Kapurthala, November 24
The tussle between the Congress MP, Rana Gurjit Singh, and the senior party leader, Mr Sukhpal Khaira, came to the fore once again with the latter knocking the doors of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies to seek a stay order on the elections of the Kapurthala Central Cooperative Bank, due on December 8.

Mr Khaira had complained to the Registrar that rules had been flouted in the division of the nine zones for the proposed polls on the alleged interference of Rana Gurjit Singh, who, Mr Khaira said, wanted to get one of his loyalists appointed as the Managing Director of the bank.

Though the petition has been filed through an ex-director of the bank, Mr Khaira is said to have personally met the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Mr Viswajit Khanna, and the Minister for Cooperation, Mr Jasjit Singh Randhawa, demanding a stay on the upcoming polls.

While the Minister confirmed that a stay had been ordered over the conduct of polls on the orders of the Registrar, the Registrar refused to divulge any details. He said he could not comment on it as the case had been referred to the Additional Registrar.

The bank’s elections have gained significance as more than 250 recruitments into it are due for the past one year. Sources said Mr Khaira himself was a contender for the post and had been closely following every move leading to the polls, and that he could not tolerate the interference of the MP. The duo had been on loggerheads ever since Mr Khaira was denied a ticket for the Kapurthala by-polls. Rana Gurjit Singh had proposed the name of his sister-in-law, Ms Sukhi Rana, as a candidate, who later got elected as the MLA.

For the past eight months, both Rana Gurjit Singh and Mr Sukhpal Khaira had been fighting it out over the division of zones for the bank elections with the latter claiming that the division was not contiguous and compact, as they should have been. He said that a change had been effected in the seven-year-old plan of the divisions to accommodate the MP’s “yes-man” as a contender to the post. A zone had been set up that stretched up to 56 km from Sultanpur to Kapurthala city and further up to parts of Bholath subdivision, Mr Khaira had been alleging.

The Congress leader has also been ruing that a public notice in this regard was advertised in a vernacular paper that does not have much circulation and the notice might have gone unnoticed.

Mr Khaira is also said to have the support of an MLA from the district and the District Congress President who are believed to be in Rana’s Gurjit Singh’s rival faction.

When contacted, Mr Khaira confirmed that there had been a confrontation of the kind. He said it would had been unfortunate for the members to get an urbanite as an Managing Director of the bank meant for the peasantry, so he had to confront the MP over the issue.

He said the Registrar, Cooperative Societies had given November 30 as the next date of hearing on the matter.

Rana Gurjit Singh could not be contacted for his comments.

Jalandhar, November 24
While authorities of the Punjab State Electricity Board have instructed its officials to pull up their socks and solve problems of consumers on a priority basis, the veteran Congress leader and local MLA, Mr Raj Kumar Gupta, today termed the laboratory checking of power metres as an unnecessary exercise.

The MLA also demanded the shifting of some overhead power cables, which passed through the residential accommodations in the city.

Mr Gupta, who was here to participate in a consumer meet organised by the PSEB and a Delhi-based firm, said the consumers were being harassed in the name of laboratory examination of faulty metres. “There is hardly any need for this,” he said, adding that in certain cases, consumers were slapped with allegations of power theft and were asked to pay fines without any valid reason.

Responding to the issues highlighted by Mr Gupta and other consumers, who had come from Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur districts, Mr K.K. Vohra, Superintending Engineer, PSEB, Jalandhar, said all the genuine problems of the consumers would be solved without any further delay.

“Any consumer can meet any PSEB official at any time with regard to his or her complaint. The officials have been instructed to address the grievances on a priority basis,” Mr Vohra said.

Referring to the problem of voltage variation, Mr Vohra said a number of steps had been taken, and about 30 new transformers had been installed to remove the extra load from overburdened transformers. “At the same time, we need the people’s cooperation for the installation of new poles and transformers,” he added.

