TRIPARTITE MONITORING COMMITTEE TO MONITOR IMPLEMENTATION
OF RECOMMENDATIONS OF WAGE BOARD FOR JOURNALISTS CONSTITUTED
Chandigarh, February 28, 2008
A delegation of National Wage Boards for Working Journalists
and Other Newspaper Employees consisting of Mr. K.M. Sahni, Member
Secretary, Dr. Harcharan Singh , Dy. Director General and Mr.
Harish Gaur, Director met Mr. Tikshan Sud, Labour Minister Punjab
today.
The delegation in Punjab was to ascertain the status of implementation
of the recommendations of last Wage Boards. The new National Wage
Boards have been constituted under the Chairmanship of Justice
Narayana Kurup. The visiting delegation intended to ascertain
the views from the social partners i.e establishments of newspapers,
employees working in them and the Government as regard the implementation
of recommendation of previous Boards.
The delegation shared with the Labour Minister the views expressed
by employers and employees in a meeting held by the delegation
in Jalandhar yesterday. The delegation requested the Minister
to activate the implementation machinery in order to enforce the
recommendations of the previous Boards and initiate action to
generate the awareness amongst the stake holders.
Mr. Sud assured the delegation that in order to implement the
relevant Acts effectively, the State would, as per suggestions
of the delegation constitute a tripartite monitoring committee,
to look into the causes of non-implementation of the recommendation
of previous Boards and also undertake the study of all the newspapers
establishments to seek their financial health. The Minister further
assured the delegation that the State would hold a one-day seminar
in July to sensitize the employers and also make the employees
aware of their rights so as to make the implementation of the
recommendation of the newly constituted Boards effectively. The
State intends to re-constitute Accreditation Committee so as to
screen the genuineness of journalists.
PUNJAB TO LAUNCH NATIONAL BAMBOO MISSION PROGRAMME.
Chandigarh, February 28, 2008
Punjab has been selected as a nodal state by Union Agriculture
Ministry to implement National Bamboo Mission Programme for promoting
cultivation, value addition, processing & marketing of bamboo
crops.
Disclosing this here today Mr. Tikshan Sud, Forests & Wildlife
Preservation Minister said that in its new initiative to promote
diversification of land use, the Government of Punjab had submitted
a comprehensive proposal to the Union Govt. for promoting cultivation,
value addition, processing & marketing of bamboo crops.
He said that a detailed presentation in this regard was made
by the State in a meeting of experts and representatives of various
Ministries of Govt. of India. After considering the State's presentation
the GOI has decided to provide 3.5 crore rupees for the State
of Punjab for the current financial year, under the National Bamboo
Mission Programme.
The Union Govt. had asked the State to furnish name of the proposed
implementing agency & Account details so that the funds allocated
to Punjab based on its case presented before the National Mission
could be transferred to the State. Mr. Sud further informed that
State has constituted Punjab Bamboo & Fiber Development Board
to oversee implementation of bamboo promotion, conservation &
value addition programmes, under the National Bamboo Mission Programme.
The Minister said that about 3000 people are likely to directly
benefit with the promotion of this new scheme to provide more
income augmentation options to farmers and the marginal sections
of the society. He further stated that S. Prakash Singh Badal,
Chief Minister Punjab is laying special emphasis on augmenting
farmers income in Kandi area, through plantation of bamboo &
medicinal trees which also help to control Lantana weed which
has significantly reduced income of farmers from Private Forests,
in Kandi area.
Mr.. R.C. Nayyar, Financial Commissioner Forest said that promotion
of bamboo has a special importance for the State in view of need
for diversification as well as promotion of sustained income sources
for Kandi farmers who are owners of significant chunk of private
forests in the Kandi Area.
Mr. B.C. Bala, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Mission
Director of the recently constituted Punjab Bamboo & Fiber
Development Board informed that the State is expected to utilize
this amount in promoting plantation of bamboo, working of existing
bamboo stands, community/skill building in promotion of bamboo
based livelihoods, strengthening of bamboo marketing infrastructure
in the State, extension activities and improving user-seller linkages.
MAJITHIA COMMISSIONS 8 BIOMASS / BAGGASSE POWER PROJECTS ADDING
100MW POWER.
