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The Chandigarh mayoral poll is set to witness a keen contest between the BJP and the AAP-Congress alliance with officials stating that all necessary arrangements have been made for the elections, set to take place on Thursday.

The elections for the posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor will be held in the assembly hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Chandigarh administration on Wednesday imposed Section 163 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, banning the gathering of five or more persons within 100 meters of the Chandigarh MC building’s perimeter.

AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor is the incumbent mayor of Chandigarh.

The AAP and Congress are contesting the mayoral elections as an alliance. While AAP is contesting the mayor’s post, Congress has put up its candidates — Jasbir Singh Bunty and Taruna Mehta — for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.

The AAP has fielded its councillor Prem Lata for the mayor’s post, while the BJP has nominated Harpreet Kaur Babla.

For the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, the BJP has nominated Bimla Dubey and Lakhbir Singh Billu, respectively.

In the 35-member house of the Chandigarh MC, the AAP has 13 councillors and its ally Congress has six, meanwhile the BJP has 16 councillors.

A few days ago, Congress councillor Gurbax Rawat joined the BJP, increasing the BJP’s strength to 16.

Additionally, the Chandigarh MP also has a voting right as an ex-officio member of the 35-member municipal corporation. The current MP is Manish Tewari of Congress.

Meanwhile, officials on Wednesday confirmed that necessary arrangements are in place for the mayoral polls on Thursday.

Nominated councillor Ramneek Singh Bedi has been appointed as the presiding officer for the election while former Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice (retd) Jaishree Thakur has been appointed as an independent observer for the mayoral poll by the Supreme Court.

The January 27 order came in response to a plea by AAP councillor and mayor Kuldeep Kumar, seeking a “show of hands” instead of a “secret ballot” to ensure fairness in the polling process.

Officials on Wednesday confirmed that the polls will be conducted through a secret ballot.

The top court also directed that the election proceedings be conducted in the presence of the observer and should be duly videographed.

In the 2024 mayoral elections, AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar was declared the mayor of the Chandigarh MC by the Supreme Court on February 20 last year, after overturning the result of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had been declared the winner.

The then presiding officer, Anil Masih, was caught on camera invalidating eight ballot papers that were in favour of the AAP-Congress alliance.

The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution against the Centre’s draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing, asserting it is an attempt to bring back the three farm laws repealed by the Centre in 2021.

On the concluding day of the two-day assembly session, Punjab Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian moved the resolution in the House.

Two BJP MLAs were not present in the House when the resolution was passed.

The Centre had last year shared the draft of the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing with the state government for its views on it.

According to the draft policy, it aims to “build a vibrant marketing ecosystem in the country wherein farmers of all categories find a market of their choice to realise the best price for their produce”.

The resolution stated that “The House feels that this draft policy is an attempt to bring back the contentious provisions of the three farm laws repealed in 2021 by government of India after a long protest by the farmers”.

“The House further feels that since this issue is a State subject as per Constitution of the country, Government of India should not come up with any such policy and should leave it to the wisdom of the States to frame suitable policies on the subject as per its concerns and requirements,” the resolution said.

It mentioned that the House recommends to the government of Punjab to take a firm stand on this issue so that the thriving APMC mandis in the state can be protected and strengthened.

The resolution recommends that the issue be taken up with the government so that no further transgressions happen in the legislative domain of the states.

It stated that the broad spirit of the policy is to “promote” private markets and to significantly dilute the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) markets and to eventually make them irrelevant.

“As of now, farmers are able to sell their produce in the APMC markets in a totally transparent manner and under a well-established regulatory regime which ensures that the interests of the farmers are safeguarded.

“With the coming in of private markets, APMC markets will be destroyed. Thereafter, the farmers will be at the mercy of the owners of the private markets,” it said.

Participating in a debate on the resolution, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said his government has already rejected this draft policy.

“We will not allow rights of the states to be robbed,” he said while slamming the Centre over the issue of withholding the state’s rural development fund.

The Punjab government has decided to immediately release 450 more farmers from police detention, it was announced on Monday.

Sharing details, Inspector General of Police, Headquarters, Sukhchain Singh Gill on Monday said the government has already released approximately 800 farmers from police custody.

He said the Chief Minister has directed the immediate release of farmers, including women, differently-abled individuals, those with medical conditions, and those above the age of 60.

In line with the directives of the Punjab government, we are prioritising the release of such farmers and about 450 farmers are being released today,” he said.

Addressing another grievance of the farmers related to their belongings, he said the government has issued strict directions in this regard and nobody will be permitted to misappropriate the belongings of farmers.

“To address the concern about belongings of farmers, the Patiala district police has also appointed SP-rank officer Jasbir Singh as the nodal officer and farmers facing issues related to their possessions can directly contact Jasbir Singh at the mobile number 90713-00002 for immediate assistance,” said Gill, while adding the Patiala police has already registered three first information reports (FIRs) in this regard.

In a related development, the state government on Monday informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal was not in police custody and was “free.”

The leader of the joint forum “Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (Non-Political)” has been admitted to a hospital in Patiala on his own wish, the government said.

Taking note, Justice Manisha Batra had directed the state to ensure his family could meet him within the hospital premises without any hindrance.

On Friday late evening, the High Court issued notice to the government on a habeas corpus plea filed for Dallewal, who was allegedly illegally detained from the ongoing farmer’s protest.

Former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice Nirmal Yadav has been acquitted in the high-profile ‘cash at judge door’ case, which was filed by the CBI 16 years ago.

