Farmers Too Flag March In Haryana

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Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh president Shiv Kumar Sharma

Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh president Shiv Kumar Sharma claimed that more than 130 farmers’ unions have pledged to support the stir. “This has now become a nationwide agitation. We have named the protest ‘Gaon Bandh’,” he said. Sharma said that farmers will not “go to cities, as we don’t want to heckle the normal lives”.

Sharma also made an appeal to all the businessmen of cities to observe Bharat Bandh on June 10 till 2 pm. “We would like to request all the businessmen of cities to close their shops till 2 pm & pay tribute to farmers who have lost their lives in previous years,” he said.

Flag March in Haryana

The first day of the ten-day long agitation that began today has seen farmers in different states disrupt the supply of essential commodities like vegetables, fruits and milk to protest against the government and press for their demands like higher minimum support price (MSP), pan-India loan waiver and adequate compensation for their damaged crop. The protest coincides with the first anniversary of the killing of seven farmers in police firing in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur. The Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh has claimed that at least 150 unions have pledged to support the agitation. In Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, farmers were seen dumping vegetables on roads and spilling milk. In Haryana’s Dhangar village in Bhiwani, police had to hold a flag march after they learned that miscreants were blocking the movement of traffic on National Highway 9. However, the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh said that farmers are protesting peacefully and that they will not block any roads.

 

farmers Spilling Milk on roads
Farmers spilling milk on roads in Ahmednagar and Ludhiana Punjab

In Ahmednagar of Maharashtra, scores of farmers have joined the agitation. The are spilling milk on the roads and wasting vegetables. In Punjab also, reports said that farmers have joined the stir demanding adequate price for their produce.

 

UT got Arun Kumar Gupta as new Home Secy and KK Yadav as Municipal Commissioner

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Arun Kumar Gupta IAS Home Secy UT

K K Yadav Municipal Commissioner UT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ministry of Home Affairs has appointed Arun  Kumar  Gupta as the new  Home Secretary of Chandigarh.

The ministry has  also  issued an order appointing KK  Yadav  as the new Commissioner of the Chandigarh  Municipal Corporation.With the  appointment of the two  officers  on the  key  posts,  the Administration has   got some  relief as it had been facing an acute  shortage of officers   for   long.  Both officers  have been appointed for a term of three  years. Gupta was at present posted as the Principal Secretary,   Town and Country Planning, Haryana. The three-year term of the current Home Secretary, Anurag Aggarwal, ended on January 11, 2018.  The  MHA  had  given him an extension  as the UT was  facing a shortage of officers.

The Administration  is  yet to  get officers   for posts  of Managing Director, CITCO, and Chairman, Chandigarh Housing Board, which  have been lying vacant.

NCERT’s Unni-Munni change political beliefs: From criticism to idolization

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It is only natural for governments to exercise some control on the narrative in academic textbooks, partly to ensure positive national sentiment.

But it is concerning when dissent is actively discouraged.

NCERT‘s recent changes are only testament to this fact: its tone has undergone a shocking change, going from criticism to subservient adulation.

But the way it’s going, states might beat NCERT to it.

HC questions Punjab over Guriqbal’s Degree

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CHANDIGARH: The appointment of former Punjab chief minister (CM), Beant Singh’s grandson, Guriqbal Singh as a deputy superintendent of police on the basis of graduation degree obtained through distance mode, has come under scanner of the Punjab and Haryana high court, which on Wednesday issued notice to the state government.
The main allegations are that a substantial number of employees in Punjab government are not being regularized on ground that they had obtained degrees through distance education from universities situated outside the state.

However, Guriqbal Singh, who has procured a degree from Pariyar University through distance education, was appointed on DSP’s post.

Besides the state government, the HC has also asked Guriqbal Singh to file his response on the contentions raised by the petitioners.

Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain has issued the notice after hearing a petition filed by Gurvinder Rattan, a contract teacher of Sangrur district.

The petitioner has stated that through an order, issued on June 23, 2015 by DPI (Secondary Education), his continuation in service as Vocational Master (Computer Science) was made subject to authenticity of his master degree obtained through distance education from Madurai Kamraj University, by a Committee headed by the Chief Secretary, Punjab. The committee is yet to decide the fate of such degrees.

