INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS FROM CHANDIGARH AIRPORT BY AUGUST- AGGARWAL

Chandigarh, July 15, 2009

The international flights from Chandigarh-Mohali international airport would be operational from August, 2009 and security personnel, X-Ray machines including other infrastructure would be installed during this month.

This was disclosed by Chief Secretary, Punjab Mr. S.C.Aggarwal during a high level meeting held here today for provisioning of required facilities at this airport. He informed that to facilitate the late night international flight operations, the officers of Airport Authority of India has been directed to extend watch hours of air traffic controller (ATC) upto midnight.
He added that the Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Parkash Singh Badal had already taken up the matter with the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Mr. A.K.Antony to direct the Air Force authorities to extend ATC watch hours by 01.00 hours for international flight operations. He added that Fly Dubai Airlines intends to start international operations from this airport during the month of July but due to the delay in installation of required infrastructure at the airport, the international flights would now be made operational from the month of August.

The Chief Secretary informed that this international airport would cater to the needs of passengers belonging to Punjab, UT Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh as well as Uttranachal also. He added that the security personnel would be provided by the Punjab Government whereas computer and x-ray machines would be installed by the Chandigarh Administration and Airport Authority of India respectively. The Bus services connecting to the inter-state bus terminus Chandigarh would be provided by the Chandigarh Administration.

Among others Secretary Civil Aviation, Punjab Mr. Vishavjit Khanna, Director Civil Aviation, Punjab Sh. Gagandeep Singh Brar, Home Secretary UT Chandigarh Mr. Ram Nivas and officers from Airport Authority of India, DGCA, Customs Department and IB were also present in the meeting.

Chandigarh July 15, 2009

Medical Education and Research, Forest & Wild Life, Parliamentary Affairs and Labour and Employment Minister Punjab Sh. Tikshan Sood held a meeting with Mr. Martin Mucha, representative of Ministry of Education, Austria and coordinator for its Asia projects. Mr. Martin explained that the Government of Austria had been helping in improving the education systems of developing countries though its initiative of setting up of organization called Eurasia Pacific Uninet which was rendering lot of fellowships and scholarships to outstanding and brilliant students from China, Mangolia, India, Pakistan and other south Asian countries. He explained that although Austria was a small country and could not contribute a large amount for this purpose but a substantial amount of funds have been placed in the hands of the ministry for fellowships to outstanding and brilliant students from various countries for study to some of the worlds centres of excellence located in Austria such as university of Vienna, Vienna Medical School is known for the department of Ophthalmology and Trauma Surgeries. Similarly, the University medical school of Innsbruck is a centre of excellence for study in protoeomics and biotechnology. Looking at the great progress made in this field in China the Government of Austria is keen to carry out these activities in India as well. He also explained that Austria was conducting an annual conference on Proteomics in Seefeld every year which is attended by world renowned scientists and Noble prize winners. The Hon’ble Minister assured Mr. Martin that his department would be keen to explore every avenues of mutual collaboration and benefit to avail these opportunities. Mr. Martin also presented the report of Eurasia Pacific Uninet regarding its activities all over the world for 2008 to the Hon’ble Minister. Shri Sud said that collaboration will help outstanding and brilliant students and faculty members from the various medical institutions in the State to update their skills and get opportunity for exposure to the latest technology available world wide, alongwith learning the new techniques in the various fields of medicine and research.

RS. 657 CRORE EARMARKED FOR WEAKER SECTIONS – CH. SWARNA RAM

Chandigarh July 15, 2009

The Punjab Government has earmarked Rs. 657 Crore to uplift the living standards of weaker sections in the state. This was disclosed by Ch. Swarna Ram, Social Security and Welfare of Woman and Child Development Minister Punjab here today.

