MULTI THOUSAND CRORE INTEGRATED PLAN TO DEVELOP AMRITSAR AS INTERNATIONAL TOURIST HUB APPROVED

Chandigarh, November 14: An integrated multi thousand crore plan to put Historic City Amritsar, on International Tourist Circuit, was approved today by Deputy Chief Minister Mr.Sukhbir Singh Badal and Tourism Minister Mr.Hira Singh Gabria. The ambitious plan approved today would involve construction of heritage village, preservation and beatification of Ram Bagh Gardens, preservation of historic Town Hall building, setting up of Food Street, development of pedestrian plaza opposite Golden Temple, restoration and preservation of Historic Gates and massive restoration of Gobindgarh Fort besides strengthening the infrastructure of Amritsar City to make it tourist friendly city.

Presiding over a high level meeting of Punjab Heritage Board here today, in which senior official of various implementation agencies including that of Tourism, Local Government, Municipal Corporation Amritsar, Punjab Police, Transport Department and international consultants involved in the planning process participated, Mr.Badal said that Amritsar has a potential to emerge as No.1 International Tourist Hub if we are able to prolong the stay of religious tourist by few days and attract more international tourists. He said that he was chairing this meeting to ensure coordinated approach so that all participating agencies move with a collective agenda rather than to work at cross purpose.

Unveiling the vision, Mr.Badal said that Archeological Survey of India would put up their conceptual plan for the development of Ram Bagh and after that Municipal Corporation would hand over the possession of Ram Bagh to ASI. It was approved in the meeting to develop historic Town Hall and adjoining area as place of heritage importantance, in synergy with the surrounding area Golden Temple. The offices in the town hall would be shifted to alternate location and Town Hall would be developed by Tourism Department in association with PIDB.

Emphasizing on attracting additional tourist to Amritsar city, Mr.Badal approved the plan of Heritage Village to be set up on G.T.Road, in the area provided by GNDU. Mr.Badal said that the management and construction of Heritage Village would be outsourced to private specialized agency.

It was also approved to ply eco-friendly Hop on Hop off buses connecting various religious places. The Sulabh International would construct and maintain 33 toilets in the city for the convenience of tourists.
Mr.Badal asked Transport Department to tie up with Tourism Department to start conducted tours on religious circuits including Chandigarh-Fatehgarh Sahib-Sirhind-Chamkaur Sahib-Ropar-Anandpur Sahib-Nangal-Chandigarh, Chandigarh-Patiala, Damdama Sahib-Talwandi Sabon, Mukatsar-Chandigarh and third on Chandigarh-Amritsar-Khadoor Sahib-Baba Bakala-Sultanpur Lodhi-Kartarpur-Chandigarh routes.

Prominent amongst those who participated in the meeting included Master Mohan Lal, Transport Minister, Mr. Shwet Malik, Mayor Amritsar, Mrs.Geetika Kalha, Principal Secretary Tourism, Mr.D.S.Jaspal, Principal Secretary Transport, Mr.D.S.Bains, Secretary Local Government, Mr.Vishwajit Khanna, Principal Secretary/Deputy Chief Minister, Mr.K.S.Pannu, Deputy Commissioner Amritsar, Mr.Manvesh Sidhu, Additional Secretary/Deputy Chief Minister and other senior officers of concern departments.

PUNJAB TO SET UP 13 NEW GOVERNMENT DEGREE COLLEGES - BADAL

SAS NAGAR (MOHALI) NOVEMBER 14, 2009

Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today announced that 13 new government degree colleges would be set up at a cost of Rs.104 crore in educationally backward districts of Amritsar, Bathinda, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Mansa, Moga, Muktsar, Nawanshahar, Patiala and Sangrur on the recommendations of the University Grants Commission.

Mr. Badal was presiding over a function to mark the commemoration of silver jubilee of Government College Mohali. In order to boost the higher and technical education, the Chief Minister said that the Central University at Bathinda had already started its academic session. He said that the World Class University at Amritsar would be set up over 700 acres of land. Likewise the classes at the prestigious IIT Ropar had started in local Polytechnic College. Meanwhile, the State Government had already transferred 501 Acre of land to the IIT for the construction of its own building.
Mr. Badal further said that the state government had already secured clearance in principle for setting of an Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the state. The IIIT would be developed as a tripartite venture in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode over an area of 100 acres with equal share of 1/3rd of GoI, Punjab Government & Private Industry.

The Chief Minister further said that the state government would set up 7 new polytechnic colleges, 17 ITIs and 9 Adarsh Schools during the current fiscal. He said that the state government would recruit 11,530 new teachers by December 31 as the process for recruit was on. This will be in addition to 17,417 teachers already recruited by the Government, bringing the total number of new teachers to 28,947, a record in the State.