He also referred to fate of 192 Clerks, who were not allowed to join on the post on selection, as they had acquired their degrees through distance education from universities situated outside Punjab. Likewise, in many other cases, the concerned candidates were denied the benefit of such degrees obtained through distance education, argued the petitioner.

Petitioner further stated that B.Com degree was obtained by Guriqbal Singh from Paryiar University (Tamil Nadu) through distance education but without waiting for report of chief secretary’s committee, he was appointed as DSP on June 7, 2017.

The Counsel for petitioner, H C Arora argued that the conduct of the state government is discriminatory and against the dictum that all are equal before law.

“In the case of powerful and political persons like Guriqbal Singh, the education qualifications/ Degrees acquired through distance education mode are being accepted, while such degrees are not being entertained in case of other candidates of Punjab. The respondents are therefore, liable to be directed to adopt uniform approach in case of all citizens irrespective of their social or political status and in case the degrees obtained through education mode are not to be accepted, Guriqbal Singh should also be removed from DSP’s post,” counsel has submitted.

Bank Strike Hits Services; ATM Withdrawals Get Affected

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Banking services were hit across the country for the second day on Thursday, as about 10 lakh bankers continued their strike to protest a “meagre” 2% salary hike offered by the Indian Banks Association (IBA) — the banks’ management body.

Thursday is the last day of the two-day strike being observed by the United Forum of Banking Unions (UFBU), an umbrella organisation consisting all nine unions of the banking sector. Banking operations are likely to become normal from Friday.

UFBU has claimed that the strike is “total success” as the employees have “enthusiastically participated in the strike in all banks and in all branches”.

“All banking services were crippled as bank branches were closed. ATMs also dried up after few hours as currency chests were closed,” UFBU’s convener (Maharashtra) Devidas Tuljapurkar claimed.

According to reports received by UFBU from various states and centres like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Patna, Nagpur, Jammu, Guwahati, Jamshedpur, Lucknow, Agra, Ambala, and Trivandrum, employees have enthusiastically participated in the strike in all banks and branches.

There are about 85,000 branches of 21 public sector banks across the country, with a business share of about 70%.

Operations in the new-generation private banks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, however, were almost normal, barring few activities including cheque clearance.

Nearly 10 lakh employees, working in various branches of 21 public sector banks, 13 old generation private sector banks, six foreign banks and 56 regional rural banks across the country went on a two-day strike yesterday as IBA offered them a nominal wage revision, All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), affiliate of UFBU had said in a statement.

Since the strike coincides with the month-end, salary withdrawals from branches were said to be affected on Wednesday, and the situation is likely to remain same on Thursday, said sources in the banking sector and employees union.

Operations like deposits, FD renewals, government treasury operations, money market operations are also being reportedly hit by the strike.

In its last wage negotiation meeting held earlier this month, IBA proposed a nominal salary revision to bank employees and officers, owing to huge losses incurred by them in the last few quarters, bank unions said.

Wage revision in the banks has been due from November 2017.

Shahkot Bypoll Result Today

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Chandigarh 31.05.2018

The Shahkot Assembly bypoll results, which will be out tomorrow, is being seen as a popularity test for the 14-month-old Congress government in Punjab, with opposition SAD striving to retain its stronghold.

The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA Ajit Singh Kohar in February this year.

While the SAD is striving to retain its pocket borough from where Kohar was elected five-times, the results for the ruling Congress in Punjab is being seen as a barometer for the popularity of the 14-month-old Amarinder Singh dispensation.

During the bypoll, the opposition party had accused the Congress of misusing official machinery against political opponents.

The AAP, which faced a humiliating defeat in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll and civic polls, is desperately looking for a victory in Shahkot.

The Congress is confident of maintaining the winning momentum by wresting the seat from rival SAD.

latest: 9:55 am

Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi has increased his lead over rivals by 8500 votes after completion of fourth round of counting.

In the fourth round, he surged ahead by another 2700 votes.

