 |
|
|
|
|
|
Amarinder rules out revival of
terrorism
Ludhiana, July 12 Talking to reporters after inaugurating the telemedicine department at the Apollo Hospital here today, the Chief Minister said those terrorists who were supposed to be regrouping here had, in fact, been extradited by different countries like the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. He said the state had no role in that. However, he made it clear that, “the state will not let them go scot-free as they were criminals and would be dealt with strictly according to the law”. The Chief Minister refused to comment on the clashes between the workers of different factions of the Akali Dal. He said these incidents should not lead to any apprehensions about the peace getting disturbed in the state. But he added that every Sikh had deep regrets over the way turbans were being blown off and that, too, at sacred places like Akal Takht. On the allegations of the Shiromani Akali Dal president, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, that the state government had failed on performance and succeeded in corruption only, the Chief Minister remarked, “it is like pot calling the kettle black”. He said, the Baba (Mr Badal) had broken all records in corruption and had not made a single contribution towards the development of the state”. He said the only development project launched by the Badal government was the refinery at Bathinda which was to be renegotiated by his (Captain’s) government. Earlier, the Chief Minister said that the state government had so far provided health insurance cover to 10 lakh families through cooperative societies all over the state. He said the cover would be extended further to the needy people, particularly the poor and small farmers. About the opening of the telemedicine department at the Apollo Hospital here, the Chief Minister said, it was the futuristic step and would help a great deal in providing better health facilities to the people as it would provide easy and on the spot access to the doctors to experts whenever and wherever they need it.
|
|
No special land allotment in Ludhiana, Amritsar
Chandigarh, July 12 The Punjab Police Housing Corporation (PPHC), which had floated, a scheme, has started returning the earnest money of the employees who had applied under the scheme in 2003. Mr P. Lal, DGP, PPHC, confirmed the development to The Tribune, adding that the money was being
refunded. The applicants included a huge chunk of policemen and employees of various boards and corporations of Punjab. About 4,500 applications had been received for Mohali and another 600 each for Ludhiana and Amritsar. The decision that such housing colonies for employees could not come up had been conveyed a couple of months ago and the process of refunding has been
initiated now. The PPHC had started the process of facilitating the housing dream of thousands of employees by seeking land in the three cities. About 300 acres were to be acquired near Kharar for this purpose. The SDM of the area issued an acquisition notice and even “heard” objections filed under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The matter went to the Land Acquisition Board of Punjab which rejected the acquisition of 300 acres. It further asked the PPHC to seek land through PUDA. The PUDA authorities conveyed a couple of months ago that there was no land available with them in such a big chunk. Hence, no allotment could be made. One of the employees, who has been left out, said since land was being purchased in big chunks by builders, flats in Mohali, Ludhiana or Amritsar were out of the reach of the middle class. The government should have allowed the acquisition by the PPHC as it would have kept the cost of land within the reach of the employees. Now there is no option but to buy land or flats in colonies promoted by private builders or in illegal housing colonies which are coming up in areas around Chandigarh.
|
|
Does one have to pay for right to information?
Hoshiarpur, July 12 According to a letter written to Mr Gunraj Singh, former Wild Life Warden, by the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Hoshiarpur, this seems to be the case. The DFO, Hoshiarpur, has asked for Rs 2,228 from Mr Gunraj Singh to provide him with information sought by him. This amount, as per the letter available with The Tribune includes Rs 2,220 — three-day salary of forest employees — and Rs 8 as xerox charges. The DFO has stated that a senior assistant and clerk had spent three days in compiling the information sought. Their salary worked out to be Rs 485 and Rs 257 per day, respectively. The information would be provided only after the amount was deposited in the form of draft in the name of District Information Officer, Forest Department. The State Chief Information Commissioner, Mr Rajan Kayshap, when contacted, on the phone, said the Act did not lay any such provision. The government department could only charge Rs 2 per page as xerox charges for the pages being sent to the person seeking information. He said if the information was not provided by the officer concerned, the aggrieved person could file a complaint before him. Mr Gunraj Singh had under the Right to Information Act asked the DFO, Hoshiarpur, for details of expenditure from January 1, 2005, to March 31, 2006. He had also asked for details of projects under which the funds were utilised, the village-wise details of utilisation of funds and the amount spent on wildlife century projects. Talking to The Tribune, Mr Gunraj Singh alleged that the forest officials were not providing him the information under one pretext or the other. Earlier too department had asked for Rs 400 from him as xerox charges for providing the information. That amount was deposited in the form of draft. Despite that no information had been provided. The DFO, Mr R.R. Kakkar, claimed that they had the right to ask for the amount spent on processing information. The amount had been sought from Mr Gunraj Singh as per the provisions of the Act, he added.