Chandigarh, February 28: Punjab Energy Development Agency took
a major step forward in its commitment to promote the co-generation
projects in the State as Science, Technology & Environment
Minister today formally commissioned 104.25 MW capacity eight
Bagasse based co-generation projects using PLC/SCADA mode. These
projects have been set up with an investment of Rs. 422 crores.
In a function organised at Solar Passive Complex, here today
Mr. Majithia dedicated to the nation 8 cogeneration projects namely
M/s. A.B. Sugars Ltd., Hoshiarpur, Rana Sugars Ltd., Amritsar,
Abhishek Industries, Barnala, Chandigarh Distillers & Bottlers,
Patiala, Nectar Life Sciences Ltd., Mohali, Setia Paper Mills,
Mukatsar, Shreyans Industries, Sangrur and M/s. A.B. Grain Spirits
Pvt. Ltd., Gurdaspur. These projects having facilitated by PEDA
under the NRSE Policy-2006 as per which the tariff for the current
financial year2007-08 is Rs. 3.59/- per Kwh.
Speaking on the occasion again the Minister said that with the
inauguration of these projects, the PEDA has already achieved
50% target of cogeneration of next five years. Keeping in view
the interest shown by the industrialist in the cogeneration, the
target of cogeneration for next five years has been enhanced from
220 MW to 400 MW. He said that paper, fertilizer, chemical, textile
and other industries having huge co-generation potential are being
motivated to adopt co-generation not only to augment the state
grid capacity but would also create conducive conditions for providing
employment generation and utilisation of clean environment friendly
resources. He further said that co-generation projects of capacity
30.80 MW have already been commissioned earlier to this and with
the commissioning of these eight projects, total co-generation
capacity in the State has risen to 135.5 MW. Mr. Majithia said
that PEDA has already tied up with various projects to augment
of 68MW power capacity in the next six months. The state government
has planned to add another 150 MW capacity in next three years.
The Minister said that in addition to the above, PEDA has already
planned a total capacity addition of 1681 MW through various New
and Renewable Sources of Energy (NRSE). He said that during next
three years Small /Micro Hydro (425MW), Co-generation power(220
MW), Biomass power(342 MW), Municipal Solid Waste power (20 MW),
Solar energy (64 MW), Wind energy (110 MW) & Energy Conservation(500
MW) with a total investment of Rs. 8000 crores in the state have
been put on fast track to augment traditional power capacity in
the state.
Focusing on energy conservation, Mr. Majithia said that the 10
lac tubewells in the state have been asked to install CFL bulbs
instead of normal high energy consuming bulbs within one month.
The Minister said that brick kilns in the state are being educated
regarding new energy conserving technology.
Mr. A.S. Chattwal, IAS, Secretary, Science & Technology,
informed that multi national technologies are showing keen interest
in solar energy and tendering for solar parks to generate 100MW
power would be floated soon.
Sh. T.P.S. Sidhu, Chief Executive, PEDA informed that PEDA is
providing the needed technical and facilitation services for setting
up of these projects in the state under the ambit of New and Renewable
Sources of Energy Policy-2006.
It may be added that cogeneration is a new concept resulting
in concurrent generation of process heat and motive power in the
industry by the sequential use of energy from a common fuel source
and depending on the quality of process heat required, it may
be based on the topping or bottoming cycle. In the topping cycle
system, heat is required for the process at low temperatures and
therefore, power generation is done first. All sugar, paper and
distilleries employ this cycle for combined generation of power
and heat.
The industrialists who participated in the function included
Mr. Prominent among to those Mr. R.S. Chadha, MD & Chairman,
M/s. A.B. Sugars Ltd, Mr. Santokh Singh, GM, M/s. Rana Sugars
Ltd., Mr. R.S. Chandha, MD & Chairman, M/s. A.B.Grain Spirits
Ltd, Mr. Kavish Dhanda, Sr. Vice President, M/s. Abhishek Industries,
Mr. Sanjeev Goyal, MD, M/s. Nectar Life Sciences Ltd., Mr. Anil
Kumar, Executive Director, M/s. Shreyans Ind. Ltd, Mr. Amit Modi,
Managing Director, M/s. Chandigarh Distillers & Bottlers Ltd.,
Mr. H.R. Bhardway, GM, M/s. Setia Paper Mills Ltd.
From the officials side, Mr. V.K. Bhalla, MD, Sugarfed, Mr. Yogesh
Goyal, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board, and representatives
of PSEB also participated in the function.