Mr. Badal said that new polytechnics are being set up at Mansa, Faridkot and Muktsar. In addition, the Punjab government has sanctioned a sum of Rs.10 lac each for up-gradation of infrastructure in Govt. Polytechnic College, Batala and Ferozepur during 2009-10. Likewise Rs.20 lac each had also been sanctioned under the scheme for construction of women’s hostels in Govt. Polytechnic Colleges for Girls, Ludhiana and Patiala.

The Chief Minister also mentioned that 351 Senior Secondary Schools had been given up-gradation in infrastructure and strengthening of the science facility. Mr. Badal also stated that 20 Adarsh Schools were being set up by the State Government to provide free education to the economically poor and brilliant students in the first phase and the progress of the project was being regularly monitored at his level.

Earlier, the Chief Minister lighted a lamp to mark the inaugural of silver jubilee celebrations of the college and released a souvenir on the occasion.

Meanwhile the principal of the college Mrs.Vipin Sobti read the annual report of the college, highlighting the various academic, cultural and sports achievements of the college.

Prominent amongst other who were present on the occasion included member Parliament Mr. Ravneet Singh Bittu, MLA Morinda Mr. Ujjagar Singh Wadali, MLA Banur Mr.Jasjit Singh Bunny, Vice Chancellor Panjab University Dr.RC Sobti, Deputy Commissioner Mr.PS Mand and SSP Mr. Gurpreet Singh Bhullar besides the former faculty members of the college who were honoured on the occasion.

PUNJAB GOVT. TO LAUNCH 20 MOBILE VAN VETERINARY DISPENSARIES

CHANDIGARH NOVEMBER 14, 2009

In a significant move to boost the dairy farming in the state, the Punjab government has decided to all set to press in 20 Mobile Van Veterinary Dispensaries to provide on the spot treatment facilities to the cattle.

A decision to this effect was taken in the meeting chaired by the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal late last evening. Mr. Badal constituted a seven member committee under the chairmanship of the Chairman Punjab State Farmers Commission Dr. GS Kalkat to give recommendations for the services of mobile van dispensaries in the state. The other members of the committee would be the Vice Chancellor GADVASU, Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry, Director Animal Husbandry, Managing Director Milkfed, Consultant to the state Farmers Commission and former Director Animal Husbandry Punjab Dr. Anil Kaura, Chairman Milk Plant Mohali Mr. Parminder Singh Chalaki and President of the Punjab Progressive Dairy Farmers Association Mr. Daljit Singh. The Committee had been asked to its recommendations within 10 days.

The Chief Minister also asked the animal husbandry department to cover the entire Punjab under the service of mobile van dispensaries which would be equipped with surgery facilities, X-ray and ultra-sound, medicines and other interventions.
The Chief Minister also asked the VC GADVASU to finalize the modalities in consultation with Veterinary Council of India for relaxation of norms for opening of new veterinary colleges in the private sector. The VC informed the Chief Minister that the university had already given in principle approval to four such private players to set up these colleges.
It may be recalled that the state government had already undertaken an Intensive Buffalo Breed Improvement & Management Programme under Rashtriya Krishi Vigyan Yojana (RKVY) being implemented by the Milkfed with technical support and expertise from the state Animal Husbandry department and in close association with key private players/NGOs in buffalo breeding. The programme is aimed at supplementing the income of small farmers and rural landless workers in the state. Under this programme, 600 Integrated Buffalo Development Centers (IBDCs) would cover 3000 villages in the areas of Kandi, Bet, Border and trans-Ghaggar areas at a cost of Rs.60 crore under RKVY over five years in a phased manner.

The Chief Minister also emphasized the need to develop new techniques to propagate artificial insemination in buffaloes with semen of bulls with milk yielding potential of 4000 liters per lactation, de-worming of calves and protection of milch animals from diseases like Brucellosis etc. He also asked the VC GADVASU to undertake extensive research in the university to improve the quality of milch cattle especially the buffalos because our dairy farmers were not able to get high quality buffalos.

It was unanimously decided in the meeting that Milkfed was only organization having the largest milk procurement base in the state, reaching out to about 3.5 lakh milk producers twice a day for collecting milk from 6438 Dairy Cooperative societies should be involved in the project of mobile van dispensaries because it had a major role to play in the milk catchment area.

The Chief Minister also asked the Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry to immediately recruit at least 100 qualified veterinarians to provide instant service to the farmers for artificial insemination besides also rendering services of de-worming, vaccination, first-aid and management at the door steps of the farmers.

Prominent amongst others who attended the meeting included Finance Minister Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. DS Guru, Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry GS Sandhu, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. KJS Cheema and Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gaggandip Singh Brar,

Who should be blamed for keeping Amritsar dirty and robbing tourist? Amritsar is known for its tourist and pilgrimage land mark, the Golden Temple. We believed that as a place of religious devotion it would be a smooth transition to the more bustle full and notoriously noisy Indian cities. .....Read