|
|||||
|
|
IAF personnel dies in mishap
Rajpura, July 12 An Indian Air Force personnel died while his colleague had a miraculous escape when a Swaraj Mazda they were travelling in plunged into a deep ditch along the highway at Chamaru village. The vehicle carrying R.K. Dubey and Mr Abhey Kumar Dubey from the Khadola Air Force base, near Rajpura, to Batnaur, near Ambala, fell into a ditch filled with muddy water. The vehicle turned turtle in the ditch after falling from a culvert thus claiming the life of R.K. Dubey. The lucky survivor, Mr Abhey Kumar Dubey, told The Tribune that they were travelling back to Batnaur after dropping their boss at Khadola when the accident occurred due to poor visibility. According to eyewitnesses, scores of passengers and passersby assembled at the spot but hardly anyone of them dared to rescue the victims from the vehicle. The vehicle occupants had struck inside and were unable to raise alarm for help and open the windows due to the water pressure. A Delhi resident, Mr Parwinder Singh, travelling by a motorcycle to Delhi From Rajpura stopped at the spot and enquired about the accident. Putting his life in danger, Mr Parwinder Singh took off his clothes and jumped into the ditch. After five minutes, Mr Parwinder Singh managed to rescue Abhey Kumar Dubey while R.K. Dubey could not be saved. Officials of the IAF from Rajpura and Ambala reached the spot after receiving the news. The body of R.K Dubey was taken to the Civil Hospital, Rajpura, for a post-mortem.
|
|
|
Army launches scheme for last rites of soldiers
Pathankot, July 12 The scheme has been formally launched in 21 sub-area from today in Jammu and Kathua districts of J&K, Kangra, Kullu, Mandi, Chamba and Lahaul-Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh and Pathankot and Mukerian areas of Punjab. On the demise of an ex-serviceman in these areas, the field staff deployed under the scheme would move to his residence to assist the family. The staff would make arrangements for the last rites, if required. A wreath would be laid on behalf of the Chief of the Army staff and a grant of Rs 2, 500 would be provided to the family, he added. Brig Anil Gupta further said that an ex-serviceman help-line had been established in 21 sub-area from April this year to provide facilities like guidance on employment, legal matters, pension claims and matters relating to the civil authorities. An Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinic has also been shifted recently from Poonch to Pathankot. The 21 sub-area has been made the nodal headquarters for distribution of distress grant up to Rs 8,000. The sub-area was also running a vocational training centre with subjects like computer training, skill development and typing and shorthand for ex-serviceman and members of their family, Brig Gupta added. On the occasion, Brig Gupta flagged of a 21 sub-area AWWA bus to provide transport to ex-servicemen and their families from National Highway 1 to Military Hospital at Pathankot and back.
|
|
Jobs on forged certificates: CPM for probe
Amritsar, July 12 Mr R.S Randhawa, district secretary, CPM, alleged that Avtar Singh, a senior laboratory attendant in Government Senior Secondary School, Jandiala Guru, 20 km from here, got the job by furnishing a forged document of being physically handicapped. He claimed that in reality Avtar Singh is hale and hearty. He informed that he had been working with the department since March 2, 1987. Population explosion has given rise to the problem of unemployment. It is usual to see highly qualified youths jobless. He said it was highly alarming that some persons secured jobs by fraudulent means. Similarly, he claimed, Prakash Kaur, SS mistress in Government High School, Sultanwind, got job on the basis of a certificate of being handicapped whereas she is fit and fine. She has been with the department for the past 23 years. The CPM leaders stated that these matters had already been brought to the notice of the authorities concerned but without result no positive response. When contacted Mr Gursharanjit Singh Mann, Deputy DEO (Secondary), said an inquiry into aforementioned cases was going on.
|
|
Govt departments owe PSEB Rs 33 lakh
Ropar, July 12 An amount of over Rs 33 lakh is pending against the departments, including Irrigation, Police, Punjab State Tubewells Corporation, the Civil Hospital and dispensaries. Interestingly, some government departments have not paid their electricity bills for the past six to seven years. Sources in the PSEB said that while it could disconnect power supply to a private party in case of non-payment of bills within the stipulated time period or could impose a fine, in case of government departments, many of them providing essential services, it could not do so. The maximum dues of Rs 17 lakh are pending against the Punjab State Tubewells Corporation, which has not payments for the past six years. The Irrigation Department has not paid dues of Rs 3 lakh. The PSEB has to recover Rs 13 lakh from the Police Department. Besides, the tehsil office in the mini-secretariat owes the PSEB Rs 1 lakh. The Senior XEN (Distribution), Ropar Division, Mr Surinder Singh, while confirming that these departments had not paid their dues, said the PSEB had been sending reminders to the departments concerned, but to no avail.
