Tag: Punjab govt

  • Punjab DyCM Randhawa’s son-in-law among two appointed as additional AG; AAP attacks Congress over decision

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: The son-in-law of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was among two advocates appointed as additional advocate general in the state on Monday, drawing sharp criticism from the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

    Advocates Tarun Vir Singh Lehal and Mukesh Chander Berry have been appointed as additional advocate general in the office of the advocate general, Punjab, with immediate effect, according to an official order.

    Lehal is the son-in-law of Randhawa, who holds the portfolio of Home Affairs.

    AAP leader Raghav Chadha took a dig at the ruling Congress over Lehal’s appointment, claiming that only the family members of Congress minister and MLAs were getting jobs in the state.

    “Congress is fulfilling its principal poll promise of ‘Har Ghar Naukri but with minor modification. Recipients of these jobs are family members of Congress ministers & MLAs. Latest beneficiary is Dy CM Randhawa’s son in law. Channi is essentially carrying forward Captian’s legacy,” said Chadha in a tweet.

    When contacted, Lehal said the appointment has been made on the basis of merit and experience on the recommendation of the state’s advocate general.

    “I have been practicing for almost 13 years in the high court,” he said.

    “Being a son-in-law of somebody, if that is negative, then I do not know what to say,” said Lehal.

    The two will be defending cases for and on behalf of the state of Punjab in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on prevailing terms and conditions, as per the order.

    This engagement would be purely on a contractual basis initially up to March 31, 2022, which is extendable on year to year basis, according to the order.

  • Punjab govt announces loan waiver worth of Rs 590 crore to labourers, landless farmers

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Wednesday announced waiver of Rs 590 crore worth of loans under the farm debt waiver scheme for labourers and the landless farming community.

    The cheques would be issued at a state-level function on August 20, said an official spokesperson after a meeting held on Tuesday.

    The Punjab government will pay off loans to the tune of Rs 520 crore of 2,85,325 members of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), thus ensuring a relief of Rs 20,000 per member, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said.

    This decision will pave the way for fulfillment of the key promise of the Congress-led regime.

    He directed the finance and cooperation departments to kick off the process for effective implementation of the decision on the ground.

    The Congress-led government had formulated a Debt Relief Scheme for Farm Labourers and Landless Farming Members of PACS-2019, which would cover only consumption loans to the members of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies advanced by district central cooperative banks in the state of Punjab through Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies.

    The CM’s announcements follow the waiver of the loans of farmers under the Chief Minister’s flagship ‘Debt Waiver Scheme.’

    So far, loans worth Rs 4,624 crore have been waived of as many as 5.64 lakh farmers under the scheme, which was announced as part of the 2017 poll promises by the Punjab Congress.

    In addition, loans of the scheduled caste and backward classes categories have been written off up to the amount of Rs 50,000 each, including waiver up to Rs 58.39 crore of 6,405 beneficiaries by the SC Corporation and Rs 20.71 crore of 1,225 beneficiaries by the BC Corporation.

  • Punjab orders fresh curbs on indoor, outdoor gatherings as COVID-19 cases rise

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Tuesday ordered curbs on indoor and outdoor gatherings from March 1 and authorised Deputy Commissioners (DCs) to impose night-curfew in COVID-19 hotspots in their districts, if needed.

    The move comes amid a growing concern over an upswing in the number of coronavirus cases in the state.

    Chairing a virtual meeting to review the coronavirus situation, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh ordered restrictions on gathering of people from March 1, with 100 people allowed indoors and 200 people allowed to gather outdoors, according to a government statement.

    He also directed that wearing of face masks and social distancing norms be strictly enforced, with testing to be ramped to 30,000 a day, it said.

    Health officials said presently 200 people were allowed to gather indoors and 500 people outdoors, while 20,000 to 22,000 tests are conducted every day.

    Chief Secretary Vinni Mahajan ruled out closure of government schools again and said the department is taking all steps to ensure the safety of students.

    Amarinder Singh authorised deputy commissioners to impose night curfew in hotspots in their districts, if needed, with a micro-containment strategy to be adopted.

    He also directed the police force to ensure strict enforcement of wearing masks.

    There will be monitoring of adherence to COVID-19 norms at all restaurants and marriage palaces and the Department of Excise and Taxation will be the nodal agency for it.

    The chief minister said a decision on reducing occupancy in cinema halls will be taken after March 1.

    Private offices and restaurants shall be encouraged to display the last tests done for all employees, he added.

    Punjab is among the five states that have been asked by the Centre to refocus on strict surveillance, containment and RT-PCR testing to check the growing number of cases.

    The other four states are Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

    While issuing directions for increased testing, Amarinder Singh also ordered mandatory testing of 15 contacts per positive, with monitoring to be done by CPTOs (COVID Patient Tracking Officer) and review to be undertaken by the Health Department.

    The chief minister also took stock of the vaccination status, underlining the need to carry out a campaign to promote 100 per cent coverage of healthcare and frontline workers.

    He directed the Health Department to plan for strategising the rollout of the vaccine for the elderly population and those with comorbidities.

    Expressing concern over the 3.23 per cent case fatality rate, Amarinder Singh took note of the mortality audit findings that many of the deaths are happening within 2 -14 days of hospitalisation.

    He underscored the need for continued supervision of protocols for managing patients with comorbidities, especially in private facilities.