He further said that Rs. 468 crore would be spent on old age pension and financial assistance to widows, orphans and handicapped and other persons from the dedicated social security fund, funded by 5% extra duty (cess) on electricity duty and 3% additional stamp duty on urban area transactions in the state during current financial year 2009-2010. He further said that over 16 lac old age pensioners and other pensioners were getting Rs. 250/- per month.

The Minister stated that the State Government was committed to release financial assistance to the beneficiaries regularly every month from 1-4-2009. He further clarified that different categories to whom financial assistance was being provided included 13,05,444 old age, 2,25,289 widow and destitute women, 9,4,811 dependent children and 1,16,441 disabled persons were beneficiaries under this scheme. Under the old age scheme pension granted to women of sixty years of age and above and to next men of 65 years age and above. The income limit in the scheme would be Rs. 1000/- per month for single and Rs. 1500/- per month for couple.

WAGE A WAR AGAINST DRUG AND PIRACY MAFIA –DGP

Chandigarh, July 15, 2009

Punjab DGP Mr. P.S. Gill today gave a call to launch a sustained, concerted and coordinated war against the menaces of narcotic trade and increasing piracy in entertainment as well as software industry as ill gotten money earned from these trades were responsible for plethora of other crimes inflicting our society.

Addressing the first introductory meeting with all District Police Chiefs here today, the DGP said that this challenge can be fought only by launching a well coordinated drive by taking intelligence inputs from traditional as well as other sources. He said that Punjab being the border state has to suffer because of being on the nefarious trade route of smuggling of drugs from neighboring countries and it was imperative for us to be vigilant on this front.

Advising the young officers to adopt professional approach in policing, the DGP want that any deviation from Punjab Police Rules under any pressure was not at all acceptable. Mr. Gill said that it was the onus of district police chief to ensure all steps to expedite the investigation in a professional manner and timely filing of challans in the courts so that justice could be ensured in time.

Expressing concern over low rate of conviction, the DGP said that that professional and scientific investigation of all crimes can bring a sea change in this scenario. He said that all investigating officers should be instructed to video record the crime scene thoroughly and use them effectively as evidence where ever required.

Taking serious note of increasing incidents of robberies, rioting and untraced serious crime and new trend of attack of civil servants, he directed them to personally monitor the investigation of all these cases till these cases reach their logical conclusion.
Advising the police officers to work for image make over of force to win the confidence of community at large by involving them in crime prevention task, the DGP said that prevention and detection of crime were the only two touch stones of competency of any police officers.

Asking the police officers to lead the force by example, he said that a competent police officer always converts challenges and controversies into opportunities and comes out with alternate plan of action to prevent and detect crimes.

Calling for adopting hands on approach, Mr. Gill said that it was imperative for every District Police Chief to conduct regular inspections in police station and police posts under his jurisdiction to keep police force alert. Focusing on welfare of constabulary the DGP asked them to hold weekly Darbars in Police lines to timely redress the grievances of the staff.

NABARD ASSIST 302 DEVELOPMENT WORKS IN THE STATE- DHINDSA

Chandigarh July 15, 2009

PWD (B&R) Minister Punjab Mr. Parminder Singh Dhindsa said that the State Government would spend Rs. 769.45 crore for roads, over bridges and other development works with the assistance of NABARD.

He further said that out of 302 development works, 255 works had been completed, the expenditure incurred on these works was Rs. 652.50 crore. The work on 13 roads and 17 bridges are in progress which would be completed by March 2010. Besides this, he said Rs. 220.74 crore were sanctioned by NABARD for the construction of 470.35 KM of various roads. The work on these 59 roads would be completed between 31.3.2010 to 31.3.2011. The cost of project cost was 220.74 crore and expenditure incurred till now Rs. 58.68 crore. He further said Rs. 113.56 crore has been sanctioned during this financial year by NABARD for on going 76 development works. Out of these development works 66 roads, 10 bridges were in progress and an amount of Rs. 24.60 crore have been spent. The target for the completion of work is March 2012.
He directed the concerned officers to complete all ongoing development works in a stipulated time.

