PUNJABI COMMITTEES TO BE EMPOWERED
LANGUAGE TRIBUNAL AFTER LEGAL OPINION- UPINDERJIT KAUR

Chandigarh October 28: The Punjab Government has decided to empower State Level and District Level Empowered Committees, constituted for proper implementation of Punjabi language, to inspect all the govt offices and educational institutes at the State headquarter and in the districts respectively and the Punjabi language tribunal could be constituted after taking a legal opinion.

This was disclosed by Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, Education and Languages Minister, Punjab in a meeting with representatives of both the Kendari Punjabi Lekhak Sabhas and Punjabi Sahit Akadami, Ludhiana in a meeting held here today. She said that the Punjab Govt had already implemented two legislations to implement mother tongue Punjabi in all the offices of Punjab Govt., boards, corporations, subordinate courts and educational institutes in the Punjab State. In this regard State Level and District Level Empowered Committees had also been constituted for proper implementation of Punjabi language, she added.

The Minister said that to inspect the Govt. offices and educational institutes at the headquarter as well as in all the districts, it has been decided to empower these committees by constituting two sub-committees at the district as well state level. The district sub-committees to be headed by the concerned D.E.O and District Language Officer (D.L.O), comprising a journalist and a writer, would inspect educational institutes and Govt. offices respectively. These sub-committees would be supervised by the concerned Deputy Commissioner, who would inturn put the investigative report before the District Level Empowered Committee, she added.

The Language Minister further added that two such sub-committees would also be constituted at the state level also to inspect the Govt. offices and educational institutes situated at Chandigarh and Mohali.
Dr. Upinderjit Kaur clarified that to constitute a Punjabi Language Tribunal, as demanded by the writers associations, a legal opinion would be taken from the legal luminaries including Legal Remembrancer and Advocate General, Punjab. If it was needed the matter would be further taken up with the Chief Minister, Punjab as well as Council of Ministers, she added.
Among others Mr KBS Sidhu, Principal Secretary Higher Education, Mrs Balbir Kaur, Director Languages Punjab, Dr. Anoop Singh President and Dr.Sarabjit Singh General Secretary of Kendari Punjabi Lekhak Sabha, Dr. Dalip Kaur Tiwana President and Dr. Sukhdev Singh General Secretary of Punjabi Sahit Akadami Ludhiana, Dr. Tejwant Singh Mann President and Sh. Pawan Harchandpuri General Secretary of Kendari Punjabi Lekhak Sabha (Sekhon), eminent poet Dr. Surjit Patar and Sh. Amarjit Singh Grewal were also present in the meeting.

CPCB CONSTITUTES COMMITTEE TO FIX NORMS FOR EFFLUENTS AT INLET AND OUTLET OF CETP

CHANDIGARH, October 28:

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) today constituted a high level committee consisting of industrialists of the dyeing units, members secretary of Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and MD of Sewerage Board under the Chairmanship of Member Secretary CPCB Mr. J.S. Kamyotra to give recommendations for fixing norms at inlet and outlet of Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) to be set up at Ludhiana.

A direction to this effect was given by the Chairman of CPCB Dr. S.P. Gautam during a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal to deal with the severe problem of pollution caused by the Ludhiana based units of dyeing industry.

Dr. Gautam informed the Chief Minister that the two senior members from CPCB Mr. Kamyotra and a scientist Dr. D.D. Basu would take a holistic view to examine the entire issue of pollution to find out a workable solution permanently.
Earlier, a group of industrialists of the dyeing industry along with the members of the PPCB would submit a detailed data of the industry after jointly assessing the quantity of effluents generated, raw material used, intermediate used and subsequent by products to the committee for recommending parameters about the prescribed quantity of effluents being discharged both at inlet and outlet of CETP.

Taking part in the deliberations, Mr. Badal asked the representatives of the dyeing industry to seriously work out the ways and means to get these effluents treated in such a way that it could be utilized for the irrigation purposes. It may be recalled that at present there are 268 dying units out of which 17 are the large ones already installed with treatment plants. As many as 51 small dyeing units out of total 251 are at scattered places in Ludhiana whereas 200 units are working in five industrial clusters namely focal point cluster, industrial area-A, Tajpur road, Bahadurke road and Rahon road cluster. It was decided in the meeting that two CETPs with capacity of 100 and 38 Million liters per day (MLD ) would be set up to cater the need of these five clusters.

Mr. Badal categorically said, "No laxity or complacency on the part of erring industrialists would be tolerated any more. Either strictly complies with the norms or face action as government could not compromise with the health of the people.” The Chief Minister sought cooperation and technical support from the CPCB to ensure proper functioning and up gradation of the existing ETPs and two CETPs to be setup in accordance with the prescribed norms to be recommended by the committee.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) would ensure the compliance of pollution norms prescribed by it and asked the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to regularly monitor the same. Dr. Gautam assured the Chief Minister CPCB was ready to provide vital inputs to these industrialists for up gradation of their effluents treatment plants to check the level of pollution effectively.

