Posts Tagged ‘Chandigarh’
Written by admin on 16 May 2012
Chandigarh, May 16 (IANS) Reeling under a cumulative debt burden of over Rs.35,000 crore, farmers of Punjab could soon benefit from a pension scheme.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Wednesday asked the state chief secretary to work out a viable proposal to introduce a pension scheme for the farmers across the state.
He said that the scheme was being initiated to instil a sense of security among farmers and enable them to lead a quality life with dignity in the evening of their lives.
Presiding over a meeting of a farmers’ Plegation of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) led by its president Balbir Singh Rajewal here Wednesday, Badal said that scheme could be on the lines of the National Pension Scheme in which a fixed amount could be paid by the farmers and an equal amount contributed by the state government for paying monthly pension to them at a fixed retirement age of 60 or 65 years to be mutually agreed upon.
The state government had earlier this week sought a viable bail out from the Planning Commission for Punjab farmers. It pointed out that farmers in the state are under a collective debt of over Rs.35,000.
Punjab, known as the bread basket state of India since it contributes 60 per cent of the food grain (wheat and rice) to the national kitty, has had a bumper crop of wheat this season. Till Wednesday, over an estimated 4.5 lakh tonnes of wheat had been procured. This is an all-time high record in the last few decades.
Tags: Chandigarh, Punjab
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Written by admin on 15 May 2012
Chandigarh, May 15 (IANS) Teaching and non-teaching staff in colleges across Punjab have gone without salaries for the past few months, a senior teachers’ leader said Tuesday.
“A total of 1,036 aided colleges of Punjab have not received any salary grant from the state government for last 10 months. The last grant released was for the quarter ending Aug 31, 2011,” Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) general secretary Jagwant Singh told IANS here.
He said that the salary grant that the Punjab government owed to colleges was nearly Rs.125 crore now. The colleges are affiliated to three universities — Panjab University at Chandigarh, Guru Nanak Dev University at Amritsar and Punjabi University at Patiala.
“Nearly 4,500 teaching and non-teaching staff in colleges have been affected by this. The number of teachers who have not been paid salaries is around 2,200,” Singh said.
He said that out of the 136 affected colleges, about 35 colleges have paid the teaching faculty and non-teaching staff from their own resources. In over 90 colleges, the teaching and non-teaching staff, including class IV employees, have gone without salary.
“In different colleges, the backlog of salaries ranges from four to 10 months. Without the state grants, most colleges are unable to pay salaries. Only the big colleges have paid from their own resources,” he said.
“Despite the fact that the adequate budget existed, no grant was released to the colleges by the end of the financial year (2011-12). Even in the current financial year, no salary has been released by the Punjab treasury despite the persistent efforts by principal secretary (higher education),” Singh claimed.
The PCCTU leader said that the teaching community had earlier planned to go on strike during the on-going annual examinations in colleges but did not do so as the higher education officials were trying to get the grants released.
“Perhaps, the department of finance is waiting for some tragedy to happen. Human rights of employees are being violated by the government which is pushing employees to take drastic measures,” he said.
Tags: Chandigarh, Punjab
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Written by admin on 15 May 2012
Chandigarh, May 15 (IANS) Furniture worth several lakhs of rupees was gutted in a major fire that engulfed a furniture market in Chandigarh late night and could be controlled only by early Tuesday, police said.
Firefighters had to battle the blaze in Sector 53 for four to five hours after it broke out late Monday.
The furniture market, which is one of the bigger ones in the region and supplies furniture to areas in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, besides Chandigarh, looked like a big inferno as the fire spread.
The market is located near Chandigarh’s Beant Singh Memorial along the union territory’s boundary with Mohali town of adjoining Punjab.
“Around 35 furniture shops were completely destroyed in the fire. Goods worth several lakhs were destroyed as the fire spread very quickly,” a fireman at the spot said.
The fire department had to rush at least 10 fire tenders to control the blaze.
“We disconnected the electricity supply of the area to check the spread of the fire. We will look into the cause of the fire,” Chandigarh’s joint commissioner of the municipal corporation and chief fire officer Rajiv Gupta said.
Gupta said there was no loss of life or any injury to anyone.
Shopkeepers at the market said their business was ruined. They said newly made wooden furniture, steel and iron furniture and plastic items were destroyed in the fire.
Tags: Chandigarh
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Written by admin on 15 May 2012
Chandigarh, May 15 (IANS) At least five people, including a one-day-old infant being brought to Chandigarh for treatment, were killed when the ambulance in which they were travelling collided with a speeding truck on the Hisar-Ambala highway in Haryana early Tuesday, police said.
Police officials said that the ambulance and the truck collided head-on, resulting in the death of the occupants of the ambulance. The accident took place about 150 km from here.
The victims, who were coming from the side of Kaithal town, were bringing the one-day old infant to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh for treatment as he had developed complications after birth.
The father of the infant, two relatives and the ambulance driver were among those killed in the accident, police officials said.
Tags: Chandigarh
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Written by admin on 14 May 2012
Chandigarh, May 14 (IANS) VIPs and influential people flaunting police security in Punjab may have to shed some of it with Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal Monday ordering that all “unauthorised” security personnel be withdrawn from them.
At a meeting of the Punjab Police top brass here Monday, Sukhbir Badal, who is also the state’s home minister, took strong exception to unauthorised gunmen, beyond the sanctioned strength of the security wing, given to those under protection.
Badal asked Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini to ensure that all unauthorised gunmen return to their units. He said the unit commanders should certify by Tuesday that they have not given any unauthorised gunmen to anyone.
Giving a strong warning to all district police chiefs (senior superintendents of police), Badal said it was their duty to maintain command and control and to keep all police officials under discipline.
“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 the DGP to shift out all SHOs/DSPs (station house officers/deputy superintendents of police) who were posted in district since last five years,” a police spokesman said here.
“He said that no SSP (senior superintendent of police) would be allowed to take his baggage of favuorite SHOs/DSPs along with him on his transfer,” the spokesman added.
Tags: Chandigarh, Punjab
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Written by admin on 14 May 2012
Chandigarh, May 14 (IANS) One-fourths of Gurgaon and Faridabad towns in Haryana, adjoining national capital New Delhi, will get 24-hours power supply, a senior officer of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) said here Monday.
The 24-hours power will be given to specific areas based on low aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses.
DHBVN managing director Amit Aggarwal said that consumers connected to 405 independent, industrial and urban electricity feeders with low AT&C losses would get 24-hour power supply.
He said that 24 feeders in Gurgaon and 23 feeders in Faridabad have qualified for extra power supply under the newly launched scheme of giving extra power to the feeders having low AT&C losses.
He said that one urban feeder each in Hisar and Sirsa towns have also qualified for the 24-hour supply under the scheme.
He said that 37 rural domestic feeders will get four hours extra supply, against the schedule of 19 hours for industries, 20 hours for urban and 12 hours for rural domestic consumers, under the scheme.
According to the present schedule of supply, urban domestic consumers, industries, rural domestic consumers and tube wells get power supply for 20 hours, 19 hours, 12 hours and 8 hours daily respectively.
Under the reward-oriented power regulatory measures, the independent, industrial and urban domestic consumers can get supply up to 24 hours a day and rural domestic consumers can get power supply for 16 hours a day.
Tags: Chandigarh, Punjab
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