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BJP observers watch over party’s membership drive
Buta Singh goes media bashing
Punjab to spend Rs 990 cr on water, sewerage schemes
Reprieve for sawmill owners
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BJP observers watch over
Jalandhar, June 4 The party now aims to induct six lakh members revising the earlier target of three lakh. The state leadership claimed its ongoing nationwide membership drive, in the first phase, was a success in Punjab. At the same time, to ensure that there is no fake enrolment of members, the state BJP, led by its President, Mr Avinash Khanna, has appointed as many as 24 observers to watch over the membership drives in all the districts. The enrollment drive across India was started by the BJP on June 1. In Punjab, it will continue till June 15, as the BJP High Command has reportedly been liberal on this front. There are instructions that that the state units can even extend the drive to June 30. What forced the state BJP to increase its membership target was an unanticipated response. Also, the Punjab BJP has adopted a liberal posture this time on inductions. Hence, unlike the past, the focus of the drive is not just urban residents, a traditional party stronghold. The BJP’s State General Secretary, Mr Vijay Sampla, said they were not taking any class or segment into consideration. “It’s being ensured that members be taken into the party’s fold from all sections of the society. In the past four days, as many as 76,900 members have been enrolled by our party workers and office-bearers. The response gave us a big push and we toyed with the idea of doubling the target membership,” he added. What is different from BJP’s membership drives of the past and the current one is the presence of party observers, who, party officials claim, keep at bay the famous phenomena of fake memberships. Leaders said the Punjab BJP wanted to avoid fake memberships in an effort to avoid confusions at the time of the Assembly elections, due next year. A senior party leader said it had been “an established practice with almost all political parties to fudge membership figures in order to impress the party leadership”. “But we are not encouraging this practice. We are being strict this time,” he added. Here is a rundown on the party leaders who are observing the membership drive: Chaudhary Swarna Ram for Jalandhar, (Rural), Narottan Dev Ratti for Jalandhar (urban), Trishna Minhas for Jalandhar (North), Vinod Sharma for Kapurthala, Rajesh Bagha for Hoshiarpur and Nawanshahar, Laxmi Kanta Chawla for Majitha, Gurcharan Kaur for Mukatsar, Mohan Lal Garg for Abohar, Shanti Sharma for Jagraon, Balbir Chand Kapila for Khanna and Fatehgarh Sahib, Arunesh Shakar for Gurdaspur and Pathankot, Anil Sareen for Patiala (urban and rural-north), Satwant Singh for Patiala (rural-south), Om Parkash Kalia for Ferozepore, Vinod Sharma for Ludhiana and Amritsar, Manjit Singh Rai for Tarn Taran and Moga, Sukhminder Pal Singh Grewal for Mohali and Ropar, Ashwani Sharma for Mukerian, Harbans Lal Sethi for Barnala and Sangrur, D.P. Chandan for Faridkot and Mansa, Faquir Chand Goyal for Bathinda (urban), Anil Joshi for Batala, Ashok Bharti for Bathinda (rural) and Dr Baldev Raj Chawla for Patti. |
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Buta Singh goes media bashing
Jalandhar, June 4 Calling the media shallow and vindictive, he said it had indulged in biased subjective reporting and the allegations made against him had not been proved as yet. He said that no one political group had come to him with proven claim to form government after the initial Assembly elections in Bihar. He had acted according to the previous decision of the Supreme Court and had not ‘played favourites’ as alleged. Calling the ongoing reservation debate for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) unfortunate, Mr Buta Singh said the list of the OBCs needed to be reviewed as it included only few communities like Ahirs and Yadavs. The reservation Bill was justified, as it would provide thrust for bringing the backward communities forward in the fields of technological and scientific advancement. He pointed out that the present reservation was based on the 1971 census despite the clause in the Constitution that reservations must be upgraded on the basis of population. On his political future, Mr Buta Singh said he had never asked for a political post and would not do so now. He would wait for the party’s decision in this regard, he said. The former Bihar Governor’s project now is to get the Guru Granth Sahib, which was with the 10th Sikh master, Guru Gobind Singh when he died, back from London. He said the plan is to establish a gurdwara at Hazoor Sahib in 2008 and install the manuscript there. It would be the tercentenary year of the proclamation of the holy book as the Guru for all Sikhs.
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Punjab to spend Rs 990 cr on
Kapurthala, June 4 The Minister said all the 124 Municipal Committees and five Municipal Corporations in the state would be covered under the scheme. The money would come from the Municipal Development Fund, he added. From this fund, the Kapurthala Municipal Committee had been provided with Rs 11.16 crore for the sewerage system and Rs 1.76 crore for augmenting the drinking water supply system in the town, he added. Chaudhary Jagjit Singh also assured the residents of the town of better roads and suggested an extension of the town’s municipal limit for “development and decongestion”. The Minister also acceded to a demand of the Kapurthala Improvement Trust Chairman, Mr Kulwant Bhandari, that water bills and sewerage cess for the state’s poor be waived. “A sub-committee constituted has been constituted in this regard and it would submit its report within a month. I assure you that the needful would be done,” Chaudhary Jagjit Singh said. The Minister also assured that the present contract system in the recruitment of sweepers would be done away with. The request was made by president of the Food and Allied Workers, Mr Boota Ram. Present on the occasion were the Jalandhar MP, Rana Gurjit Singh and the Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner, Mr Raminder Singh. |
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Reprieve for sawmill owners
Kapurthala, June 4 It was decided in a meeting of the sawmill owners of the district, held in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala, on Friday. Mr Raminder Singh directed sawmill owners to obtain new licenses from the Forest Department if they had proof of operation of their mills before October 30, 2002. Expressing concern over the reduction of area under forests in the country, the Supreme Court on October 29, 2002, had issued directions that all unlicensed sawmills, veneer and plywood industries established after October 30, 2002, should be closed down. In the district, electric supply of 11 sawmills was disconnected and few were sealed. Many owners had complained to the Deputy Commissioner that electrical supply to their mills were disconnected even though they were in operation before the cut-off date set by the apex court. Bahadur Singh of Kala Sangihan village and Bachan Singh of Baler Khanpur village said the electrical supply was disconnected even though they were operating the mills since 1986. In some cases the owners had registered wrong dates of starting the business to evade taxes. In the meeting, Rana Gurjit Singh, local Member Parliament, assured the owners that sawmills established before October 30, 2002, would remain unaffected. Others would have to get clearance certificate from the Central Empower Committee as per the Supreme Court guidelines. |
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