The meeting was also attended by Chief Secretary Mr. S.C Agarwal, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. D.S.Guru, Financial Commissioner Development Mr. N.S. Kang, Principal Secretary Industries Mr. S.S. Channy Director-cum-Secretary Industries Mr. V.K. Janjua, Chairman Punjab State Industry Board Mr. Inderjit Singh Pradhan besides the representatives of dyeing Industry. Apart from these, member secretary of the CPCB Mr. J.S. Kamyotra and Dr. Sham R. Asolekar from Centre for Environment Sciences and Engineering IIT Mumbai were also present

HARPALPUR NOMINATED AS CHAIRMAN BESIDES 17 MEMBERS OF MARKET COMMITTEE PATIALA

CHANDIGARH OCTOBER 28:

The Punjab Government today nominated Mr. Harvinder Singh Harpalpur as the Chairman of the Market Committee Patiala under Sub Section (1) of Section 16 of Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961, besides 17 members of the Market Committee, Patiala under Section 12 of Punjab Agriculture Produce Markets Act, 1961 (Punjab Act No.23 of 1961).

Disclosing this here today a spokesman of the Chief Minister’s Office said that the respective notifications relating to these nominations had already been issued by the State Agriculture department.
Meanwhile, the State Government had also nominated Mr. Jarnail Singh as the Vice Chairman of market Committee Rajpura in district Patiala under Sub Section (1) of Section 16 of Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961, added the spokesman.

ALL 14605 VILLAGES & DHANIS TO BE COVERED UNDER SAFE DRINKING WATER & SANITATION PROGRAMME BY MARCH 2012 - BADAL

CHANDIGARH OCTOBER 28:

Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today said that the entire rural population in 14605 villages and dhanis (clusters) would be provided with the basic amenities of safe drinking water and sanitation positively by March 2012.
Addressing the media persons during a weekly interaction, Mr. Badal said that out of these total 14605 villages and dhanis, 8418 had been fully covered, and the remaining 3699 under Partially Covered and 2488 Not Covered (NC) category would be covered by March, 2012. The state government had fixed a target to provide 70 liters per person per day instead of earlier 40 liters per person per day. Under the alternative Water Supply Arrangement through Innovative Technologies like Reverse Osmosis (RO) Plants, Mr. Badal said that a detailed survey had already been carried out to check the assured availability of canal water for canal based Rural Water Supply (RWS) schemes in the State. As many as 375 villages had been installed with RO system at the tail end of canal network under Phase I, which were likely to be commissioned by December, 2009.

Outlining the salient features of Reverse Osmosis Programme, Mr. Badal said that a nominal rate of 10 paise per liter would be charged from the consumers, executing agencies would build these plants as well as operate and maintain them for 7 years free of cost and payback Rs.4.51 crore to the State government as a whole during this period of operation and maintenance. Mr. Badal further said that 18000 schools would also be provided with the facility of toilets & drinking water besides 700 schools to be equipped with stand alone water purification system.

The Chief Minister further said the state government had chalked out an other scheme at a cost of Rs.20.85 crore to provide sewerage system in 100 villages initially and to begin with five religious holy towns including Baba Bakala, Khadoor Sahib, Goindwal Sahib, Chola Sahib and Kiratpur Sahib would be provided sewerage system at a cost of Rs.2.74 crore along with drinking water supply at a cost of Rs.8.11 crore. In case of sewerage projects 50% of the beneficiary contribution could be borne by the Member Parliament Local Area Development Funds or village panchayats.
Mr. Badal pointed out that he prevailed upon the World Bank team for reduction in upper ceiling of household/beneficiary share from Rs.1500 to Rs.800 in case of general category and Rs.400 in case of SC category for normal areas. Likewise, this amount was also considerably reduced from Rs.750 to Rs.400 and Rs.200 in case of general and SC category respectively for difficult area including Kandi, Water logged, Border and Bet.

Listing the consumer friendly measures taken by Water Supply & Sewerage Department, Mr. Badal said that a Shikayat Nivaran Kendra (SNK) was being set up at Mohali which would be made operational by 15th November. Complaints could be lodged through phone or e-mail round the clock by dialing toll free landline number.

INFORMATION & PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT, PUNJAB
90.02 LAKH TONNES PADDY PROCURED IN PUNJAB
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Chandigarh, October 28: Government agencies and private millers procured more than 90.02 lakh tonnes of Paddy till last evening

Out of total procurement of 9002992 tonnes of paddy in all the procurement centers of Punjab, Government agencies procured 8815352 tonnes of paddy (97.9%) till date whereas private traders procured 187640 tonnes (2.1%) of paddy. Till October 27, PUNGRAIN had procured 2521083 tonnes (28.6%) whereas MARKFED procured 1802189 tonnes (20.4%). PUNSUP procured 2059752 tonnes (23.4%), PSWC procured 1147832 tonnes (13.0%) whereas PAIC was able to procure 856866 tonnes (9.7 %) of paddy.

The Central Government agency FCI had been able to procure 427630 tonnes (4.9%).
The spokesman added that District Patiala with 987090 tonnes of procurement was leading in procurement operations whereas district Ferozepur 874734 tonnes of procurement was at second slot and District Ludhiana with 809894 tonnes of procurement ranked at third position.

The State Government has set up 1600 procurement centres and activated its total machinery to ensure smooth procurement of paddy, the spokesman added.