
Arora has clear blueprint of Ludh's devp: Dr Balbir Singh
Addressing the gathering, Dr Balbir Singh described Arora as a visionary and development-oriented leader with a clear blueprint for Ludhiana's progress.
He asserted that Arora's victory would not only benefit Ludhiana (West) but also contribute to the development of the city and state.
Dr Singh said that there was "strong public sentiment" in favour of Arora and credited him for visible development over the last three years. In contrast, he criticised an opponent who, despite having held a ministerial post in the past, failed to deliver results. Soliciting votes in favour of development, Dr Singh elaborated on the state government's initiatives in healthcare, such as the establishment of Aam Aadmi clinics and upgrade of existing health facilities.
The minister lauded Arora for renovation of the Ludhiana civil hospital and said that it had now been upgraded to the level of private healthcare institutions. He said that Rs 12 crore had been spent on the upgrade and further improvements were underway. He also noted the popularity of mohalla clinics across Punjab, with over 3.5 crore patient visits recorded so far.
MSID:: 121694272 413 |

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New Indian Express
27 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Need of the hour to revise creamy layer income ceiling for OBCs: Parliamentary panel
NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee looking into the welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has said it was the "need of the hour" to revise the creamy layer income ceiling, saying the limit is excluding a large section of eligible OBC families from reservation benefits and government welfare schemes. In its eighth report presented to Parliament on Friday, the panel noted that the last revision of the income threshold from Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh per annum was carried out in 2017. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) rules require the ceiling to be reviewed every three years or sooner, if needed. "The present threshold is low, covering only a small segment of OBCs," the panel, chaired by BJP MP Ganesh Singh, said, adding inflation and rising incomes in even lower income groups had made an upward revision the "need of the hour". "The Committee is aware of the fact that the income limit for determining creamy layer for OBCs should be reviewed every three years or even before the stipulated period. However, the same has not been revised since 2017," it said. "The Committee, therefore, in no uncertain words, reiterate their recommendation for reviewing and accordingly revising the present creamy layer threshold limit to cover more and more persons from the OBCs as this would eventually help in raising their socio-economic condition to a satisfactory level," the panel said. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, however, told the committee that "there is no proposal under consideration" to revise the creamy layer limit. Another unresolved issue flagged by the panel is the absence of equivalence between posts in autonomous bodies and government positions for determining creamy layer status. The report said the lack of such equivalence has led to qualified OBC candidates, including those who cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination, being denied service allocation because their parents' salaries were counted without considering post equivalence.


Indian Express
27 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Over Rs 1,607 crore released for digital health infrastructure at PGIMER, Chandigarh in 5 years: Centre
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare revealed Friday that over Rs 1,607 crore was allocated and released for digital health infrastructure at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, during the last five years. The government's response came in the wake of a question raised by MP Manish Tewari in Parliament on critical issues and developments in digital infrastructure at the institute. The fund, released under 'Grants for Creation of Capital Assets', was incrementally increased to Rs 350 crore during 2024-25, the Centre stated. Despite these investments, Tewari's query appeared to reveal infrastructural gaps affecting patient care, notably in core facilities and digital systems upgrades. An annexure presented to Parliament also listed the medical equipment procured by PGIMER since 2020. Out of 1,096 items procured for various PGIMER departments, 147 remain non-operational or underutilised, including a significant number of items in neurosurgery and paediatrics. The government acknowledged that 93 per cent of civil works for critical centres — including the Mother and Child Care Centre — are complete but cited delays due to building plan revisions, pandemic-related disruptions, and shifting of service blocks for safety compliance. To address these challenges, approvals have been granted for an Advanced Neurosciences Centre and a Critical Care Block under the PM-ABHIM scheme. Moreover, digital upgrades for PGIMER, such as the transition to Hospital Information System (HIS) 2.0 and the establishment of satellite centres in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, are underway. MP Tewari emphasised the urgent need for a dedicated PGIMER facility for Chandigarh residents, given the massive patient footfall from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to local residents. Referring to recent developments in land allocation for the PGIMER extension in Sarangpur, he urged the Centre to consider a Chandigarh-exclusive facility to fulfil the city's unique healthcare requirements—a proposal he intends to pursue further with Union Minister of Health J P Nadda. Tewari also called for targeted expansions and modernisations at the leading medical institute to ensure world-class healthcare for Chandigarh residents.
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
27 minutes ago
- Business Standard
School fee bill underlines education not commercial enterprise: Delhi CM
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Friday said the broad message of the bill introduced by the Delhi government to regulate fee hikes by private schools was to underline that education was not a commercial enterprise. "Its for the first time that a government is openly standing alongside the parents of school children in Delhi. The AAP is looking sideways now as the BJP government did what it could not do while being in power in Delhi," Gupta told reporters. Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood tabled the 'Delhi School Education Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees Bill, 2025' on the first day of the ongoing Monsoon session. The bill is scheduled to be discussed and passed in the Assembly later in the day. Members of the House were also allowed to propose amendments in its provisions. It seeks to regulate the fees of all private, recognised unaided schools in Delhi through a three-tier system of assessment and approvals via committees set up for the purpose, with stiff penalties in case of violations. On Thursday, Sood said all private and unaided schools in Delhi irrespective of where they are built will now need prior permission from government before raising their fees from now on Until now, only around 350 schools built on government-allotted land were required to seek approval before hiking their fees, he said. AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj criticised the bill saying it is designed to protect more than 350 private schools from high court and Supreme Court rulings that previously kept their fee structures under tight scrutiny. Bharadwaj claimed that under existing laws and court directions, these schools were already required to seek permission from the director of education before increasing fees. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)