Dinesh Partap IPS posted as commandant 36th Batalian

Chandigarh July 15, 2009
Mr. Dinesh Partap Singh IPS had been transfer and posted as commandant 36ht Batalian PAP Bahadurgarh, Patiala (available for posting).

Punjab state women commission to hear cases on three days in a week- Sangha

Chandigarh July 14, 2009

Punjab State women commission would hear with cases on three days in a week.

This was disclosed here today by the Chairperson Bibi Gudev Kaur Sangha that she alongwith including other members of the Commission Smt. Pushpinder Kuar Majboor, Smt. Kiranjot Kaur and Smt. Ranjeet Kaur Bhatti would hail the cases of the aggrieved women.

Mrs. Sangha further appealed to such women that they should file their complaints in the office of Punjab State Women Commission S.C.O. 57-59, Sector 17 C Chandigarh. The Complaint must mention Name, Address of the complainant and Phone number. An aggrieved women can contact on the office telephone no. 0172-2783607 for seeking any sort of information or immediate relief.

Mrs. Sangha further said that the commission initiated legal proceedings after giving an opportunity of personal hearing to concerned party.

PUNJAB CM REVIEWS PROGRESS OF ISHMEET SANGEET ACADEMY AND HARPAL TIWANA CENTER OF PERFORMING ARTS

Chandigarh July 14:
Punjab Chief Minsiter Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today gave in principle approval for the allotment of 2.10 acre land to the Ishmeet Singh Memorial Trust for setting up Ishmeet Sangeet Academy at Ludhiana in memory of legendry singer Ishmeet Singh, who died in prime of his youth last year.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister this morning. He also asked the Local Government Minister Mr. Manoranjan Kalia to immediately finalize the already allotted site for the construction of state- of- the Art Ishmeet Sangeet Academy at Ludhiana. The Chief Minister also reviewed the progress of another prestigious project of Harpal Tiwana Center of performing Arts for which the state government had already allotted 1.5 acre of land in Patiala.

Meanwhile, the Additional Chief Administrator PUDA Mr. Hardev Singh, who was also present in the meeting handed over two cheques of Rs. 50 lac each for the Ishmeet Singh Memorial Trust and Harpal Tiwana Yadagar society to the concerned authorities.
It may be recalled that the state government had already earmarked a sum of Rs.20 crore for the completion of these two prestigious projects. Tendering procedure for both these projects would be initiated soon after the finalization of the site plans.

Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Secretary PWD (B& R) Kulbir Singh, Additional Principal Secretary K.J.S Cheema, Deputy Commissioner Ludhiana Vikas Garg, ADC Patiala Darshan Singh Sandhu, Chief Architect Punjab Ms. Balwinder Saini, Additional Managing Director Punjab State Tourism Corporation V.B Kumar and Dr. Charan Kanwal Singh an uncle of Late Ishmeet Singh.

STOP BETRAYAL OF PUNJAB FARMERS – SUKHBIR QUESTIONS MAHARASHTRA – CENTRIC AGRICULTURAL POLICIES OF CONGRESS

Chandigarh, July 14

Mr. Sukhbir Singh Badal, President Shiromani Akali Dal and SAD-BJP nominee for Jalalabad Vidhan Sabha bye-election seat today asked Congress led Union Government to stop betrayal of Punjab farmers also questioning the rationale of its Maharashtra-centric agricultural polices. Mr. Badal was referring to the recent constitution of task force constituted by Union Government to study the viability of bringing agricultural debt taken by the farmers of Maharashtra from moneylenders under the preview of debt waiver scheme and intentionally excluding Punjab from it. He questioned the calculated silence of Congress M.Ps from Punjab on these crucial Union Government policies crafted to further marginalize Punjabi farmers, already reeling under spiraling agricultural debt especially from moneylenders.

