Guru-ta-Gaddi Divas-
PUNJAB CM REVIEW DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS OF SRI ANANDPUR SAHIB &
TALWANDI SABO
Chandigarh July 2, 2008
Decks have been cleared for a major modernization
and infrastructure make over of the twin holy cities of Sri Anandpur
Sahib and Talwandi Sabo at a cost of nearly Rs. 200 crore. The
make over would be a part of the Guru-ta-Gaddi anniversary programmes.
The Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal
today presided over a meeting which gave a final shape to various
infrastructure projects to be executed in the two cities. He impressed
upon of officers of the concerned departments to ensure timely
completion of these development projects besides its proper and
strict monitoring.
The Chief Minister informed that the Union Home Minister Mr. Shivraj.V.
Patil had already written a letter to him conveying to immediately
commence work on these projects in anticipation of the release
of funds so that these were completed without any delay. The communiqué
also mentioned that the requisite funds of Rs. 9974.77 lakhs and
Rs. 7984 lakhs approved by the Central Government for Sri Anandpur
Sahib and Talwandi Sabo could not be included in the budget estimate
for the year 2008-09, as the Ministry of Finance had now informed
that the allocation would be taken up as a part of the first supplementary
funds of grants. Mr. Patil also asked the state government to
follow accounting norms for proper utilization of funds for the
implementation of these projects. The expenditure incurred would
be reimbursed by the Central Government as soon as the allocation
was received from Ministry of Finance.
The Chief Minister specifically asked the officers
to invite tenders for all the works from the executing agencies
of repute positively by 15th of July and all the works must be
completed by the 1st week of October, 2008. Mr. Badal also asked
the Technical Advisor to the Punjab Government Lt. Gen. (Retd.)
Mr. B.S. Dhaliwal to monitor the terms and references of the tenders
to be floated by the concerned departments. Mr. Dhaliwal assured
the Chief Minister that the quality of construction would not
be compromised at any cost and the entire development projects
would be completed within a time frame.
It was informed in the meeting that out of Rs.
105.14 crore to be spent on different development projects to
be undertaken in Sri Anandpur Sahib included water supply, sewerage
& sanitation (Rs. 15.5 crore), storm water drain (Rs. 4.44
crore), solid waste management (Rs. 6 crore) traffic and transportation
(Rs. 20 crore) street lighting (Rs. 1.40 crore) Fire fighting
(Rs. 1 crore) besides other infrastructure projects like construction
of new bus stand, Sr. Secondary school for girls, IT college and
Polytechnic college (Rs. 56.80 crore). Likewise out of Rs. 82.06
crore for Talwandi Sabo, Rs. 9.3 crore would be spent on water
supply, sewerage & sanitation, Rs.
3.54 crore on storm water drain, Rs. 4 crore on solid waste management,
Rs. 31 crore on traffic and transportation, Rs. 26.5 crore on
education infrastructure including construction of state-of-the
art Religio-Cultural center, Youth Hostel, Rural University etc,
besides, Rs.7.72 crore on other miscellaneous projects. The Chief
Minister also asked the concerned officers to give a aesthetic
face life to both holy towns through the installation of façade
lighting and white painting to enhance its serenity and aura.
A brief presentation was also made by representative of an eminent
lighting company for the proposed project based on the new concept
of solid state lighting. Mr. Badal also directed the state Public
Information Relations Department to publish literature in Punjabi,
English and Hindi on the historical and religious perspective
of Sri Anandpur Sahib and Talwandi Sabo in the light of the Guru-ta-Gaddi
Divas.
The meeting was attended by the Chief Minister's
Media Advisor Mr. Harcharn Bains, Chief Secretary Punjab Mr. Ramesh
Inder Singh, Principal Secretary D.S. Guru, Principal Secretary
Transport D.S. Jaspal, Principal Secretary Employment Generation
N.S. Kang, Principal Secretary Cultural Affairs Dr. Swarn Singh,
Principal Secretary Tejinder Kaur, Secretary Tourism D.P.Reddy,
Secretary water supply and sanitation P.S. Aujla, Director Information
& Public Relations Tejveer Singh, Director Transport Mandeep
Singh, Director Local Government Sameer Kumar, Deputy Commissioner
Ropar B. Purshartha, Chief Administrator Bathinda Development
Authority Kamal Yadav, ADC Bathinda Vijay Zade and Additional
Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gagandeep Singh Brar
besides, Senior Akali Leaders from Talwandi Sabo Mr. Amarjit Singh
Sidhu
BADAL MAKES FIRM RESOLVE TO IMPART
HI-TECH QUALITY EDUCATION
MOHALI JULY 2, 2008
Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today
reiterated his firm commitment to impart hi-tech quality education
to the students of Punjab at par excellence with the renowned
educational institutions across the globe.
Presiding over a function to launch the scholarship scheme to
the meritorious students of the Continental Institute of International
Studies (CIIS) here at its campus, Mr. Badal emphasized the importance
of the quality education and squarely held the governments both
States and Centre for the constant deterioration in the educational
system and said now it was a high time to make concerted efforts
to revamp the entire system according to the emerging trends worldwide
in the changed scenario. He said the state government had already
launched a scheme to open 'Adarsh Schools' throughout the state
to provide quality education free of cost to the economically
poor and bright students. He admitted the fact that there was
a wide gulf between the standard of rural and urban education
which was now being narrowed down through initiating certain measures
aimed at strengthening the base of school education in the rural
sector. He said that government Senior Secondary Schools were
being provided with sound infrastructure in terms of building,
laboratories and well qualified staff in the science stream at
a cost of Rs.142 crore. The scheme would enable the students to
get admissions in the medical and technical courses and it has
yielded positive results as many students with rural background
had fared better this time by securing more seats in the institutions
of higher learning as compared to last year.