    Citing cases of some deaths at home, he further directed the Health Department to ensure proper monitoring of home isolation cases, especially those with comorbidities.

    The kits comprising self-monitoring instructions should positively reach all persons in home isolation the same day that they are tested positive, he directed.

    Earlier, in a brief presentation, Health Secretary Hussan Lal informed the meeting that the districts of Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, SAS Nagar and SBS Nagar had shown a spike in positivity in recent days, triggering concerns over a possible fresh wave in the state.

    On the vaccination front, he said that so far there had been 61 cases of minor adverse events following immunisation, while six severe and 14 serious cases had been reported.

    All had since recovered, he added.

    KK Talwar, who is heading the state government’s expert group on COVID, said a detailed analysis was being done on the recent spike in positivity rate which suggested an increase in cases among young people.

    At the current rate, the positivity rate could go up to 4 per cent in two weeks, translating into 800 cases per day, he said, stressing the need for urgent preventive steps.

    Education Secretary Krishan Kumar said teachers have been designated nodal officers in schools to instruct students on the proper use of masks etc and ensure adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour.

    These steps have come as a significant number of cases have been reported from the recently reopened schools, especially in Ludhiana, with a positivity rate of 3.1 per cent and Bathinda (2.9 per cent).

    So far, no new mutated variant of coronavirus has been detected in Punjab but new samples have been sent for testing and the results are expected next week, said Talwar.

  • Multani murder case: SC asks Punjab govt to place charge sheet against ex-DGP Saini on record

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Punjab government to place on record the charge sheet filed in the fresh FIR lodged against former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini in the 1991 disappearance and murder of a junior engineer Balwant Singh Multani.

    The top court had already granted anticipatory bail to Saini in the fresh case lodged in the 1991 disappearance and murder of Multani.

    A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah also asked the trial court to postpone its scheduled hearing of January 22 as the top court is hearing this matter.

    The bench is hearing Saini’s plea seeking to quash the fresh FIR lodged in the case in May 2020.

    “Gopal Subramanium, senior counsel, for the State seeks time to place the charge sheet and additional documents on the record. Let him do within two weeks. Counsel for the petitioner submits that matter be listed in the month of February, 2021. List in the second week of February, 2021,” the bench said.

    The bench said it has been informed by the counsel for the State that the matter has been fixed by the Magistrate on January 22, 2021 for the appearance of the petitioner (Saini).

    “In view of the fact that we are hearing this matter, it shall be appropriate for the Magistrate to postpone the date by the end of February, 2021,” the bench said.

    At the outset, senior advocate Gopal Subramanian, appearing for the Punjab Government said that a charge sheet has been filed in the case and summons have been issued to Saini for appearance in the court on January 22.

      He said that since the issue requires to be heard at length, Saini be asked to appear before the court and take the charge sheet filed in the case against him.

      Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Saini, said that the charge sheet cannot be filed in the matter when question over validity of FIR is yet to be decided by the top court.

    He sought a stay of proceedings on the charge sheet in the trial court and Punjab government be asked to place the charge sheet on record before the top court.

      Rohatgi added that Saini cannot be asked to appear before the trial court and therefore liberty be granted to record appearance through his lawyer on January 22.

    Subramanian said that the Punjab government will not do anything which will prejudice anyone as the matter is pending before the top court but the accused may be asked to appear before trial court as the summons have been issued against him.

    Rohatgi said the matter be listed in February since it requires detailed hearing.

    On December 3, last year the top court had granted anticipatory bail to Saini in a fresh case lodged in the 1991 disappearance and murder of a junior engineer Balwant Singh Multani.  It had set aside an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court declining him the pre-arrest bail in the 29-year-old case.

    The top court had said that long delay in lodging of FIR as in the present case can certainly be a valid consideration for grant of anticipatory bail.

    It had noted that the impugned FIR (dated May 6) has been lodged by Palwinder Singh Multani, brother of the deceased, after almost 29 years from the date of incident and after nine years from the date of decision of the top Court in the 2011 case of Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar related to the incident.

    It had said that even in the fresh FIR there were only allegations of offences like abduction, causing disappearance of evidence, wrongful confinement, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal conspiracy under IPC for which there was an order of anticipatory bail in favour of Saini.

    Saini was booked in May, last year in connection with the disappearance of Multani when he was working as a junior engineer with the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation.

    On September 8, last year the high court had dismissed Saini’s two pleas for anticipatory bail in the case and quashing of the fresh FIR.

    Saini had approached the high court after a Mohali court dismissed his bail plea in this case on September 1, last year.

    The Punjab Police on September 3, last year had claimed that Saini had “absconded” while denying his wife’s claims of withdrawal of his security cover.

    A Mohali court had on August 21, last year allowed the Punjab Police to add a murder charge against him in this case.

    This came after two former Chandigarh police personnel, UT police Inspector Jagir Singh and ASI Kuldeep Singh, who are also co-accused, turned approver in the case.

    Multani, who was a resident of Mohali, was picked up by police after a terrorist attack on Saini, who was then the senior superintendent of police in Chandigarh, in 1991.

    However, the police had later claimed that Multani had escaped from police custody of Qadian police in Gurdaspur.

    Saini and six others were booked on the complaint of Multani’s brother, Palwinder, a resident of Jalandhar.

    The case was registered against them under sections 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 344 (wrongful confinement), 330 (voluntarily causes hurt) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Mataur police station in Mohali.