Addressing various rallies in different villages on Jalalabad-Mukatsar Road, Mr. Badal said that the budget speech of Union Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has confirmed the already expressed apprehension of Shiromani Akali Dal that much touted whole debt waiver scheme was tailor made only to give bonanza to farmers of Maharashtra and to keep out much deserving, hard working Punjabi farmers who were repaying their loan installments religiously. He said that Punjab Government had already submitted a detailed dossier to the Union Agriculture Ministry citing that 67% farm debt availed by the farmers was from the money lenders and only 33% from the banking institutions. Mr. Badal said that the Punjab had been requesting to take the loan advanced by money lenders in the ambit of debt waiver scheme as Punjab contributing 60% wheat and 34% rice in central kitty, got only Rs. 700 crore waiver which was only 1.1 % of total waiver.

Charging Congress of deliberately framing policies to punish hard working Punjabi farmers, Mr. Badal said that excluding Punjab from the preview of task force set up in the budget speech, has exposed the anti Punjabi bias of Congress Party.
Criticizing the Congress led Union Government for its failure to address the root cause of farmers suicides in Punjab, Mr. Badal said that the due to faulty policies of Union Government especially of fixing MSP, farmers were getting neck deep in to debt and not including money lenders debt in waiver scheme would further compound this problem.

aking strongly the move of Union Government to fix MSP of Paddy at Rs. 950 per quintal, the Akali Dal President said that nothing below Rs. 1400 per quintal was acceptable to SAD. He said that his party had been constantly advocating to link MSP of agricultural produce with Price Index as suggested by Swaminathan Committee or to fix MSP by including the rate of inputs plus 50% profit. He charged that the Union Government was deliberately delaying the announcement of MSP fearing backlash by Punjabi farmers in August 3, bye-elections.

Accusing the Union Government of failing to come to the aid of draught hit Punjabi farmers whose crops have failed due to 57% failure of Monsoon in Punjab, the SAD president said that all announcements of helping draught hit farmers were just in media and no help has been received by Punjab from the Union Government as yet.

US BASED EBS GROUP EVINCES KEEN INTEREST TO SET UP NO PROFIT HI TECH EYE CARE HOSPITAL IN LUDHIANA

CHANDIGARH JULY 14

A five member delegation led by US based entrepreneur of Enterprises Business Solutions (EBS) group today called on Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal and submitted a proposal to set up state-of -the-art hi tech no profit super speciality eye care institution in Ludhiana to cater the needs of patients especially the poor and needy for the treatment of eye diseases.

Briefing the Chief Minister about the project "Vision 2020", its Honorary Director Mr. C.N. Srivatsan of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust which was running a chain of Sankara Eye Care Institutions with its mission headquarter Coimbatore said that the proposed eye hospital at Ludhiana would be the first project of its kind in the North India. He said that the districts of Ludhiana , Moga, Firozepur, Kapurthala , Jalandhar , Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Sangrur would be served by Sankara Eye Hospital, Ludhiana on a need based manner. He said every year 15000 free eye surgeries would be performed and this target would be accomplished with in 3 to 4 years. He also pointed out that 80% of the beneficiaries would be the needy poor to whom the entire services would be provided free of cost, the middle income and affluent people would constitute the balance 20% of beneficiaries who would pay for their eye care.

The delegation also informed Mr. Badal that eye surgeons and Administrators would be identified from Punjab and undergo intensive training at Coimbatore and Bangalore before getting posted in Ludhiana eye hospital. Like wise, +2 passed girls from Punjab especially belonging to socio economically poor families from the Ludhiana region would be identified purely on merit and aptitude basis and would be trained at Coimbatore and Bangalore through a University recognised course for a period of 18 to 24 months. After successful completion of the course, they would be absorbed as paramedics at Sankara Eye Hospital Ludhiana to serve the people of Punjab.