|
|
Diarrhoea claims child’s life
Hoshiarpur, July 12 Dr Manjit Kaur, Civil Surgeon, said that Vijay Kumar (8), a son of Amarjit of Chack Fallu, died of diarrhoea. She said two teams of doctors had been sent to the village which conducted an intensive survey to locate the diarrhoea patients. Four patients were got admitted in the Civil Hospital, Garhshankar. An OPD has been opened in the village and five patients were treated there. Chlorine tablets had been distributed among the inhabitants of Chack Fallu and its adjoining villages, Badesron and Pandori Beet. Five samples of water from hand pumps had been collected. Because of some snag in the water supply source, inhabitants were drawing water from the hand pumps.
|
|
|
Peculation of tsunami relief alleged
Amritsar, July 12 In a letter written to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister, Punjab, the SSP, Amritsar, and the Chief Vigilance Commission, New Delhi, the councillor said neither the fund was given to the government nor it was deposited in the account of the club. However, Mr Sandhu said the fund could not be deposited in the office of the Deputy Commissioner and its details must be in the account book of the club. He said it was the duty of the honorary secretary and the accountant to maintain the account.
|
|
Protest against sale of panchayat land
Amritsar, July 12 Mr Jatinder Singh Chhina, district secretary of the union, alleged that 12 acres belonging to the panchayat was sold by Manoranjan Singh, sarpanch, along with the patwari, the Tehsildar and the Naib-Tehsildar of the area after tampering with the records and showing Kashmir Singh, Magga Singh, Amarjit Singh and Ravel Singh as partners in the land. He said it was done under a conspiracy as the accused revenue officials had disposed of the previous records, which had resulted in an agitation by residents of the area.
— OC
|
|
Three of family killed by masked men
Ferozepore, July 12 According to information, at around 2 am today four persons with faces covered with cloth entered the house of Master Malkit Singh while his son Daljit Singh along with his wife Parampal Kaur and two children, a girl (5) and boy (2) were sleeping on the terrace of the house. Assailants reached the terrace and attacked Daljeet Singh with sharp-edged weapons. Daljeet Singh resisted but was strangled. Assailants forced his wife and children, who woke up in a room on the terrace and locked them. Later, assailants came down and attacked Daljeet Singh’s mother, Jaswant Kaur (80) and his sister Tej Kaur who were sleeping in the lobby of the house, they too were killed by tying cloth around their necks. Tej Kaur was staying in his brother’s place due to marital discord. After the assailants fled Parampal Kaur, wife of slain Daljeet Singh peeped out through a window of the store and shouted for help. After hearing her shrieks, neighbours came to the house, and informed their relatives and the police about the incident. Mr Ishwar Chander, DIG, Mr Arpit Shukla, SSP and Mr K.S. Gill, SP, (Detective) reached the spot on getting the news. Mr Shukla said a case had been registered against six persons including Amritpal Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Balkaran Singh, Hardev Singh, Veerpal Kaur, all residents of village Harike Kalan and Hardeep Singh, of Haddiwala village on the statement of Gurmeet Kaur, sister of Daljeet Singh. Mr Shukla said Balbir Singh, elder brother of deceased Daljeet Singh had died in an accident last year. His death led to a dispute over the transfer of share of land to Veerpal Kaur, wife of Balbir Singh. He added after her husband’s death in the accident, Veerpal Kaur had left in-law’s place and moved to her parents with her daughter. She later filed a suit against her in-laws for the transfer of piece of land in her name due to which the two families were at loggerheads with each other. Mr K.S. Gill, SP, (Detective) said Daljeet Singh had perhaps married twice, and it could be either his deceased brother’s in-laws or his ex-wife behind the murders. Mr Gill added the family of Daljeet Singh owned 80 acres in the village. It was the bone of contention between the families.
|
|
Delhi-based man rescued from kidnappers, 2 held
Bathinda, July 12 Sources said the accused had kidnapped Charanjeet Singh and kept him in illegal confinement for 10 days. Mr Charanjeet said he was earlier working with a construction company in Mumbai and was about to start some business in New Delhi. He was kidnapped while he was on the way from Delhi to Jalandhar to collect money from one of his acquaintances. He was kidnapped from Ambala on July 2. The kidnappers didn’t keep him at one place and kept on changing the locations. He alleged they used to beat him up besides forcing him to drink a bucket full of water. He rued he had severe problem of cervical spondylosis and torture meted out to him took a heavy toll on his health. He alleged the kidnappers also forced him to sign some papers on July 7. He also charged they pressurised him to call up his family members and put forth their demand of Rs 4 lakh ransom. He alleged that they would also threaten him with selling off his kidneys and eyes. Charanjeet broke down while narrating his ordeal in the captivity of kidnappers. SSP Varinder Kumar said Charanjeet’s wife Simran had approached him alleging that some people had kidnapped her husband and were seeking ransom for his release. He said he had formed a police team that laid a trap and nabbed two kidnappers from Ambedkar Chowk. He said three of their aides were still at large.