Mr G.S. Gill, Mr Tarsem Singh Thind, Mr A.K. Vaid, Mr Y.P.S Bath and Mr N.K. Gandhi, all senior PSEB officials, participated in the interactive session.

Phagwara, November 24
Member of the CPI’s National Executive Committee and a former State Secretary of the party, Dr Joginder Dyal, today alleged that most of the ministers in the state government were “neck-deep” in corruption and demanded a CBI probe into the issue.

Dr Dyal, who was here to address a dharna by canegrowers in front of a private sugar mill, said, “Corruption is continuing unabated like it was during the Badal regime. The verdict of the polls in Bihar should be an eye-opener to all. If Capt Amarinder Singh does not change his policies, he would go the Lalu way.”

The CPI leader also criticised SAD President Parkash Singh Badal for banking upon the anti-incumbency factor and doing nothing for people of Punjab.

“Both Capt Amarinder Singh and Mr Parkash Singh Badal have failed to understand that an agrarian economy is a backward economy, that crop diversification has miserably failed, and that agro-based industry is present nowhere in the state.”

Jalandhar, November 24
Part of the golfers’ delegation from Pakistan, that visited the city on Wednesday, was Jalandhar-born Col Hamayun Rashid (Retd).

Coming to the city of his birth for the first time, Col Rashid (Retd) said he had never imagined that one day the clouds of tension he had faced while guarding Pakistan’s borders, would go away. “During my service years, I could not even think that I would be able to come and see the city where my family one belonged. Now I can only thank the ongoing peace process between the two countries.”

The ex-serviceman was barely three-years-old when his family left their home near the Panj Peer Wali Mazar in the Vakeelan Wali Gali for Pakistan. “My father, Major Abdul Rashid, was then serving in the 6 Rajputana Regiment of the Indian Army,” he said. “In the early sixties, my sister came to the city and even visited our ancestral haveli. I wish people from both sides of the border are able reach out to each other more easily, because when we come face to face, all differences vanish and no boundaries matter anymore.”

The colonel remarked that if one went to Multan or Karachi, one could find many differences. “But coming here, I feel that I am in just another city of Pakistan. The youth on both sides of the border are crazy for going abroad. There are lack of jobs for the youth and they are leaving for greener postures abroad.”

Commenting on the status of women in Pakistan, Col Hamayun Rashid (Retd) said economic pressures and more exposure was bringing women out of the confines of their homes. “But one thing that is hard to find in Pakistan are girls whizzing past on two-wheelers.” 

Phagwara, November 24
The General Categories Welfare Federation today threatened to hold a rally in Phagwara in protest against the decision of the Punjab government to implement the 85th Constitutional Amendment.

The federation, in a meeting under the leadership of its senior State Vice- President Nirmal Singh, alleged that the Capt Amarinder Singh government had betrayed 75 per cent general categories in order to placate 25 per cent of Scheduled Castes, buckling under the pressure of Dalit ministers and the PPCC President, Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo. — OC

Phagwara, November 24
Members of the Phagwara Canegrowers Cooperative Society, whose indefinite dharna entered third week today, announced that they would block traffic on December 5 if their demands were not accepted.

This was declared by the Society’s President, Mr Rashpal Singh, at an all-party protest rally in front of the main gate of a local sugar mill.

The former Secretary, Punjab CPI, Dr Joginder Dyal, General Secretary, Punjab Kisan Sabha, Mr Lehmber Singh Taggar, Ex-MLA, Mr Kulwant Singh, the Society’s Vice-President, Mr Harbhajan Singh Bhullarai, SAD leaders, Jathedar Sarwan Singh Kular, Mr Gurjit Singh Khalsa, and the Mann Dal leader, Mr Gurmit Singh were among those who addressed the protesters.

Meanwhile, Mr Jarnail Singh Wahid, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Wahid-Sandhars Sugars Ltd, against whom the protest is directed, claimed that the cane-growers were with the Mill Management, and only a handful of people with vested interests were sitting on the dharna. —OC