Jalandhar, November 16
The Army has ordered administrative action against a serving Lieut-Col of the Army Service Corps (ASC) after he was found guilty of causing a loss of Rs 1.74 lakh to the state exchequer by wrongly showing his parents as dependents and getting them treated free of cost in various military hospitals.

The public information officer of 91 sub area Col PS Gothra, in a reply to Major Avtar Singh’s (Retd) application under RTI Act, revealed that the court of inquiry (CoI) has found Lieut-Col MK Sharma of ASC Centre and College, Bangalore, guilty of obtaining a dependent card for his parents BS Sharma and Pratibha Sharma, despite being fully aware that the duo was not entitled for the same as per the norms. "Sharma used the dependent card at Military Hospital, Jalandhar Cantt, to obtain free medical facilities for his parents. The officer also used this card at an Army Hospital in New Delhi in March 2004 for knee-replacement surgery of his mother, incurring a loss of Rs 1,74,941 to the exchequer," the PIO added.

Based on these findings, the GOC, 11 Corps, ordered administrative action against the officer. The amount of Rs 1,74,941 would also be recovered from him. "We have conveyed the directions of the GOC to the ASC Centre and College Bangalore for implementation,” said Gothra.

Administrative action in the Army can range from a simple ‘warning’ or ‘censure’ to being accorded ‘displeasure’ or ‘severe displeasure’ by the authority conducting the inquiry. The ‘displeasure’ and ‘severe displeasure’, in turn, could be 'recordable or non-recordable', meaning that it could be entered into the service book of the officer. The inquiry was conducted under the commanding officer of 28 Air Defence Regiment.

Earlier, acting on the complaint of Major Avtar Singh (Retd), the Army authorities had ordered CoI against the officer for allegedly misusing medical and canteen facilities and ‘illegitimately’ claiming house rent allowance, while being on study leave.

In his complaint, Major Singh had alleged that Sharma's father was a retired BSF officer and was withdrawing a pension of nearly Rs 8,500 per month. Therefore, he could not be shown as a dependent. The complainant also alleged that Sharma helped his parents get a CSD canteen card issued from 5011 battalion of the ASC, with which he was attached during the period of his study leave. This is also against rules, he claimed.

Officer Sharma was also accused of putting up at his parents' house in Saraswati Vihar here during his study leave and claiming Rs 4,500 per month as rent from the Army authorities. “I have submitted enough documentary evidence to substantiate my claims,” said the complaint. 

Kapurthala, November 16
Punjab Housefed will develop cooperative housing projects in all the cities of the state under the scheme of the state government to provide houses at cheaper rates to weaker sections of society.

First such project of 906 flats is already under construction at Banur in Patiala. The foundation stone of another such project of 240 flats was laid by cooperation minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh at Circular Road in Kapurthala on Sunday. This project would be completed within two years.

Capt Kanwaljit Singh said, “Private companies construct housing colonies for their financial benefit but the Punjab cooperation department would construct residential flats without any financial benefit to provide them to weaker section on easy instalments.”

Welcoming the decision of constructing flats in Kapurthala district, former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur and former Punjab minister Raghbir Singh said the poor and middle-class families would be benefited with the construction of these flats. Later Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Bibi Jagir Kaur and Raghbir Singh saw the model of the flats to be constructed in Kapurthala.

Deputy commissioner J.M. Balamurugan said that self-help group schemes should be initiated in the district as pilot projects so that general public might get benefit of the scheme.

Housefed chairman K.K. Bawa, managing director V.K. Bansal, joint registrar Jalandhar division K.S. Sangha also spoke on the occasion.

Jalandhar, November 16
Students appearing in the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) held at Nehru Garden School here today had a tough time as they faced problems due to irregular power cuts. The NTSE was to be conducted from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm.

As many as 850 students from various public schools appeared for the test. With a power cut of more than one hour the invigilators had to shift some students from one of the classrooms to an outer room with proper daylight facility.

When The Tribune team visited the school it was found that the school was conducting the examination without any generator facility. When asked about the problems being faced by the students, district education officer (DEO) (Secondary) Harinder Sahni passed the buck on to the school authorities and said, “The authorities should have got a generator set on rent. I have already given directions to all the government schools to purchase their own generator sets for any technical failure in future.”

Nawanshahr: The state institute of science education and Sarv Shikhiya Abhiyan, Punjab, jointly conducted national means-cum-merit scholarship test and national talent search examination for the students of class VIII. As many as 867 candidates appeared in the tests, said DEO P.C. Gupta. 

Jalandhar, November 16
Members of the Punjab Subordinate Services Federation ( PSSF) 
today held a rally and protest demonstration to demand an early report of the fifth pay commission and its implementation from January 1, 2006, onwards.

Federation president Sucha Singh Khatra said the market demand could be made stable and strong only if the employees would be recruited on full grades and a pay hike was given to them.

The members demanded that they should be given 60 per cent hike in the salaries and pensions, 5 per cent rate of annual increment, Rs 10,000 minimum wages in the master scale and Rs 1,000 as medical allowance.

General secretary Ved Parkash maintained that the federation would observe November 20 as all-India protest day against the opening of financial institutions to foreign investors through the financial bill to be tabled in Parliament during the winter session.

Khatra added that in case the pay commission report was not presented well on time the state government would have to face employees’ opposition.

Batala, November 16
The police has arrested Harjit Singh of Mahadev Khurd of Sadar police station and Balwinder Singh of Sant Nagar, Qadian, and recovered one Bullet motor cycle, two gas cylinders and one cycle from them.

SSP Naresh Kumar Arora said here today that a case under section 380, IPC, had been registered on the statement of Sarwan Singh of Thikriwal Goryan that his motor cycle (PB-06-F-3484) had been stolen on November 4, 2008, from his house.

During investigation they confessed that the motor cycle was stolen from Thikriwal Goryan and the gas cylinder from a tea shop, Gurdaspur.

The accused also confessed that with the help of other gang members Gagan Singh of Mahadev Khurud and Sukhdev Singh, alias Sebu of Bajurgwal, they had also stolen tubewell motors in Dhariwal area. Raids were being conducted to arrest the other accused, the SSP said.