Appreciating the gesture to serve the needy poor for the eye treatment , Mr. Badal said that such more hospitals should be opened in the State to provide health facilities to the economically weaker sections of the society, which were deprived of health care facilities being very expensive and beyond their reach. Mr. Badal directed the Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana to find a suitable location to allot 2 to 3 acres of Land on lease basis in or around Ludhiana to establish this "Mission for Vision" to provide international quality eye care facilities to all sections of the society in the State.

The head of the delegation Mr. Jessie Singh informed the Chief Minister that the ultimate goal was to achieve perfect visual status of vision by the year 2020 through establishing twenty such hospitals in different parts of the country. He hoped that when all the hospitals were in place by the year 2020, nearly one million people would be benefited every year , half a million through surgeries and half of though procedures.

The other members of the delegation were consultant and advisor Dr. P. Janakiraman, Mr. Sunny Saini of EBC group. The Chief Secretary Mr. S.C. Agrawal , Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. D.S.Guru, Secretary Health and Family Welfare Mr. Satish Chandra and Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. K.J.S.Cheema also attended the meeting.

PUNJAB GOVERNMENT SIGNS MOU WITH US
BASED EBS GROUP FOR 5 MW SOLAR POWER PLANT

Chandigarh July 14, 2009

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)for setting up of 5 MW Solar Power Project in Punjab was inked between Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) and the US based Enterprise Business Solutions (EBS) Group in the presence of the Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Parkash Singh Badal. The Group President, Mr.Jessie Singh informed that this project would be one of the biggest solar projects in the Asia involving an investment of Rs.100 crores, would be commissioned within 18 months.

Disclosing this here today a spokesman of the Chief Minister's Office said that the EBS group further intimated that the company was in the process of purchasing land for setting up of the project near Garhshankar in Hoshiarpur district and it had already deposited the necessary performance security with PEDA. Mr.T.P.S.Sidhu, Chief Executive, PEDA, who signed the MoU on behalf of PEDA, informed that the project was being set up under the National Renewable Sources of Energy ( NRSE) Policy- 2006 and tariff for sale of power from the solar power plant would be applicable in accordance with Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) tariff order dated 13.12.2007. He also informed that work of two other solar power projects of 1 MW capacity by M/s Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. at Lalru and 2 MW capacity by US based M/s Azure Power (Punjab) Pvt. Ltd., at village Awam in district Amritsar has already commenced and these would be commissioned by December 2009. The power generated from the project would be sold to PSEB for which a Power Purchase Agreement would be signed with PSEB. This project was being set up under the Build, Own, Operate (BOO) mode through private sector participation.

Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included the Chief Secretary Mr. S.C.Agrawal, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. D.S.Guru and Sh.Viswajeet Khanna, Secretary, Science, Technology, Environment and Director PEDA Mr. Balaur Singh.

Information and Public Relations Department Punjab
THE KHALSA HERITAGE PROJECT COMPLETED SOON- GARBRIA

Chandigarh July 14:

Mr. Hira Singh Gabria, Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister Punjab said that the state government would provide Rs. 50 crore for the completion for the Khalsa Heritage Project at Anandpur Sahib. Government of India has released Rs. 100 crore last year to the different executive agencies for the development of the historical towns of Talwandi Sabo and Anandpur Sahib. The allocation of this amount was made according to the decision of the state government. Out of an outlay of Rs. 15 crore have been allotted to set up memorials of Ghallugharas and Academies in the historic towns this year.
Mr. Gabria further said that the Tourism Department Punjab has written to Government of India to release Rs. 1.30 crore for the development of these projects. He also said that with the completion of these projects not only the trade and commerce activity would get boost but also improve the quality of life to a considerable extent.
He further said that a clear procedure was being adopted to start the new projects against those projects which has not been started due to non acquisition of land.

17,000 TEACHERS RECRUITED, 9500 MORE ON ANVIL-UPINDERJIT KAUR

# necessary infrastructure provided in the state schools
# 6069 teachers promoted, more promotions in the pipeline

Chandigarh July 14: The State Government has taken significant steps to promote teaching and learning through record recruitments of teaching faculty and provided necessary infrastructure in the state schools.

