Supreme Court intervention and CAQM directives led to a significant decrease in Punjab's farm fires compared to previous years. Despite progress, concerns remain due to the upcoming harvest in the Malwa belt and farmers' resistance to alternatives and calls for cash incentives.
Punjab had the third-highest road fatalities in India in 2023. Despite claims of reduced highway deaths and black spot elimination, discrepancies exist in data reporting and analysis. The state lags in implementing the e-DAR system, leading to an underestimation of accident data and persistent road safety issues exacerbated by poor driving skills and a fake license scam.
Heart of Punjab: Centre needs to rework the disaster relief for Punjab
Punjab's political parties are fundraising for flood relief. AAP created the Rangla Punjab Vikas Fund, BJP is providing aid from central resources, the Shiromani Akali Dal is distributing cash and materials, while the Congress's relief efforts appear less coordinated. Each party aims to gain voter favor ahead of the 2027 elections.
Heart of Punjab
#HeartOfPunjab:The government is heavily burdened by its promise of 300 units of free power to all domestic consumers—a subsidy that swallows a significant share of revenue
#HeartofPunjab: Of those protesting, only a few were recognisable faces, suggesting that the party’s popularity has nosedived in Doaba — Jalandhar in particular
Heart of Punjab
HEART OF PUNJAB: What vigilantes like Amritpal Mehron do is to take this vulnerability and mix it up with a misplaced sense of moral superiority so as to justify violence — murder becomes a justified, if extreme, form of punishment
Kuldeep Singh Gargaj, the new, young Akal Takht Jathedar, took a conciliatory approach during Ghallughara Week, avoiding public honors and speeches to unify Sikh factions. His appointment followed the controversial removals of previous Jathedars. The SGPC will create guidelines for Jathedar appointments due to community unrest. (This summary is generated via AI.)
There was no large-scale dislocation of people in border villages during the India-Pakistan conflict between May 7 and 10, a first since the country got divided in 1947. The border residents were reminded of the 2016 evacuation when India had...
Heart of Punjab
It might seem strange and astonishing how small ecological changes make a great impact on the lives of human society. Take in the point that with the decrease in the number of cattle and buffalo, the prized possession of the...
Environmentalist Balbir Singh Seechewal’s draped-in-saffron, dripped-in-sweat visage are the earliest images that the people of Punjab know of him. He became a household name during his pioneering efforts to conserve the Kali Bein (also known as Guru Nanak’s Bein) in...
The tragic death of 22-year-old Aditya Thakur, who was fatally stabbed during a concert on the Panjab University’s South Campus in Chandigarh on March 28, is a grim reminder of the growing violence in educational institutions. This incident, occurring just...
Once known as the “Sports Capital of India”, Jalandhar is fast losing its tag. The city once boasted of top sports facilities like Asia’s first government sports college and Burlton Park, where international and Ranji Trophy cricket matches used to...
Waving a handprint craft of tree leaves while rushing for her home in Hoshiarpur’s Chadial village, a beaming three-year-old Jessica tells her classmates, “I know my mother will be waiting on the doorstep to see what I have got today....
All experiments in school education by successive governments in Punjab over the past two decades have failed to generate any blueprint for a comprehensive model of improvement in more than 19,000 state government schools. Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal...
In the past one week, every political party in Punjab, the ruling BJP in Haryana as well as farm unions, have competed in speaking louder than anyone else on the issue of the proposed transfer of land by Chandigarh to...
In the backdrop of blame game between the BJP-ruled Centre and the AAP-led state government over tardy paddy procurement, an interesting political churning is taking place in the border state. With Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) opting out, rebel Akali faction...
Gurjant Singh, a sarpanch candidate from Laleana village in Talwandi Sabo, made the staff at the polling station in the village count the votes a number of times in the hope that the result would differ. As the Tuesday night...
A All 72 villages in Patti subdivision of Tarn Taran district have elected their sarpanches unopposed ahead of the October 15 panchayat elections. In Naushehra Pannua subdivision, which is part of Patti Assembly constituency, 56 out of 59 sarpanches were...
HEART OF PUNJAB
The electrified barbed fencing separating India and Pakistan runs along a "restricted area" that holds the ancestral lands of many Indian farmers. Although they legally own these plots, they face severe restrictions and bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the Border Security...
The Punjab Government’s recent directive to compile a list of police officers allegedly colluding with drug smugglers has rekindled the mystery surrounding the existence of such lists in the past. The story of these “black sheep” in uniform dates back...
Never before in the history of mankind has the pace of innovation and technological acceleration been faster than it is today. In Batala, once known as the “Iron Bird of Asia” for its famed foundries, the reverse is happening. The...
The Kolkata incident is a grim reminder to the women of Punjab of their own vulnerability. The recent past has thrown innumerable examples of women being exploited even by those in the highest corridors of power.This week saw Punjab celebrate...
Deepkamal Kaur On August 14, two-time Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA from Banga Dr Sukhwinder Sukhi surprised everyone as he jumped ship to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Even though four days have passed, he has neither officially resigned...
Ravi Dhaliwal They call themselves the ‘children of a lesser God.’ These souls are no longer captivated by nature’s capriciousness. Like their forefathers, they have become used to it. Waterlogging in 100 odd villages, a majority of them located along...