PUNJAB

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday envisioned that the Schools of Eminence, set up across the State by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government, will act as the harbingers for ensuring a bright future for the students.

Mann, interacting with the students of the ninth standard studying in the Schools of Eminence across the State, said that these schools are a new experiment in the state aimed at ensuring the holistic development of the students.

This is a step forward towards providing a good Learning experience for the students to excel in various fields. Equipped with ultramodern , these schools provide best quality Education to the students, he said.

The Chief Minister said that his Government is making concerted efforts to strengthen the Education sector in the State. Total 117 Schools of Eminence have been set up in 23 districts of the state to provide quality education to the children. These schools are focusing on grooming the students for five professional and competitive courses, including engineering, law, commerce, UPSC and NDA, he said.

These schools will set a new benchmark in quality educationThe results of these schools will be the dawn of a new era in school education. The government will felicitate the best performing schools of eminence across the state, said Mann while exhorting the students to work hard for carving a Niche in various fields in the international arena.

Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has developed and recommended a high-yielding PMH-13 variety of maize during this kharif season for cultivation in Punjab. The new variety can be grown under climatic conditions of the agrarian state.

The Average yield of the hybrid maize variety was 24 quintals per acre and it took on an average 97 days to mature.

It bears long conico-cylindrical ears with Light orange flint grains. It is moderately resistant to maydis leaf blight, charcoal rot (post flowering stalk rot) and maize stem borer.

Ahead of paddy season, power demand surpasses 9,400 MW in Punjab

With the rise in mercury, states power demand crossed 9,400 MW today. In the past one week, an increase of 2,300 MW has been witnessed in demand.

Despite no office supply load on May 13 (Saturday), the power demand touched 9,418 MW. The power demand would likely touch 15,500 MW in July during the peak paddy season.

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday wrote to Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Piyush Goyal seeking release ofrural development fund(RDF) at 3% of the minimum support price (MSP) amounting to Rs 54.64 per quintal for 2020-21 kharif Marketing season instead of 1% according to the revised provisional cost sheet issued by the ministry.

The chief minister termed the unilateral reduction in rate of RDF as violative of the federal structure as well as the statutory provisions as per Section 5 of Punjab Rural Development Act, 1987. The had on March 17 submitted details of RDF receipt and expenditure during 2018-19 to 2020-21 as per information sought by the department of food and public distribution (DFPD). The 2020-21 kharif marketing season started from October 1, 2020, and would end on September 30.

As the Punjab government has been attacking the central government for withholding its 2% RDF amounting to Rs 800 crore, the Centre had apprised Lok Sabha on March 16 that the RDF has been withheld because the state government was using it for the purposes not fully in line with the revised principles on February 24 last year.

The accounts department of Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) opened and operated a secret bank account to siphon to the private builders and their associates in Punjabs Zirakpur andDera Bassi.

It came to Light on Wednesday when the HSVPs chief controller of finance wrote to Panchkula Police for investigation and registration of a case. The secret bank account is linked to Panchkulas estate office and the fraudulent transactions are worth more than Rs 100 crore, while the internal audit team has, so far, got to the details of transactions worth Rs 72 crore.

ThePunjaband Haryana has made it clear that exclusion of married daughters in the Punjab governments policy for compassionate appointments is patently discriminatory.

The HC was of the view that once a daughter is always a daughter while a son might change on account of the fact that he is married and has to look after his wife, who could have serious differences with her in-laws.

Therefore, in such cases, a son would get a right of consideration even if married and not being on good terms with his parents, whereas a married daughter having a good relationship with the deceased government employee and being in a position to look after the remaining spouse would be excluded.

HaryanaandPunjabhave been slow in making in the first half of 2022-23, with Haryana spending 15% of its budget estimates for the financial year and Punjab just 17.3% of its budget estimates.

Haryana had spent 40% on capital expenditure in the first half of the last financial year, while Punjab spent 23.4% andHimachal Pradesh28.2% . The study conducted by SBI’s research team has found that Uttarakhand (19.7%), Rajasthan (24%) and Telangana (26.5%) are also in the same category.

The study has also found that Himachal Pradesh spent 38% of the budget estimates on Capital Formation in the first half of this financial year.

Among the 19 states selected, Kerala spent the highest amount of 43.4% of its budget estimates on the capital expenditure in the first half, followed by poll-bound Gujarat (39.8%),Madhya Pradesh(39.1%), Himachal Pradesh (38.4%) andTamil Nadu(38.3%).