Chandigarh diary

Express News Service
Centre issues Covid advisory to UT administration The Union Health Ministry has flagged Chandigarh as one of the districts of concern in 12 states after Covid cases more than doubled in the city from 49 on March 1 to 111 on March 15, which is an increase of 56%. The ministry has asked the Administration to focus on Covid-19-appropriate behaviour. Also, all close contracts of positive patients should be tested, traced and isolated in 72 hours. The ministry has also advised the administration to increase its vaccination coverage to 100 per cent besides identifying the clusters.

Youth leaders programme underway in two districts  The Punjab Youth Leaders Programme (PYLP) is currently going on in the districts of Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib with 20 young leaders covering 1,400 schools and meeting 97,000 children. The programme is for young and dynamic change-makers who are passionate about education, policy, governance and wish to work at the grassroots level to bring systemic reforms in public systems. The young leaders will also get an opportunity to join a community of future leaders and access a network of mentors working across fields in India and abroad. More applications have been invited for the two-year leadership development programme, which enables young leaders to work towards improving the quality of education in government primary schools of Punjab.

Cycling policy to incentivise employeesThe Chandigarh Smart City Limited has prepared a policy in order to encourage cycling in the city. It envisages priority to cyclists in traffic, parking spaces to cycles in offices and dedicated underpasses for cyclists. Employees who come on cycles will get half day leave for every seven days they cycle and commendation certificates. Also, awards will be given by government departments to employees who come on cycle to office, besides monetary benefits. Private sector companies, too, will be encouraged to give similar incentives.

7 firms show interest in land-lease projectSeven companies participated in the first pre-bid meeting over the leasing of vacant land parcels for mixed-use development as part of Chandigarh railway station redevelopment project which was conducted by the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited (IRSDC).  The firms included Eldeco, Dr Group, Virtuous Retail South Asia, Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited and Omaxe Limited. “Chandigarh railway station will be developed into a world class transport hub to offer superior travel experience to passengers,” said SK Lohia, MD of IRSDC. 

Harpreet BajwaOur correspondent in Chandigarh [email protected]