Bathinda, July 7
The decision of the Central government to bring lawyers and doctors within the ambit of service tax has come as a shock to the professionals with both voicing their resentment.

The Bathinda Bar Association (BBA) and city lawyers today condemned the proposal in the Budget to levy service tax on lawyers. “The service tax will have an adverse affect on the new entrants to the profession. Most of them are going through a phase of their career when they are still struggling and it would be difficult for them to pay the tax,” said Jasvir Singh, president of the BBA.

The Association would write to the Bar Council of India to convey their opposition to the decision, he said.

Kapil Bansal, an advocate, opposed the move outright. “When there is no monitoring on the fees of lawyers, on what basis will the government levy service tax,” he asked. Lawyers would naturally take to manipulating their income accounts to keep their service tax at minimum, Bansal added.

“One cannot treat the profession as any other commercial industry. It is a noble profession. We will wait for full details to come before taking any action,” said Jatinder Roy Khattar, former president of the BBA.

Meanwhile, medical practitioners of the city are wary about the Centre’s new prescription, bringing them under the service tax net.

Dr Kailash Goel, an orthopaedic specialist in the city, said: “The service tax will finally have an effect on patients as doctors will be forced to pass on the new burden to them. The decision will make health services expensive for commoners.”

Dr Rajesh Jindal, a cardiologist, elaborated: “For instance, an X-ray may cost much more after the tax was levied as it would add to the cost of the film and the machine.”

General practitioners would be the worst-hit, said Dr Subhash Mittal, who runs a clinic in Partap Nagar. “Just because the service tax is imposed, general practitioners cannot afford to increase their rates in good faith. We will be forced to reduce our margins,” he said, adding that while consultants might increase their rates, they could not charge more because a lot of poor patients, who could not afford corporate hospitals, come to them.

The lawyers and doctors urged the Centre to reconsider the decision.

Abohar, July 7
World's major fertiliser cooperative, Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), has welcomed the Central government's move to shift fertiliser subsidy from 'product pricing regime' to 'nutrient based subsidy regime' and give direct subsidy to the farmers.

Reacting to the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's Budget-2009, IFFCO managing director Dr US Awasthi lauded the government's significant initiative to shift from product pricing regime to nutrient based subsidy regime and provide direct subsidy to the farmers. He expressed his happiness that IFFCO's concepts have found a place in the budget speech of the finance minister.

Speaking over the phone, Dr Awasthi said, the fertiliser subsidy had captured almost everybody's attention in the recent times. However, IFFCO being farmers' own society has been trying to draw attention of all concerned to the depleting soil health and need to use restore the secondary and micronutrient status of soil.

IFFCO has been advocating this cause and has presented papers on the status of different soils in the country. It took the lead in this direction by making numerous presentations to Group of Ministers (GOM), Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture and Planning Commission, besides, making it clear in the print media.

Recalling that he along with IFFCO chairman Surinder Kumar Jakhar has been emphasising time and again in the past that subsidy should be disbursed directly to the farmers instead of routing the same through the manufacturers.

Jakhar had also held a meeting with the PM and FM early this year to discuss the modalities of the proposal for passing on the benefit of subsidy to the farmers directly.

He further said this move would help in soil rejuvenation and increase farm yield, thereby brining smiles on farmers' faces. The change will certainly create a win-win situation for the industry as well as the farming community in the country.

He on behalf of the IFFCO and its 40,000 member cooperative societies, thanked the central government and assured full support to make this move a success.

Bathinda, July 7
“The honour, safety and welfare of the country comes first always and every time; the safety, comfort and welfare of the men I command come next always and every time; my own ease, comfort and safety comes last always and every time.”

The excerpt from the oath taken by defence officers while getting commissioned into the forces seemed to be followed even today by many retired officers, as they welcomed the government’s decision of benefiting persons below officers’ rank (PBORs) in the Union budget for 2009-10.

One Rank One Pension (OROP), as mentioned by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in his budget speech, brought respite to around 12 lakh PBORs. Meanwhile, the retired officers, who have been neglected in this budget, stated that their struggle had started bearing fruit as PBORs, who retired before 1996, would now be considered at par with PBORs, who retired after 2006.

