Chandigarh Apr 24 PTI A team of the National Security Guard on Sunday defused an explosive device found in a bag near the boundary wall of the high-security Burail jail here said police A bag containing a box detonator some burnt wires and the explosive device was found near the boundary wall of the Burail jail here on Saturday evening The NSG team defused the explosive device today said Chandigarh SSP Kuldeep Chahal He said an FIR has also been registered and investigation is underway Police had cordoned off the area and a fire fighting vehicle was also deployed officials said Police had restricted the movement of people on the roads near the jail and traffic was also diverted PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Apr 21 PTI The Punjab government on Thursday advised people to wear face masks at crowded places amid a surge in coronavirus cases in some of the states Punjab on Wednesday had reported 30 fresh cases taking its coronavirus tally to 759334 According to the advisory issued by the Department of Home Affairs and Justice wearing of masks should be ensured in closed environments such as in buses trains aircrafts cinema halls shopping malls departmental stores offices and classrooms Earlier the Haryana government had made the wearing of a facemaskmandatory in four districts falling in the National Capital region In Chandigarh the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana the administration had advised people to wear face masks at crowded places PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Mar 22 PTI Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said his government will regularise the services of 35000 contractual employees A decision has been taken to regularise the services of 35000 contractual employees of group C and D Mann said in a video message It is a historic decision he added The CM said his party before the Punjab assembly polls had promised that it would regularise the services of contractual employees after coming to power Mann said he has given directions to the chief secretary to bring a draft bill before the next assembly session in this regard so as to get it approved in the Vidhan Sabha and then implement it The CM said he has directed the chief secretary to do away with contractual and outsourcing system for recruitment In coming days more decisions will be taken he added The fresh announcement came days after Mann announced to fill 25000 posts in government departments Mann had then said 10000jobswill be given in the Punjab Police Department and the rest will be offered in other departments boards and corporations PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Mar 22 PTI Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann declared a state holiday on March 23 the martyrdom day of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh He made the announcement in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha here on Tuesday The House also passed a resolution to install statues of Bhagat Singh Dr B R Ambedkar and first Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the Vidhan Sabha On the concluding day of the Vidhan Sabha session Mann proposed a holiday in the state to mark the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh To this Congress MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said rather than announcing a holiday it would be good if students in schools colleges and employees be told about the life and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh Reacting to Warring Mann asked the former transport minister whether he knew when Bhagat Singh was born You Warring do not know about it It is September 28 There will be plays in schools and colleges depicting the life of the martyr on this day Mann told the Assembly Earlier Mann proposed that statutes of Bhagat Singh and Dr B R Ambedkar be installed in the Vidhan Sabha Hailing Manns proposal Congress legislator Partap Singh Bajwa urged that the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh be also installed Thereafter the House passed a resolution on installing statues of Bhagat Singh Dr BR Ambedkar and Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the Vidhan Sabha The CM urged the Speaker to hold discussions on the Governors address in the next Assembly session so that newly-elected MLAs could prepare themselves for this The House approved Manns proposal PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Mar 22 PTI Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday said his government will regularise the services of 35000 contractual employees A decision has been taken to regularise the services of 35000 contractual employees of group C and D Mann said in a video message Mann said he has given directions to the chief secretary in this regard The CM said his party before the Punjab assembly polls had promised that it would regularise the services of contractual employees after coming to power The fresh announcement came days after Mann announced to fill 25000 posts in government departments PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Feb 28 PTI Two empty bullet shells were recovered from a bus used for taking the Sri Lankan cricket team to the Mohali cricket stadium said police sources The shells were recovered on Saturday they said The Sri Lankan cricket team is here to play a Test match against India starting from March 4 at the PCA stadium in Mohali The recovery was made from the luggage compartment of the bus which was parked outside a hotel near IT Park where the Sri Lankan team has been staying The empty shells were recovered during a routine checking of the bus The bus was learnt to have been recently hired for a marriage ceremony and the empty shells belong to that function A DDR daily diary report has been lodged but no FIR has been registered in the matter PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Jan 25 PTI BJP MP Manoj Tiwari on Tuesday slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleging that the AAP-led government in the national capital miserably failed in improving the condition of schools and dispensaries in the past seven years Further hitting out at the Kejriwal-led regime Tiwari claimed that the number of liquor vends had been increased to 859 from 220 and the number of dry days reduced from 21 to 3 in Delhi In a statement Tiwari claimed that liquor shops had also been opened near schools and religious places in the national capital Calling the Kejriwals government a total failure Tiwari claimed the Jal Board in Delhi which had a profit of Rs 600 crore was now running a Rs 6200 crore deficit He dubbed the Aam Aadmi Party as a bundle of lies He accused Kejriwal of trying to mislead people of Punjab with his lies Voting for Punjabs 117 Assembly seats will be held on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10 PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Jan 25 PTI Twelve nominations were filed for the Punjab Assembly polls as the process of the filling of papers began on Tuesday Chief Electoral Officer S Karuna Raju said The nomination process will continue till February 1 The scrutiny of nominations will be done on February 2 and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is February 4 Voting for Punjabs 117 Assembly seats will be held on February 20 and the counting will take place on March 10 PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Ludhiana Nov 22 PTI Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Monday assured auto-rickshaw drivers that their pending challans will be waived as he heard their grievances here Channi met a group of auto-rickshaw drivers at the Gill chowk area His meeting with them came hours before AAP national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwals Auto Samwad programme Kejriwal in Moga had even taken a dig at Channi for meeting auto-rickshaw drivers before his proposed interaction with them Channi halted on his way to the grain market to listen to problems of the auto-rickshaw drivers according to an official release Channi accompanied by Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu took a wooden bench to sit amongst auto-rickshaw owners and interacted with them Channi also relished tea offered by them During his interaction the CM assured them to consider their genuine demands sympathetically Channi also addressed the gathering and told them that during his initial days he himself had driven an auto-rickshaw He announced that the new registration certificates would be issued soon to prevent their harassment He also announced that their pending challans will be waived Channi asked them to follow traffic rules and acceded to their demand of drawing a yellow line exclusively for the plying of auto-rickshaws Besides Channi and Sidhu ministers Manpreet Singh Badal and Bharat Bhushan Ashu MLAs Kuldeep Singh Vaid Sanjay Talwar and Lakhbir Singh Lakha were also present PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK

Chandigarh Nov 21 PTI Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday inaugurated modern revenue record rooms in all 22 districts of the state and said people can now have access to the digitised records at the click of a mouse Khattar said under the Digital India mission a remarkable and historic step has been taken for the betterment of people by digitising the revenue records of Haryana At the state-level and in all districts 185 crore records have been scanned and digitised which will be easily available to people of the state at the click of a mouse This will prove to be an important initiative for the government to eliminate corruption and bring more transparency in the system said an official release quoting the Haryana CM Khattar inaugurated the modern revenue record rooms through a virtual meeting at the camp office here said the release Khattar said earlier it was a very difficult task to maintain preserve and find the old revenue records that were tied up in bundles There was also a possibility of records getting damaged torn go missing or get tampered with he said The first modern revenue record room in the state was set up in Kaithal as a pilot project on June 24 2017 and after that on December 25 2019 this project was started for all districts The CM said important records of other departments will also be digitised Through the digitisation of the records the implementation of many schemes will be accelerated said the CM Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala who also holds the portfolio of Revenue and Disaster Management Department said it was a challenge to preserve the revenue records properly The department has scanned the records in a very short span of time on the call of the chief minister and then uploaded it on the portal of the National Informatics Centre NIC he said With the records being digitised in this way it will be much easier to access and obtain it he said Meanwhile Khattar in a separate event said geographic information system laboratories GIS labs are being established in all districts so that data related to departments can be collected through satellite The monitoring of the projects run by various departments can be done through satellite and the data related to all departments will be available in these labs he said After inaugurating the GIS labs set up by the Haryana Space Application Centre HARSAC in 11 districts of the state through a virtual meeting he said data will be collected and preserved using satellite images He said data related to all departments including revenue irrigation urban local bodies agriculture and farmers welfare development and panchayats police and education department will be collected in the labs PTI CHS VSD RDK RDK