PUNJAB

Punjab: PM Modi to lay stone for PGI satellite centre in Ferozepur

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Prime MinisterNarendra Modiwill lay the foundation stone of thePGIsatellite centre inFerozepuron January 5. The 100-bed centre, which shall have OPDs and other multispeciality Services, will come up on 25 acre land. This will be the first satellite centre of the PGI whose foundation stone is being laid by the PM.

This will be the PMs first visit toPunjabahead of the Punjab and after the repeal of farm laws.

Sources said the Rs 450-crore project was announced by the UPA government in 2014. Bazidpur village gram panchayat in Feroze-pur had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging the transfer of village land for the satellite project. The plea was dismissed by the court in May this year.

The government was providing 600 units of free electricity to people in every cycle.Mannsaid for the first time, 86% households in Punjab had received zero electricity bill.

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This move is a big relief for domestic consumers, who till now had to shell out hefty every month to pay power bills.Punjabishad never even dreamt that the electricity bill of their Home would come to zero, the CM said.
He added the move had also helped reduce power consumption as several families in the state had started using less power, so that they could avail 600 units of free electricity.

The State Government is also making efforts to make the government buildings of the state self-sufficient in terms of power. Solar Energy panels will be installed in all government buildings, which will reduce the burden of electricity bills on the government and will save a lot of money.

Act now to save Punjab on the water front

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The Punjab Government has at last acknowledged that reckless abuse of groundwater, non-harvesting of rainwater and wheat-paddy would result in Desertification of the state in the next 15-20 years. However, given the track record of successive governments in Punjab, there is little hope that the problem will be addressed in an effective and sustainable manner. For the past about four decades, governments conveniently ignored the ever-growing problem of water scarcity in Punjab. They refused to read what was written on the wall. The only significant step taken to save groundwater was the Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act, 2009, enacted by the Assembly. The effective implementation of this Act did postpone the extraction of groundwater from May 15 to June 15 a very hot and dry period during which there is a very high level of evapo-Transpiration.

The Vidhan Sabha panels report is not the first to highlight the depleting water table and impending water scarcity. Some expert committees and several experts have been pointing to the unsustainable overexploitation of groundwater since the mid-1980s. Johl Committee-1 (1986) and II (2002), constituted by the State Government for restructuring and diversifying Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, made significant recommendations for shifting a substantial area (20 per cent) from under paddy, but these did not cut any ice. Instead, the area under paddy increased from 3.9 lakh hectares (9.62% of the net sown area) in 1970-71 to 31.03 lakh hectares (75.35% of the net sown area) in 2018-19. The Draft Agricultural Policies (2013 and 2019) prepared by the Punjab State Farmers Commission also recommended crop diversification by shifting a considerable area from under paddy. Unfortunately, these draft policies never fructify into an agricultural policy. Consequently, the state has neither an agricultural policy nor a comprehensive water policy. Even the Punjab Water Development and Regulatory Authority, constituted in 2020, has not included Irrigation under its purview. Unfortunately, successive governments of Punjab, instead of acting upon the recommendations of their expert committees, have been indulging in cheap, competitive political populism aimed at vote banks. This is a classic case of irresponsible Governance.

CM launches Schools of Eminence, Punjab to get quality education

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Describing the Schools of Eminence as a revolutionary step for ensuring the golden future of the students, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday said that it was a giant leap forward towards becoming a real frontrunner in the field of Education.

The CM said that as these governments ignored an important sector like education so the state is behind in this field. He said that several students were forced to leave their education in between thereby ruining their bright future. Mann said that due to lack of Resources and laxity of previous governments girls were not able to pursue their education.

He said that these 117 schools of eminence being set up in 23 districts of state are temples of quality education. He said that the purpose of setting up these schools is to give wings to the dreams of the bright students of government schools. Mann envisioned that these schools will enable the students to compete with their convent educated peers in various competitive exams across the country.

Soon, people can check status of land digitally in Punjab

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Punjab Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department is all set to digitise the Khasra based Masteplans, which will enable common man to easily identify the status and nature of the land, besides, check the zoning of the land.

Punjab Housing and Urban Development Minister Aman Arora on Sunday directed the department officials to tie-up with Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) team to further speed up this project to provide all the information pertaining to land on a click.

