Singer Diljeet Singh entertained the audience by going in between them

Roopnagar, 11 October-On the 9th Day of SARAS Fair singer Diljeet Singh enthralled thousands of audience at Nehru Stadium here with his songs, dance and attractive style of performance.

Shri S.C. Aggarwal, Chief Secretary Punjab was the chief guest at the jam packed Diljeet Night. Addressing the audience Mr Aggarwal congratulated the Deputy Commissioner of Roopnagar Shri Priyank Bharti for organizing such a wonderful SARAS Fair in this small district of Roopnagar. He himself enjoyed the fair and expressed satisfaction upon the well planned arrangements made at the fair.

Mr Aggarwal said that the BPL self help groups from 21 states of India have set up their stalls in this fair and it has happened for the first time in the history of SARAS Fairs that the District Administration has arranged for their free food and accommodation along with free transportation and they do not have to pay any taxes for their business transactions. All these arrangements have been made to enable these self help groups to earn maximum profit and raise their livelihood, he said.

Lauding the enthralling performance of singer Diljeet, Chief Secretary said that he has patiently enjoyed his performance for the first time and very much impressed by his voice. Praising the role of IET Bhaddal in the field of education, he said that this Institute has played vital role in imparting technical education to the students. On this occasion the district administration honoured Mr S.C. Aggarwal, Chief Secretary Punjab, singer Diljeet Singh and Mrs. Kulwinder Gurcharan Singh Founder Trustee and Chairperson IET Bhaddal.

Mr Diljeet started the night was with religious recitation Mool Mantra. Then he performed his famous numbers like Lagda ishq ho gaya, Dil nu tere naal kinna pyar. The jam packed audience was fully charged when he performed his latest song Jado Panga pai jave. The audience at the fully packed Nehru Stadium could not stop dancing when he performed Patlo di akh nachdi, Hoya ki je nachdi di baanh, Aa ge paggaan pochwiyaan waale and Bin peete nasha. He also performed a religious song related with Chhote Sahibzaade from his upcoming album Raj Karega Khalsa. The audience demanded more when he ended up his performance with the last song Nachdiyaan allarhaan kuwariyaan.

It is noted that many singers have performed earlier at SARAS Fair but at Diljeet Night Nehru Stadium was full to its capacity and there was not even a single person's space which could be vacant. The audience enjoyed the performance without caring that they have a seat or not. The food stalls also remained fully busy and the stocks at some stalls got finished much earlier than the routine days.

Among others Mr Priyank Bharti Deputy Commissioner Roopnagar, Mr Charanjeet Singh Channi MLA Chamkour Sahib, Mrs Anandita Mitra SDM Roopnagar, Mr Lakhmeer Singh SDM Chamkaur Sahib and Nangal, Madam Roopanjali Assistant Commissioner (Under Trainee), Mr Sanjeev Garg DDPO, Madam Kulwinder Gurcharan Singh Founder Trustee & Chairperson IET Bhaddal, Mr Amarjeet Satyal, President Municipal Council, Shri Gurinder Singh Gogi Member SGPC, Mr Amar Raj Saini, President District Bar Association Roopnagar, Mr Harpreet Singh Basant President District Youth Akali Dal (Rural), Mr Parminderpal Singh Binta President District Youth Akali Dal (Urban), Mrs Palwinder Kaur Rani, Mr Maninderjit Singh Sahni and Mr Harpal Singh Datarpur, MD Cooperative Bank were also present on the occasion.

RS. 1574 CRORE TO BE SPENT ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF WATER COURSES

Chandigarh, October 11:
In order to provide better irrigation facilities to the farmers and to ensure sufficient water at the tail end, a special programme has been planned by the Irrigation Department, Punjab under which Rs. 1574 crore would be spent on the construction of water-courses in the state.

Announcing this here today, Punjab Irrigation Minister Mr. Janmeja Singh Sekhon said that on completion of this project, 31, 28,000 farmers from 1208 villages would be benefited.

He said that under Upper Bari Doab System (UBDC), Water Courses would be constructed with a cost of Rs. 243 crore and will cover 210 villages. Rs. 38.03 crore has already been spent on this project so far. Work on the construction of Kotla Canal System has been completed and Rs. 78.24 crore has been spent to construct water courses of 25 villages of Sangrur, Mansa and Bathinda districts and 62000 farmers would benefit from this scheme.

He also said that under Eastern canal System, Rs. 73.26 crore has been spent to construct Water Courses of 10 villages of Ferozepur district which would benefit 11000 farmers. Similarly under the Sirhind Feeder Phase 2 Canal System, Rs. 407.03 crore would be spent to construct water courses of 325 villages of Mukatsar, Faridkot and Ferozepur which would benefit to 8,32000 farmers. Rs. 51.85 crore has been spent under this scheme so far.

Minister further said that Water Courses of Bathinda branch phase-2 Canal System would also be constructed with a cost of Rs. 238.18 crore and it will cover 195 villages of Sangrur, Barnala, Bathinda and Mukatsar and 5,65,000 farmers would benefit with this scheme. Rs. 49.02 crore has been spent on this project so far.

