New Delhi:

The Supreme Court has intervened to halt the opening of a road outside Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Chandigarh. The decision, made today, comes as a response to concerns raised by both the Centre and the Punjab government regarding security threats associated with the road’s opening.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta noted that both the Centre and Punjab government have opposed the opening of the road, which has been closed since the 1980s, owing to a threat perception.

The road had been closed due to security reasons during height of terrorism in Punjab, and was set to be reopened on a trial basis.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had on April 22 ordered opening of the 500-metre road, connecting Sukhna Lake to Nayagaon in Chandigarh, on a trial basis from May 1.

The High Court’s order had included provisions for the Chandigarh Police to engage traffic experts in formulating a comprehensive traffic management plan for the road, which was intended to be open from 7 am to 7 pm on working days.

Since the closure of the road, people moving between Nayagaon and Sukhna Lake were forced to take long detours via adjacent sectors of the city.

Ambala:

A suspicious SUV car allegedly attempted to intentionally hit the car of Naraingarh sub-divisional magistrate here while he was patrolling to check for any illegal mining activities in the area, officials said on Sunday.

The SUV allegedly chased the SDM’s car and attempted to hit the vehicle twice at a high speed but the official narrowly escaped, they said.

The occupants of the SUV, suspected to be connected to the mining mafia, fled from the spot.

The incident took place at 1 am on the intervening night of March 27-28, and an FIR was lodged in the matter on Saturday, police added.

Notably, two such inspections and raids have been carried out recently to check illegal mining in the rivers of Naraingarh area.

On the complaint of the SDM’s security guard, Naraingarh Police registered a case on April 6 against the owner and driver of the SUV under various IPC sections, including obstruction in government work and attempt to murder.

According to the FIR, SDM Yash Jaluka, his security guard and three others, including the driver, were patrolling in their private car when an SUV started following them.

They tried to stop the SUV near the bridge of Toka Sahib Gurudwara village, but the occupants of the SUV tried to intentionally hit their car at a high speed and later fled from the spot, it said.

Nearly two years ago, a deputy superintendent of police-rank officer Surender Singh was allegedly run over by a dumper truck during a raid against illegal stone mining in Nuh district.

A little over a year ago, some members of suspected mining mafia allegedly attacked a police team in the Bapoli area of Panipat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

Punjab excise collections have increased by a whopping 37% in the past financial year, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has told Governor Banwarilal Purohit, detailing the sustained growth in revenue under the AAP government.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections have increased 16.6%, vehicle tax collection 13%, stamps and registration collection 28%, Mr Mann said in a letter to Mr Purohit on Tuesday.

The letter was in response to the Governor seeking details about of the utilisation of the Rs 50,000 crore funds the state government had borrowed.

From April 1, 2002 till August 31, 2023, Punjab’s debt increased by 47,107 crore, the letter said. A major part of that, Rs 27,016 crore, went towards interest repayment for inherited debt.

“During my tenure as Chief Minister of Punjab, lingering issues left behind by previous governments were dealt on priority…We used both debt and our own revenue resources to fund organisations/schemes ignored by my predecessors, utilised the new debt to create capital assets and undertake development activities in the State,” Mr Mann said.

At the same time, employment was provided to over 36,000 youth in the state, he added.

Mr Mann requested the Governor to convince the centre to release the pending Rural Development Fund of Rs 5,637 crore and temporarily stop debt repayments for at least five years.

“This will provide much needed relief to the strained financial position of the State and would give some fiscal elbow room to your government to accelerate the growth of revenue and the pace of development,” said Mr Mann.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann speaks during the ongoing session of Punjab Legislative Assembly, in Chandigarh on October 3, 2022.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday announced increasing the price of sugarcane to ₹380 per quintal from the existing ₹360 per quintal.

He announced a hike in SAP (State agreed price) of sugarcane on the floor of the Punjab Assembly on the concluding day of its brief session.

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In August 2021, the then Congress government had announced a ₹50 per quintal hike in SAP of sugarcane to ₹360 per quintal.

Mr. Mann said farmers will get an additional ₹20 per quintal under SAP of sugarcane as compared to last year.

With this decision, the State government will spend an additional ₹200 crore annually to benefit the farmers.

Mr. Mann said the farmers of the State eagerly want to adopt sugarcane crop under crop diversification, but they are hesitant for it due to lack of adequate price and timely payment of the crop.

At present, sugarcane is cultivated on just 1.25 lakh hectares of land in Punjab, while the total crushing capacity of sugar mills was around 2.50 lakh hectares. This is why the State government has decided to enhance the price to supplement the income of farmers, he said.

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Informing the House about the present status of the payments, the Chief Minister said the cooperative sugar mills have already paid the entire dues of the farmers but two private sugar mills have not paid the dues yet.

He informed that the owners of these mills have fled from the country, adding that the state government has already initiated the process to confiscate their assets to pay the pending dues of the farmers.