BJP Leads In 2 Maharashtra, Behind In UP’s Kairana Seat

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Chandigarh: 31.05.2018

  The BJP is leading in Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, early leads show. But in Kairana, the united opposition has pulled ahead. In UP’s Noorpur assembly seat, the Samajwadi Party candidate is ahead. Polling in the two parliamentary seats on Monday was marred by complaints of faulty EVMs or electronic vote machines at many booths. Repolling was held in 73 polling stations of Kairana and 49 booths in Bhandara-Gondiya yesterday. Nearly 20 per cent of VVPAT or Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines, which eject slips confirming voters’ choices, were replaced on both seats.

  1. In Kairana, where it is a direct contest between a united opposition and the BJP, 384 faulty VVPATs were replaced. Both sides took their complaints of malfunctioning machines to the Election Commission, after which repolling was ordered.
  2. Tabassum Hasan, the opposition candidate belonging to the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Kairana, had even alleged that faulty machines in Muslim and Dalit-dominated areas – claimed to be opposition strongholds – had not been replaced. The allegations were rejected by the district magistrate.
  3. The Kairana by-election, a seat BJP won in 2014, is seen as a testing ground for opposition unity ahead of the 2019 elections in a state that sends the maximum number of lawmakers to parliament. After sworn rivals Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) came together to win bypolls to the BJP bastions of Gorakhpur and Phulpur earlier this year, the Congress and RLD have joined the bandwagon in Kairana.
  4. Amid widespread failure of vote machines, opposition leaders like Akhilesh Yadav of SP and Praful Patel of the NCP, which has fielded its candidate in Bhandara-Gondiya, renewed their pitch for using ballot papers instead in the 2019 polls. The Election Commission, which has blamed the malfunction partly on the extreme heat, has ruled it out.
  5. Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat told NDTV that the machines are new and had been deployed for the first time, and would stabilize by 2019. He also apportioned blame to the training of election staff to use the machines.
  6. Bypoll to Maharashtra’s Palghar Lok Sabha seat, which was held by the BJP, has further strained its ties with ally Shiv Sena after it fielded the late BJP lawmaker’s son. The only parliamentary seat in Nagaland, vacated by BJP ally who is now Chief Minister, also voted in Monday’s by-election.
  7. Polling was also held for 10 assembly seats in nine states, Noorpur (Uttar Pradesh), Jokihat (Bihar), Tharali (Uttarakhand), Gomia and Silli (Jharkhand), Maheshtala (West Bengal), Ampati (Meghalaya), Palus Kadegaon  (Maharashtra), Shahkot (Punjab) and Chengannur (Kerala).
  8. In Bihar’s Jokihat, the bypoll is seen as a prestige battle for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after the sitting JD(U) lawmaker quit the party and joined the RJD after Mr Kumar joined hands with the BJP last year.
  9. In Maheshtala, a seat held by the Trinamool, the bypoll result will be significant as the ruling party anticipates its vote share going down, though it seems confident of a win. The BJP expects to shore up its vote count in a state where it’s keen on getting a toehold ahead of 2019. Polling, which took place under the watch of paramilitary forces, was peaceful as opposed to violence during the panchayat elections a fortnight ago.
  10. It is a three-way contest in Kerala’s Chengannur, where the opposition Congress is keen on reclaiming ground it lost to the ruling CPM two years ago. After breaching the Left bastion in Tripura earlier this year, the BJP is hoping to do better than in 2016 when it won nearly 16 per cent votes in the assembly polls.

MP Dhesi meets Air India London head for resuming Heathrow-Amritsar flights

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Chandigarh 30 May

British Sikh MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi today met the new head of Air India for UK and Europe operations Debashis Golder at their UK headquarters in London to discuss the reintroduction of direct flights between London and Amritsar.

Disclosing this MP Dhesi said, “I updated him on my meetings over the last year with his predecessor Ms Tara Naidu, along with those in Delhi and the Punjab Ministers about the long-pending demand of the Punjabi diaspora for direct flights between the Heathrow (UK) and Amritsar airports.

“All in all a very positive meeting, wherein I was assured of Golder’s strong cooperation to liaise with senior people in Delhi, to get clearance for the Heathrow- Sri Guru Ramdas Amritsar international airport Amritsar flights to commence as per the community’s legitimate demand.  Air India will hopefully soon deliver us the good news”, he added.