PUNJAB ADJUDGED AS THE BEST BIG STATE IN ‘POVERTY REDUCTION’ ALSO DECLARED AS BEST STATE FOR ‘OVERALL PERFORMANCE’

Exemplary work in poverty reduction in recessionary times recognized
CHANDIGARH, OCTOBER 9:

Punjab has been declared as the country’s Best Big State in ‘Poverty Reduction’ category and Best State for ‘Overall Performance’ by IBN18 Network during its second edition of the prestigious ‘IBN7 Diamond States Awards’ ceremony held at New Delhi late last evening.

Disclosing this here today a spokesman of the Chief Minister’s office said that on behalf of the Chief Minister Punjab Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, Food & Civil Supplies and IT Minister Mr. Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon received ‘IBN-7 Diamond State Award’ and citation for ‘India’s Best State for Overall Performance’ from Lok Sabha Speaker Smt. Meira Kumar, who was the chief guest.

Expressing gratitude to the organizers for this honour bestowed upon Punjab, Mr. Kairon said this award was an outcome of the sheer hard work and dedication of the people of Punjab and they really deserved all appreciation for this.
It may be recalled here that ‘IBN7 Diamond States Awards’ is a path breaking editorial initiative in partnership with Outlook, for recognizing human and social development efforts by the states of India

With nearly 25% of the nation’s population earning less than the government specified poverty threshold of Rs. 296 per month for urban areas and Rs. 276 per month for rural areas, millions of Indians still suffer from substantial poverty. Uneven wealth distribution, urban growth patterns which exclude rural areas, slow rate of overall industrialization, diminishing employment opportunities owing to lack of education are just some of the reasons. The states need to spread awareness about the importance of education in leading of life away from poverty and create more and more employment avenues through systematic industrialization, increased private participation and entrepreneurial opportunities. The sterling work undertaken by Punjab in the field of Poverty Reduction has been recognized at the prestigious IBN7 Diamond States Awards.

On the occasion, the Speaker of Lok Sabha, Smt. Meira Kumar delivered the key note address, which was followed by an interesting interactive session including Chief Ministers, leaders and dignitaries conducted by Managing Editor, IBN7 Mr. Ashutosh and Editor-in-Chief, IBN18 net work Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai. The awards function was attended by dignitaries from various walks of life which included cabinet ministers, chief ministers, eminent politicians, journalists, lawyers, bureaucrats etc.

Chandigarh, 9 October: Encouraged by successful deployment of women by BSF on Indo-Pak Border, the Punjab Police has chalked out a special programme to train girls for employment in security agencies, police and para military forces.
According to an official spokesman of police department, Punjab DGP Mr. P.S. Gill has issued guidelines to provide equitable opportunities to women in the forces and provide them professional training to make them employable in various security related services including Police and Para-Military forces. The DGP felt that their was an increasing demand for women recruits amongst the security agencies for deploying them guards in various establishment including Malls, Airports, Hospitals and Private educational Institutions and these agencies were not finding enough trained employable women. The security agencies themselves were reluctant to provide on job training to the women and in the whole scenario women were the losers.

The spokesman said that DGP has asked Punjab Security Training Institute (PSTI) operating from the complex of Police Recruitment Training Centre, Jehan Khelan (Hoshiarpur) to immediately come out with a course for women candidates. The spokesman said that to provide proper infrastructure to women candidates, the newly built 120 bedded hostel has been kept reserved for the new girls' batch.

The spokesman said that PSTI since its inception in January 2008 has been able to ensure placement to 1565 trainees in various security related establishment. He said that thorough professional training provided by this Institute equips the candidate to face the challenges posed by new terror threats. He said that new infrastructure created at the cost of 10 crore including multimedia hall, Indoor training block, laboratories , hostel for boys and girls , out door training block, guest house, administrative block, strive to provide professional training to the trainees to enable them to face new challenge. On completion of second phase of institute, it would be in positioned to train 12000 youth every year, he added.

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla has instructed all the civil surgeon of the State to conduct Statewide raids on sweets shops to check supply and usage of synthetic Khoya in preparation of sweets coming from adjoining States. To intensify its campaign launched against adulteration, the department has raided three sweets shops in village Balaungi in district Mohali. As many as 13 samples collected during the raids have been sent for laboratory tests.
Giving detailed information regarding the raids, the Minister said that 20 bags of khoya,50 drums of petha and 200 drums of rassgullas have been confiscated. Similarly 60 bags of khoya and 54 drums of rassgullas have also been confiscated from Dashmesh Cold Storage Kharar. She further said that three factories were raided in Ludhiana late last evening and impounded 35 quintals of milk cake, 17 quintals of patisa, 4 quintals khoya burfi,8 quintals besan, 20 quintals ballushai and 70 quintal sujji. All the impounded material was sent to the laboratory for further investigations.

The minister said that instructions have been faxed to all the civil surgeons that nobody should be allowed to play with the health and lives of the citizens of the State. She said that purpose of raids should not be to harass the honest shopkeepers but was to curb the nefarious practices of some sweet shop owners for profiteering by selling adulterated Khoya and milk products. She said that the focus of raids should be on wholesalers to net big sharks and this would also be exemplary for others

SSP's of all the districts have been separately directed to provide adequate security to the raiding teams. The Minister said that she has separately taken up with the Chief Minister Punjab to strengthen various laws to check adulteration of food products.. She said that, strict action would be initiated against all those officials/ officers found colluding with the culprits and this would be recorded in their service records.