Disclosing this Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, Education Minister Punjab said that she has been making earnest and relentless efforts to fill all the vacancies in the schools and has been able to recruit around 17,000 teachers during her tenure. Besides this, more 9500 teachers would be recruited very shortly to fill the vacancies, she said.

The Minister said that despite the writs and litigations pending into the various courts filed by teachers and unions, the department has been able to promote 6069 teachers. More promotions would be made in the coming months as the process had already been initiated. Lest such litigations had note been filed into the courts, it was her earnest desire to fill all the vacancies through promotions and recruitments, she asserted.

She said that having about three decades teaching experience on various positions, she knows all the problems and difficulties of the teaching faculty very closely and desires to redress their grievances and fulfill their genuine demands whosoever comes to her. Every month she has been holding three-four exhaustive meetings with various unions/associations to redress their problems. The officers of the department had already been instructed to clear the cases at the earliest so as to make the redressal mechanism more efficient.

Dr. Upinderjit Kaur added that computer education has been made compulsory for classes VI to XII and for this purpose adequate infrastructure has already been provided in all the 4965 Government Middle Schools , High Schools and Senior Secondary Schools . Besides this, 351 schools under NABARD scheme have been upgraded (three in each constituency) at a cost of 141 crore where Science, Commerce, Arts and Vocational Groups had be made functional. About 600 schools have been upgraded from Primary to Upper Primary schools so as to achieve the ratio of 1:2 in Upper Primary to Primary, she said.

With the objective of giving relief to the teachers from making the Mid Day Meal, she said that Mid Day Meal was being provided through some non-Government agencies in three districts on pilot project. The further decision to replicate in rest of the districts, would be taken earliest after evaluation from an independent agency. For better cooking of Mid Day Meal kitchen sheds in all the schools have been constructed, she added.

Dr. Upinderjit Kaur added that the implementation of Punjab State Language (Amendment) Act, 2008 and Learning of Punjabi and other Languages Act, 2008 had already been promulgated in the state to make official use of mother tongue Punjabi in all the state offices as well as subordinate courts and to teach Punjabi as a compulsory subject in all the schools in the state respectively.

PUNJAB TRAINS PANCHAYAT MEMBERS OF 4779 VILLAGES TO MONITOR QUALITY OF POTABLE WATER

Chandigarh, July 14:

he Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation department has launched an ambitious programme to train the village personnel and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions for conducting surveillance of quality of potable water being supplied in the villages.
According to an official spokesman the department has this year conducted over 922 workshops, each workshop for a cluster of 5 villages to give basic training to the villagers and members of PRIs for surveillance of water supply.

The spokesman said that this year 4779 villages were covered under this training programme. He said that each village has also been provided with a water testing kit that was capable of testing 100 water samples for 8 to 12 parameters i.e. pH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Chloride, TDS, Fluoride, Iron, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphate & Residual Chlorine. He said that in addition to field test kit nearly 1,00,000 number of H2S Kits have also been distributed to different villages for testing water of different sources for bacteriological contamination.

Reiterating the commitment of Punjab government to strengthen grass root democracy and make Panchayats equal partner in administration of civic amenities in the villages, the spokesman said that the Punjab government proposes to train the villagers and members of PRIs in all remaining villages in Punjab during the current financial year 2009-