Dwelling on the concept of career counseling which
had been launched for the first time in the state to motivate
and guide the students who had passed 10th in first division to
enable them to opt subjects of their choice as per their aptitude
and acumen. 'This step would certainly prove to be a great success
for the students who were earlier at the cross roads due to sheer
ignorance and dilemma,' hoped Mr. Badal. The Chief Minister pointed
out that now Punjab had one of the best networks of technical
education institutions in the country but the only factor which
these institutes lack was the poor quality of students at the
entry level. He asked the management of the premier technical,
engineering and management institutions to adopt and run few 10+2
schools with in its vicinity to impart better quality of education
as these institutions had better infrastructure and highly trained
staff. He said that such schools would act as a nursery to meet
the demand of these technical and management institutions and
obviously the out put would also be far better in terms of high
profile graduates and post graduates passing out from these
institutions. He said that once such students were admitted in
these institutions of excellence then their career was assured.
The Chief Minister also lauded the role of the management of CIIS
and asked the President CIIS Educational Society Lt.Col. (Retd.)
BS Sandhu to establish such more institutions in other parts of
the state also to benefit the under privileged and economically
poor students.
In his address, Member Parliament from Hoshiarpur Avinash Rai
Khanna said that Punjab's youth had a tremendous academic potential,
which remained untapped and could be optimally exploited through
proper motivation, financial support and counseling. He said that
it could be achieved through the participation of NGOs, voluntary
and social organizations in state government's educational programme
that could identify the students amongst the unprivileged section
of the society who had not enough means to pursue basic as well
as higher education.
He said the state government should encourage for setting up such
educational institutes of repute to provide quality education
to the students thereby enhancing their chances of employability
apart from extending liberal financial support to the poor and
needy students.
Speaking on the occasion, Advisor CIIS Lt. Gen. KS Mann highlighted
the objectives and achievements of the campus and its future plans
and projections. He also apprised about the functioning and academic
activities of CIIS with the faculty members of the foreign universities
associated with CIIS.
In his welcome address President CIIS Educational
Society Lt.Col (Retd.) BS Sandhu assured the Chief Minister that
the management would soon come out with the proposal to set up
feeder institutions in the state to strengthen the educational
base of the students on one hand and to provide overseas employment
to them on the other.
Later, Mr.Badal gave away the scholarship award for the year 2008
to a meritorious student Ms. Harpreet Kaur to launch the scholarship
scheme worth Rs.4 crore.
Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included
Media Advisor to Chief Minister Harcharan Bains, Additional Principal
Secretary to Chief Minister Gagandeep Singh Brar besides the Director
of CIIS Gurdeepak Singh.
OATH TO NEWLY ELECTED PANCHAYAT
MEMBERS WILL BE ADMINISTERED ON JULY 11
Chandigarh 2 July, 2008
Oath to the newly elected Panchayat members will
be administered on July 11, 2008 at concerned district headquarter
level functions.
Disclosing this here today a spokesman of Punjab
Government said that Oath would be administered to the Panchs
of Ludhiana district at Ludhiana on July 11, 2008 at 11:00 AM
by the Punjab Chief Minister S. Parkash Singh Badal and Oath Panchs
of Fatehgargh Sahib and Barnala district would be administered
by S. Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Food and Supply Minister and
S. Bikram Singh Majithia, Information and Public Relation Minister
respectively at 3 PM at concerned district level functions.
Oath will be administered to Panchs of other districts
by the Chairman/Minister incharge of concerned district planning
boards on July 11, 2008 at 11:00 AM, in district level functions.
Detail is as
under:
Sh. Manoranjan Kalia, Local Govt., Ind. & Commerce
Minister Amritsar, Smt. Laxmi Kanta Chawla, Health & Family
Minister, Kapurthala; S. Manpreet Singh Badal, Finance & Planning
Minister Ferozepur; Capt.
Kanwaljit Singh, Cooperative Minister Jalandhar; Sh. Tikshan Sood,
Forest & Labour Minister Gurdaspur; S. Ajit Singh Kohar, Revenue
Minister Mukatsar; S. Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Irrigation Minister
Patiala, Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, Education & Civil Aviation Minister
Sangrur; S. Sucha Singh Langah, Agriculture Minister Faridkot;
S.
Bikram Singh Majithia, Information & Public Relations Minister
Bhatinda; Ch. Swaran Ram, Social Welfare & Tech. Education
Minister Ropar; S. Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, Food & Civil
Supply Minister SAS Nagar; S. Parminder Singh Dhindsa, PWD (B&R)
Minister, Nawan Shehar; S. Gulzar Singh Ranike, Schedule Caste
& Back Ward Classes Welfare Minister Mansa, S. Ranjit Singh
Brahampura, Rural Development Minister Hoshiarpur; Master Mohan
Lal Transport Minister Moga; S. Hira Singh Gabria, Jails, Tourism
Minister Tarn Taran will administer the oath newly elected members
of panchayats of Punjab .