In a statement first turbaned Sikh MP from Europe Tan Dhesi, as called in Britain, stressed that he was aggressively pitching for ensuring direct contact with UK and Punjab, a crucial demand of the Punjabi diaspora since direct flights to holy city were cancelled years back.

Dhesi informed her that the Punjabi diaspora as well as business persons from both sides have been longing for direct air connectivity to their native lands. He suggested to the Air India representative that there are three daily direct flights between Heathrow-Delhi and one of these could be extended to Amritsar so that people from the Northern States could also benefit from direct connectivity with Europe.

He further informed that earlier he had a meeting with London based aviation firm Virgin Atlantic’s senior manager David Hodges also and presented various facts and figures about the potential of very lucrative air route for global tourist capital Amritsar which being visited by millions each year. Dhesi told that to serve the community on both sides he would leave no stone unturned to reintroduce the international connectivity between Britain and Punjab.

‘Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker’ launched.

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Chandigarh, May 30, 2018

 Former diplomat, Rajya Sabha MP and author, Pavan K. Varma’s latest book, ‘Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker’ was launched by Shri V.P Singh Badnore, Honourable Governor of Punjab and Administrator of U.T., Chandigarh, at Punjab Raj Bhawan, on Wednesday.

The book ‘Adi Shankaracharya: Hinduism’s Greatest Thinker’ is a well-researched account of the life and times of the child-saint Adi Shankaracharya, who travelled across India to set up of monasteries or mathas, even while giving a form and structure to Hinduism. The book includes a select anthology of Shankaracharya’s seminal writing; and most importantly, examines the startling endorsement that contemporary science is giving to his ideas today. It reminds readers about the remarkable philosophical underpinning of Hinduism, making it one of the most vibrant religions in the world.

पुलिस की नियुक्तियां और पदोन्नतियां दोनों ही भेदभाव और दोषपूर्ण : धवन

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पूर्व केंद्रीय मंत्री और भाजपा नेता श्री हरमोहन धवन ने गृह मंत्री को चंडीगढ़ पुलिस की नियुक्तियों और पदोन्नतियों दोनों हीको  भेदभाव पूर्ण और  बेहद अनुचित बताया.

उन्होंने गृह मंत्री को अपने अपने पत्र में कहा कि वह उनके ध्यान में लाना चाहते हैं  कि वर्तमान में चंडीगढ़ पुलिस विभाग में 21 डीएसपी है जिनमे से 11 चंडीगढ़ कैडर के और 10 दिल्ली से हैं| चंडीगढ़ में ASI से DSP प्रमोट होते है जबकि दिल्ली में SI से DSP बनाया जाता है| यदि इसे मर्ज किया गया तो इससे चंडीगढ़ पुलिस कर्मचारियों की हितों की अनदेखी और नुकसान होगा|

वर्ष  1966 में चंडीगढ़ को केंद्र शाषित प्रदेश घोषित किया गया था जो केंद्रीय गृह मंत्रालय के  अंतर्गत आता है| उसी वक्त से पंजाब और हरियाणा के बीच 60:40 अनुपात में  सभी पदों को साँझा किया जा रहा है।

इससे न केवल पुलिस बल में बल्कि यूटी के अन्य सभी विभागों के हजारों कर्मचारियों में भी बहुत असंतोष व् आक्रोश पाया जाता है।स्थानीय कर्मचारी अपने आपको असहाय और ठगा हुआ महसूस करते हैं, जब पंजाब और हरियाणा से लोग आकर भिन्न-भिन्न पदों में आसीन हो जाते हैं|

“इसलिए स्थानीय कर्मचारियों को न्याय प्रदान करने के लिए आपसे अनुरोध कर रहा हूँ। नियुक्तियों और पदोन्नतियों प्राथमिकता दोनों में चंडीगढ़ निवासियों को विशेष रूप से उनका हक़ दिया जाना चाहिए, खासकर जब वे योग्य हैं न कि पंजाब, हरियाणा से “आयात” किया जाये”, श्री धवन ने कहा|