“I have faith in the judiciary,” Justice Yadav told reporters outside the court today.

The case revolves around a cash packet containing Rs 15 lakh, allegedly meant for her, that was mistakenly delivered to the house of another judge, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur, in August 2008.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Alka Malik in her order acquitted Justice Yadav today. The final arguments in the case were heard in the court in Chandigarh on Thursday.

The CBI filed the case against Justice Yadav, who had refuted the allegation.

“I have not committed any crime, and there is nothing incriminating found during the entire trial against me,” she said in her final argument.

On August 13, 2008, a clerk at Justice Kaur’s house in Chandigarh received a packet containing Rs 15 lakh cash. On discovering the mix-up, Justice Kaur immediately informed the then Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice and the Chandigarh Police.

The case took a significant turn 10 days later when the then administrator of the Union Territory, General SF Rodrigues (retired) transferred the case to the CBI, which filed a fresh FIR on August 28, 2008.

During investigation, the CBI found the cash was delivered by a clerk of former Haryana additional advocate general Sanjeev Bansal, who reportedly called Justice Kaur and said the money was meant for a certain “Nirmal Singh”, but was mistakenly delivered to her house.

In January 2009, the CBI sought permission to prosecute Justice Yadav, which was granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in November 2010. She challenged the move, but failed to get relief. The prosecution sanction was approved by the office of the President in March 2011, leading to the CBI filing a chargesheet the same month.

Throughout the trial, the prosecution listed 84 witnesses, of which 69 were examined. In February this year, the high court allowed the CBI to re-examine 10 witnesses within four weeks and directed the trial court to avoid unnecessary adjournments.

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini Sunday said ‘Agniveers’ will be provided 20 per cent reservation in the police recruitment in the state.

In July 2024, months ahead of state assembly polls, the BJP government in the state had announced a 10 per cent reservation for Agniveers in the recruitment of constables, forest guards and jail wardens, along with quotas in other posts.

Chairing a review meeting in Panchkula on Sunday, CM Saini said Haryana is the first state in the country which has secured the future of Agniveers by creating a provision for jobs after their service period in the armed forces.

The Haryana Cabinet has already provided security cover to the Agniveers by implementing the Haryana Agniveer Policy-2024.

According to an official statement, the chief minister said Agniveers will be provided 20 per cent reservation in the recruitment of state police.

CM Saini said Agniveers will be able to get jobs in Haryana after their service period in the Army and for this, a separate portal will be created for them on which they can register themselves. After this, they will be given preference in jobs on the basis of educational qualification, he added.

During the meeting, officials informed CM Saini that 2,893 Agniveers were recruited in the Army, Navy and Air Force from Haryana during 2023-24 and 2,227 were recruited in 2022-23.

Those Agniveers from Haryana who want to adopt self-employment or entrepreneurship will be provided loans at affordable rates. Apart from this, if the industries employ Agniveers on a monthly salary of more than Rs 30,000, the government will provide an annual subsidy of Rs 60,000 to those industries, the statement said.

Those Agniveers who want to serve as private security personnel will be given priority in providing gun licences. For this, they will have to apply on the portal, it said.

Launched by the Centre in June 2022, the Agnipath scheme provides for recruiting youths between the age bracket of 17-and-half years and 21 for four years with a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years.

Soon after the scheme’s announcement, the then Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said the state government would provide guaranteed employment to Agniveers after their four-year stint in the armed forces.

The Sunday’s meeting was attended by Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sumita Misra, Principal Secretary of Sainik and Paramilitary Welfare Department Vijayendra Kumar and Additional Principal Secretary to the chief minister Saket Kumar, among others.

In a security move prompted by escalating tensions with Pakistan, Indian Railways has decided to halt night-time train operations in the border areas of Jammu and Punjab.

The decision affects regions close to the International Border and the Line of Control (LoC), including Amritsar, Bathinda, Firozpur, and Jammu.

According to official sources, trains that were earlier scheduled to pass through these areas at night will now be rescheduled to operate during daylight hours.

Additionally, certain short-distance trains operating in these sensitive zones will be cancelled until further notice.

This precautionary measure comes in the wake of increased military activity along the border.

The government has said that the Pakistan military has been mobilising troops into forward positions, raising concerns of further escalation. In response, Indian armed forces have heightened their operational readiness.More than 15 trains are expected to be affected by the rescheduling, Railways officials said.

However, to mitigate passenger inconvenience, Indian Railways will operate special trains during the day to maintain connectivity in these regions. Daytime train services on existing schedules will continue without disruption.

The decision to halt night operations follows reports of blackout orders in border areas to prevent potential targeting of civilian infrastructure during the night. Intelligence inputs suggest that the risk of Pakistani drone activity and artillery shelling remains high.

At a Press briefing on India’s military preparedness under ‘Operation Sindoor’, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Colonel Sofiya Qureshi of the Indian Army, said, “The Pakistan military has been observed moving its troops into forward areas, indicating an offensive intent to further escalate the situation. Indian armed forces remain in a high state of operational readiness. All hostile actions have been effectively countered and responded to appropriately.”

Wing Commander Singh also detailed recent hostilities along the LoC. She said, “Pakistan has attempted multiple airspace intrusions using drones and has conducted heavy shelling targeting civilian areas using high-calibre RT guns. This has resulted in casualties and damage to infrastructure. Intense exchanges of artillery and small arms fire have been ongoing in sectors including Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri, and Akhnoor.”

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