|
|
Murdered over Rs 10
Ropar, July 12 The incident took place when Raju, who also belongs to Bihar, asked Bhago to drop him at the village from Ropar on July 10. After dropping him when Bhago asked for the Rs 10 as fare, Raju refused to do so, the police said. The two entered a heated argument. Raju then picked up a brick and hit Bhago a number of times. The villagers took him to the Civil Hospital, Ropar. But he was referred to the PGI. He died at the PGI on July 11, the police added. The SSP, Mr Kapil Dev, said Raju had been arrested. After committing the crime he had fled. A case against under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered in this regard on the statement of the
Sarpanch of village, Rupinder Singh.
|
|
Evaluation of answersheets: panel blames GND varsity
Amritsar, July 12 The Vice-Chancellor constituted a committee of five members headed by Prof B.R Batra. The committee looked into three issues. The first was evaluation of answer books of B.P.Ed and M.P.Ed by a teacher who was not proficient in the Punjabi language. It found that the university had unnecessarily delayed action on the matter and recommended full-fledged inquiry by a retired Judicial officer to provide justice to the students. Referring to the complaints of Ms Anita Tamarkar, lecturer and Ms Bhupinder Pal Kaur, coach, addressed to the Chancellor on January 16 about sexual harassment against Dr Kanwaljit Singh, the committee was of the view that as the matter was already decided by the court and syndicate on September 16, 2005. No further action was required by the university on the issue. However, Dr Kanwaljit Singh raised serious doubt over the ‘forged’ signature of Ms Bhupinder Pal Kaur in the complaint addressed to the Chancellor on January 16. Mr R.S Bawa, Registrar of the University, said that they had received the complaint of Mr Kanwaljit about it but he did know much about the matter as the file was with the Vice-Chancellor’s office. The committee held that the complaint made by Dr Kanwaljit to the Chancellor against Dr S.P Singh, Vice-Chancellor, on May 19 regarding the hushing up of the scandal of evaluation was forwarded through proper channel and hence no action was required against him. Dr Kanwaljit sought a copy of the findings of the Inquiry committee under the Right to Information Act. He said he had not received so far. However, one of the five members desired to review the documents. He did not turn up to review the documents on June 14 as fixed. The remaining members waited for him for 45 minutes and reiterated earlier decision.
|
|
|
Examine charges against ex-Director, Chandigarh, July 12 The Syndicate members met today to consider the institution of an inquiry against Mr Ajmer Singh concerning misappropriation and irregularities noticed by the inquiry committee, headed by Mr H.L. Sharma. The Senate had in September 2004, while considering the inquiry report submitted by Mr A.N. Mathur in the case of Dr Kewal Singh, Assistant Director, Sports, decided that a paper be put up for consideration of the Senate at its next meeting on the issue whether an inquiry against Mr Ajmer Singh was required to be conducted. In the paper submitted by Mr H.L. Sharma, it was alleged that Mr Ajmer Singh was not only involved in misappropriation of funds from the department but had also indulged in blatant misuse of authority in helping one of his colleagues. The Syndicate also approved the selection of lecturers made by the VC except in the case of a chemistry lecturer appointed at Swami Sarvanand Giri Panjab University Regional Centre, Hoshiarpur. This case was rejected on technical grounds. While considering the minutes of various selection committees for appointment of lecturers to the university, Syndic Prabhjit Singh pointed out that according to the UGC guidelines, selection committees had to be chaired by the VC, but in some cases the Dean University Instructions had chaired the committee. This was in violation of the UGC guidelines, he said. However, precedents were quoted that earlier too, the VC had delegated powers to the DUI for chairing these committees. The Syndicate also approved a decision of the VC following which private candidates in music (vocal), music (instrumental), music (tabla) and dance be allowed to appear in their undergraduate and postgraduate examinations of 2007 and onwards without producing a certificate for having attended the practical classes. While approving the MBE course in DAV College, Sector 10, Chandigarh, the syndicate also approved the starting of the course in GGDSD College, Sector 32, here and SGGS College, Sector 26, here in case the inspection committee that visited the colleges today gave reports in their favour. The syndicate also accepted the resignation of Prof J.K. Chauhan as Director of both Panjab University Regional Centre, Muktsar, and Panjab University Regional Centre, Ludhiana. Stating that he had resigned for personal reasons, Prof Chauhan added that he would now be joining back as Professor in the Department of Laws, PU.
|
|
Rs 1 crore for Urdu academy
Chandigarh, July 12 Mrs Bhattal also gave directions for constituting a committee to start construction work on the academy building on a war footing.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