While reviewing the status of the project with the PRSC team, Arora said that with the implementation of the project, people will be able to identify their land online, besides, getting the information about the zoning plan of the area where the land falls. The initiative will also be helpful for people in applying Change of Land Use (CLU), besides, stirring the investments by enhancing transparency in the record maintenance mechanism, he said.

The H&UD Minister was apprised that a total 43 masterplans have already been notified. Out of the 43, work on khasra based digitization has been initiated for 22 masterplans. Under this project, masterplans are being superimposed on the cadastral map.Arora asked the PRSC team and the department officials to ensure that accuracy should be maintained by using the state-of-the-art latest technologies in the project.

Departments dealing with Education, Welfare Schemes asked to identify new voters

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Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Dr S Karuna Raju on Tuesday exhorted various departments dealing with students and welfare scheme beneficiaries to help them in registering new voters, who have turned 18-years-old so that 100% enrolment of eligible electors could be ensured.

The CEO, accompanied by Additional CEO Amit Kumar was chairing a meeting of various departments including Technical Education, EMPLOYMENT Generation, Sports, Medical Education, Health and Family Welfare, School Education, Higher Education, Labour Department and Social Empowerment etc at his office here. He had earlier on December 21 constituted a three-member committee for identification of new voters. Dr Raju said that these departments have all the data of young voters and if these departments join hands with the CEO office they could help in registering maximum eligible voters.

Punjab to emerge as medical education hub, says CM Bhagwant Mann

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Punjabwill emerge as a hub ofmedical educationfor the world, Chief MinisterBhagwant Mannsaid on Sunday after inspecting the site of an upcoming medical college in the district According to an official release, he said the medical college, coming up on an area of 20 acres at a cost of Rs 428.69 crore, will be named after Dev. The design has been finalised and work on this ambitious project will start soon, the chief minister said.

He said that since a large number of students from other states will also come to this college, a hostel facility along with a 300-bed hospital will also be constructed.

The Punjab government has decided to construct 16 medical colleges in five years, raising the total number of such institutes in the state to 25, Mann said.

Punjab sees increase in percentage of anaemic and obese in 5 years

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People ofPunjabare not in the pink of their Health, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS). There has been a rise in the Percentage of those who are anaemic both among children and adults as well as increase in obesity in the last five years.

Almost all the indicators pertaining to the nutritional status of adults and anaemia among the Population have deteriorated since the fourth round of the NFHS held in 2015-16.
The Union health ministry released the factsheet fieldwork of which was conducted from January 5, 2020, to March 21, 2020, prior to the lockdown and from December 6, 2020, to March 31, 2021 post-lockdown.

As per the report, the percentage of Women in the age group of 15-29 years who are obese or overweight has increased from 31.3% five years ago to 40.8% in 2020-21 while the weight of 32.2% of men have been found ato be bove the advisable limits in comparison to 27.8% in 2015-16.

The data revealed that the number of anaemic children in the 6-59 months bracket jumped from 56.6% to 71.1%. Anaemia refers to a health condition in which the blood does not have enough healthy red blood cells. The percentage of nonpregnant women aged 15-49 falling in this category increased from 54% to 58.8% while in the case of pregnant women the count rose to 51.7 % from 42% in the last survey.

A significant drop has been noted in the knowledge of HIV/AIDS among those aged 15-49. Only 20.6% of women were found to be having comprehensive knowledge of the deadly diseases in comparison to 49.3% five years ago while in the case of men, knowledge dropped from 62.3% to 37.6 % in the latest survey.

As the new political dispensation in Punjab, under Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, is set to roll out sops in the run-up to the Assembly polls, the state Finance Department has been asked to explain the bahi khata (accounts) of the past four and a half years.

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It is learnt that the department would also present its report on termination of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with three independent power producers, wherein it was suggested that the government could look at the exit clause by continuing to pay capacity charges for three years. This way, the state can then buy cheaper power and in turn save hundreds of crores of rupees given to the power producers as fixed charges, says a report of the Finance Department.

The Financial Department to present report on termination of PPAs with three independent power producers

If govt opts for exit clause by continuing to pay capacity charges for three years, then it can save hundreds of crores of rupees

Also on the drawing board is asset monetisation, where the government can lease out its assets to private entities to raise additional Resources