SENIOR PUNJAB DOCTORS WARNS OF STATE WIDE AGITATION AGAINST RE-EMPLOYMENT


Chandigarh, 14th July 09: In a special General Body meeting of the Senior Punjab Civil Medical Service Association held at Ludhiana on Sunday, over 100 Senior PCMS officers including the Senior Medical Officers, Civil Surgeons, Deputy Directors and a Director of the Punjab Health Department strongly opposed the re-employment of retired and retiring doctors or extensions in their service, against the PCMS-1 cadre posts and served an ultimatum on the Government to cancel all these orders of re-employments/ extensions as these re-employments have blocked the already meager promotional avenues available to PCMS doctors where there are only 40 promotional posts in a cadre of 3561 PCMS doctors and 1200 rural medical officers.
The Association has decided to soon submit a memorandum signed by over 100 members, to the Punjab Chief Minister S. Parkash Singh Badal seeking his intervention in this matter and decided to adopt agitational measures. The general house further resolved to file a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, as these cases are similar to the just decided case of the Director, Animal Husbandry Department Punjab whose re-employment has been stayed by the High Court, if justice is not given by the Government. The Health Department has recently re-employed a retired medical superintendent, two retiring civil surgeons, and a retiring assistant director against the appointed retired doctors on contract, as Director and a Joint Director in Punjab Health Systems Corporation, an Additional Project Director AIDS Control Society and State Program Manager under National Rural Health Mission, the posts generally held by the in-service PCMS cadre officers. The association has demanded the immediate termination of their services and filling up of these posts from PCMS cadre It further demanded immediate filling up of the 12 vacant posts of deputy directors and higher rank officers by convening an urgent DPC meeting.
By another resolution, it demanded a total parity with the Central Government Health Services doctors, in the matter of pay scales,, promotional avenues and other benefits. The Punjab Pay Commission has cheated the PCMS doctors by saying that the Punjab doctors enjoy parity with the CGHS doctors whereas the facts are different and the PCMS doctors are being discriminated. The Pay Commission has failed to recommend Higher Administrative grades and Selection grades as admissible to CGHS doctors. It has failed to recommend a separate pay fixation formula giving benefit of dearness allowance admissible on the NPA (Non- practicing allowance) component to pay as has been specified the Central Government for CGHS doctors which will not only result in lower pay fixations by 2000-5000 rupees but will also result in silent recoveries of several thousand of rupees while giving pay revision arrears. As the NPA of the doctors is treated as pay for all intents and purposes. The revised quantum of NPA is admissible from 1-1-2006 as has been decided by the Central Government. It warned those officers of the department who are trying to play a mischief to complicate this simple issue. The house strongly condemned the Punjab Pay Commission for putting up a question mark on the admissibility of NPA to the doctors holding purely administrative posts, an issue which has been already settled more than once. The Association also demanded a higher graded pay to the calculated by adding NPA to the basic pay as the NPA is also a pay, not an allowance.
The house also demanded that 1200 rural dispensaries earlier transferred from the control of Health department to Zila Parishads, should be re-transferred to Health department as the experiment has miserably failed and has adversely hit the health services and national health programs in the rural areas. The rural medical officers should be brought back in the PCMS cadre

PUNJAB TRAINS PANCHAYAT MEMBERS OF 4779 VILLAGES TO MONITOR QUALITY OF POTABLE WATER

Chandigarh, July 14: The Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation department has launched an ambitious programme to train the village personnel and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions for conducting surveillance of quality of potable water being supplied in the villages.

According to an official spokesman the department has this year conducted over 922 workshops, each workshop for a cluster of 5 villages to give basic training to the villagers and members of PRIs for surveillance of water supply.
The spokesman said that this year 4779 villages were covered under this training programme. He said that each village has also been provided with a water testing kit that was capable of testing 100 water samples for 8 to 12 parameters i.e. pH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Chloride, TDS, Fluoride, Iron, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphate & Residual Chlorine. He said that in addition to field test kit nearly 1,00,000 number of H2S Kits have also been distributed to different villages for testing water of different sources for bacteriological contamination.

Reiterating the commitment of Punjab government to strengthen grass root democracy and make Panchayats equal partner in administration of civic amenities in the villages, the spokesman said that the Punjab government proposes to train the villagers and members of PRIs in all remaining villages in Punjab during the current financial year 2009-10.

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