing one kilogram of rice we are using 4000 litres of water due to which we have to adopt alternative crops. Bhagwant Mann said that the state government is already making sincere efforts in this regard.

Recalling the immense contribution of Punjab in making country self reliant in food grain production, the Chief Minister said that the hard working and resilient farmers of the state had provided food security to country in testing times. However, he said that for this they had to over exploit their only available natural resources in terms of fertile land and water. Bhagwant Mann bemoaned that now when few more states are producing are paddy so attempts are being made to deprive farmers of Punjab from MSP, which is completely unfair.

The Chief Minister said that Union government imports pulses worth Rs 120 billion dollar annually from Other countries whereas it is not ready to provide Minimum Support price to farmers of the state who are ready to cultivate it. He said that in coming days an important decision will be taken to get rid of the menace of paddy straw burning. Bhagwant Mann said that it was duty of Union government to find solution for it as farmers produce rice for the country.

The Chief Minister said that paddy goes in national food kitty but centre asks states to tighten noose around farmers to prevent paddy straw burning. He asked the experts of PAU to reach out to the farmers to acquaint them with new technology in agriculture sector. Bhagwant Mann said that farmers work hard in fields and have no time for upgrading their expertise adding that experts must reach out to the farmers to make agriculture a profitable venture.

The Chief Minister also asked PAU to intensify research and bring a new revolution in agriculture through technical interventions. He further said that to promote Dairy the Punjab government is promoting Verka, which is renowned globally, to supplement income of farmers. Bhagwant Mann also said that thrust is also being laid on proper marketing of Pathankot’s Litchi and Kinnow of Abohar.

The Chief Minister also called on the farmers to reduce the expenditure on marriages as it poses huge economic burden on the families whereas marriages must be solemnised in simple way. He reiterated the firm commitment of his government to make Punjab a drug free state. Bhagwant Mann said that the state government is taking strict action in this regard.

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Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came down heavily on Congress and BJP for working in cahoots to cancel the Special Session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha summoned by the Punjab government on Thursday and termed it a murder of democracy.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in a tweet said, “The governor not allowing the assembly to function raises big questions on the country’s democracy… Now democracy will be run by people’s representatives elected by crores of people or a person appointed by the central government… Bhimrao ji’s Constitution on one side and Operation Lotus on the other… People are watching everything.”

Addressing a press conference here, Punjab New and Renewable Energy Sources Minister Aman Arora bemoaned Punjab Governor Banwari Lal Purohit’s decision of withdrawing his assent to hold a Special Session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha following three memorandum submitted by opposition leaders and accused the Governor of “acting on the behest of BJP, which had recently attempted to topple the AAP government in Punjab.

He said that this special session was called by the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led Punjab government on the recommendations of Council of Ministers, as per the constitution, to bring a confidence motion against the BJP’s attempt to topple the six-month-old AAP government.

However, throwing all norms to wind, the governor office cancelled the session, which is violation of the constitution of Dr BR Ambedkar.

Lambasting Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa for raising objection and writing to Governor against this special session, Arora said that Bajwa is working as B-team of BJP to halt progress of AAP in Punjab.

“LoP Bajwa is dancing on the tunes of BJP to safeguard his Z+ security. He is not concerned about saving democracy at all,” Arora said.

Reminding Bajwa that Congress itself summoned similar Trust vote motion in Rajasthan, Arora said that in past 52 years, 27 times non-confidence motions and 12 times Confidence Motions were summoned by different parties.

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Chandigarh: Former Punjab Chief Minister and Punjab Lok Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar here today. No other senior BJP leader was present on the occasion though it was earlier said that he would join the BJP during the presence of top BJP leaders.

Following this, Aam Aadmi Party on Monday slammed former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh for officially joining BJP today and accused him of sabotaging the interest of Punjab for his political career for decades.

Addressing a press conference here, party’s state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said that it was an embarrassing state of affairs for Captain as BJP senior leaders including national president or union minister Amit Shah have not even preferred to join him formally, which usually hold such events even for small leaders.

“The BJP has shown the real place to Captain today again. BJP’s Narendra Tomar joined Captain, who advocated black three-farming bills and called Punjabis anti-nationals. It has exposed the real face of Captain that he has always been working against the intrest of Punjab just the sake of power politics, ” Kang said.

Attacking BJP, Kang said that BJP is collecting ‘rubbish’ of Congress but it won’t help them or lead them anywhere in the Punjab.

Kang said that Captain Amarinder has never worked for the welfare of Punjab but only pleased his political boss PM Narendra Modi even being Congress CM for his vested political interests and now he and his gang of thugs, former Congress leaders, joining the BJP.

The post Captain Amarinder Singh joins BJP, AAP attacks appeared first on TV Punjab | English News Channel.

Chandigarh: In a major relief to the thousands of employees of the state government, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced that the state government is considering to revert to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).

Divulging more details, the Chief Minister said that he has asked the Chief Secretary of the state to explore the feasibility and modalities of implementation of the scheme that is likely to give major relief to the employees of the state. Reiterating the firm commitment of his government to ensure well being of the employees, Bhagwant Mann said that no stone will be left unturned for this noble cause. He said that employees are the backbone of the government and every effort will be made to ensure their welfare.

The Chief Minister said that his government had already taken several path breaking pro-employees initiatives in last few months. He said that his government has introduced policy for the regularisation of the contractual employees in the state. Likewise, Bhagwant Mann said that his government has also embarked a major recruitment drive in government so that youth can get jobs on one hand and performance of departments can be optimised by overcoming shortage of staff on the other.

Pertinently, the Old Pension Scheme for employees was discontinued in year 2004 and ever since then the employees are being given New Pension Scheme. However the employees have been since long demanding the restoration of Old Pension Scheme.

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Chandigarh: 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.

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