Punjab CM seeks direct flights between London, Chandigarh
Darpan News Desk IANS, 05 Apr, 2022 10:02 AM
Chandigarh, April 5 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday asked British Deputy High Commissioner Caroline Rowett to take up the start of direct flights to and fro between London and Chandigarh with the British High Commissioner on priority.
Rowett, who paid a courtesy call at the Chief Minister at his official residence here, said she would certainly take up this matter to facilitate the Punjabi diaspora settled in Britain, besides people residing in neighbouring states to enable them to have a seamless journey to Punjab.
She also congratulated Mann for securing a massive mandate for the formation of the state government under his stewardship.
Emphasising the need of immediate direct air link between Chandigarh and London, Mann apprised Rowett that the Chandigarh International Airport caters to the growing demand of the people of neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chandigarh.
Apprising the Chief Minister about the latest technologies to combat the menace of straw burning and bio-waste management, Rowett evinced keen interest for technology transfer in these fields as the UK has the time-tested and the most advanced expertise to effectively handle them.
She also apprised Mann that the UK has certain advanced postgraduate courses which could be run in collaboration with some local universities and prestigious institutions of higher education to enable the state youth to be gainfully employed across the globe.
Likewise, she also expressed her desire to tie up with the state sports university to start courses on a mutual basis to equip students from both the sides with the advanced courses in sports to promote sports education in sports sciences, sport technology, sports management and sports coaching by adopting best international practices.
Assuring support and cooperation to the visiting delegation, Mann said the state would welcome these initiatives to ensure holistic development of Punjab in a meaningful manner.
Presiding over the valedictory function of three-day Punjabi cinema, television and theatre mega show jointly organised by the Punjabi Film and TV Actors' Association and Punjabi University here, he reiterated his government's firm commitment that no student would be bereft of higher education due to paucity of funds.
Nishad, the main accused has reportedly fled the country. Property worth Rs 36.62 crore belonging to Nishad and others were earlier attached by the ED. Gafoor, the director of Stox Global Brokers Private Limited, was arrested as Rs 39 crore which was reportedly proceeds of crime was transferred through his firm. The ED has claimed that his firm is basically a shell company.
Responding to the question of Samajwadi Party Member Rewati Raman Singh, the Minister of State, Health, Bharati Pawar said that altogether, 22 All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are being set up in the country. Out of 10 proposed in the first phase, six have started functioning with all departments.
Along with this, the party has also started a digital membership campaign. This was announced on Sunday at the workers' conference in Jaipur. The AAP announced fresh beginnings for the election preparations from this conference.
Making an announcement in a video message, he said the Aam Aadmi Party government's scheme is aimed at providing good quality ration 'atta' (wheat flour) and 'daal' (pulses) to the people packed in clean gunny bags.
About 105.14 lakh farmers have been benefited with an MSP value of Rs 1,45,358.13 crore, government data showed. Apart from Punjab (1,87,28,335 MT) and Chhattisgarh (92,01,000 MT), the other top paddy procurement states included Telangana (70,22,000 MT), Uttar Pradesh (65,53,029 MT) Odisha (57,16,134), Haryana (55,30,596), Madhya Pradesh (45,82,610), and Bihar (44,90,319 MT).
