Punjab Cabinet sub-committee, comprising Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema and NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, on Thursday directed the Rural Development and Panchayat Department to conduct social audit of all panchayats across the state by December 2023, and also made its report public.
Giving these directions during a meeting with Khet Mazdoor Union, the Cabinet Sub-Committee also asked the Department to make videography mandatory during the bidding of panchayat lands.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Sub-Committee ordered to form a three-member committee under the leadership of Joint Development, Commissioner, Amit Kumar to investigate the matters related to the bidding of panchayat land for Scheduled Castes (SCs).
This committee will submit its report within 15 days after investigating the matters related to Patiala and other districts. On this occasion, the Cabinet Sub-Committee also issued instructions to the ADCs Development of all the districts to resolve the pending complaints related to the Scheduled Castes at the earliest.
During the discussion on the issues related to MGNREGA, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema asked the Department to send a copy of the rules related to MGNREGA to all the Sarpanches and panchayat members.
“It should be ensured that no job card should be issued to a person below 18 years of age. In the villages where the women mates have not yet been appointed under MGNREGA, the appointments should be made on priority,” he said.
Commenting on the issue of increasing the daily wages of MGNREGA workers, Cheema said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has already written a letter to the Government of India in this regard, and also assured that pressure will be further created on the Central Government in this regard.
Regarding allotment of five-five marla plots to Scheduled Castes, the officials of the Rural Development and Panchayat Department apprised the Cabinet Sub-Committee that 35,303 applications were received from across Punjab till December 2021, out of which plots have been allotted to 24,787, and the remaining applications were under process.
Punjab Police foil cross-border weapon smuggling bid through Indo-Pak border
PNS/Chandigarh/Amritsar
Punjab Police on Thursday claimed to have foiled a major cross-border weapons smuggling bid after recovering four .30 bore pistols from area of Kakkar village in Lopoke of Amritsar.
Amritsar Counter Intelligence’s Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Sukhminder Singh Mann said that on the basis of secret information regarding cross-border smuggling of arms and ammunition, a team of Amritsar CI carried out a search operation in the area of Kakkar village and successfully recovered four pistols along with magazines from a field.
He said that the consignment seems to be delivered via drone but could not be retrieved due to heightened activities of Border Security Force (BSF) and State Police. Police teams are conducting investigations to identify the sender and retriever of the consignment, he said.
A case FIR, dated June 22, 2023, has been registered under sections 25/54/59 of the Arms Act at Police Station State Special Operation Cell, Amritsar.
Third Weapon Smuggling Module Busted in Less Than a Week
Pertinently, this is the third such cross-border weapon smuggling module busted by the Amritsar Counter Intelligence team in less than a week, taking the total recovery of weapons to 11 pistols along with ammunition. Earlier on June 16, CI Amritsar had arrested Rajinder Kumar alias Ghudi, Jagjit Singh, Inderjit Singh alias Malhi, and Jashandeep Singh alias Boora — all residents of Amritsar after recovering four pistols from their possession.
Similarly, on June 19, another person identified as Rajan Singh of Patti, Tarn Taran, was arrested with three .32-bore pistols along with ammunition.