Col Pratap Inder Singh Phulka (retd), national president of the SAD’s ex-servicemen wing, supporting the decision of the government of benefiting PBORs by giving equal pensions, said, “Our main fight was for the PBORs as they were a neglected lot. We had given an ultimatum to the government.

Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the UPA, gave 100 days to defence, finance and other ministries for addressing various anomalies pertaining to the pensions of ex-servicemen.”

Brig Harwant Singh (retd), who served the artillery, said officers were still capable of looking after themselves but PBORs needed attention.

Lt Col Daya Singh (retd) said, “We are happy that PBORs have been looked after. All men included in one grade would spark some complications also as serviceable state of equipment might come down because more qualified PBORs would now not bother to maintain the equipment as he would be treated at par with lesser qualified PBORs.”

The decision has raised the hopes of the retired officers that the government would consider them also. Col Phulka said government should address all anomalies together. A national-level meeting would take place in August, where retired defence personnel would discuss the future course of action.

Brig Harwant added that retired civilians were already getting OROP pensions then why were defence personnel being treated differently.

The decision taken on the pension benefit would be made applicable from July 1, 2009. Extra pension benefits would be given to disabled and war wounded pensioners. Unconfirmed sources said the move would cost the exchequer Rs 2100 crore. 

Bathinda, July 7
After year-long proceedings, Bathinda police booked two agricultural officers of the district on graft charges and intimidation. The case was lodged after the agriculture department investigated a complaint lodged by a seeds and pesticide dealer Amandeep Singh of Baho Siviyan village.

According to the details available, Malkit Singh, seeds development officer and Gurmel Singh, agricultural officer (plant protection) were accused of threatening and seeking bribe from the complainant.

The complainant had alleged that the accused were seeking a bribe of Rs 19,500 to renew the shop licence, along with threats to implicate him for selling fake seeds, if he failed to meet their demand.

It has been informed that once the investigation started but ended with a compromise between the two parties. Meanwhile, the agriculture department itself picked up the case. Acting upon the recommendations of the department, Kotwali police registered a case under sections 7, 13 (a) of the DPC Act.

The accused Malkit Singh said they had collected samples of seeds from the shop of the complainant in July-August 2008. The case was later settled.

He termed the recent development a result of departmental conspiracy. He had sued a person for defamation earlier.

Moga, July 7
Three persons died in different mishaps in the Moga district during the past 24 hours. As per the details available, Fakir Singh (55), son of Visakha Singh, a resident of Jhandewala village was hit by an unidentified vehicle on the Link road when he was going back home after meeting his daughter on Monday evening.

He was admitted to the district hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on Monday night. The police had registered a criminal case under section 304-A of the IPC against the unidentified person.

Meanwhile, a truck driver, Sahib Singh, son of Major Singh, a resident of Kothe Jaito allegedly consumed some poisonous substance unknowingly and died at his home. The police had initiated inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC into the incident.

In yet another incident, Hardev Singh (70), son of Uttam Singh, a resident of Dagru village died on the spot, when he was hit by a motorcycle, while crossing the road on the outskirts of Nidhanwala village on Tuesday morning. Police had initiated inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC into the incident. — TNS

Moga: A man was buried alive, while taking out bricks from a dry well at village Kishanpura Kalan, on Monday evening. A huge chunk of mud fell on him.

His body was recovered from the well on Tuesday morning. The district magistrate, Satwant Singh Johal, SDM Ajay Sood, and other officials of the administration visited the spot and inquired about the incident. — TNS

Fazilka, July 7
One Joginder Singh (48) was allegedly crushed to death by a speeding jeep in village Kabulshah of this sub-division while returning home from his fields on Monday night.

As per the information from family sources, Joginder Singh was on his way back home, as he reached near his residence, situated on the roadside in the village, all of a sudden a speeding jeep number RJ-19-4101 hit him from the rear and crushed him resulting in his death on the spot.

The postmortem of Joginder Singh was conducted at the Civil Hospital today.

The driver of the jeep, Sonu, a resident of Gandhi Nagar locality here tried to flee from the site of the accident but the villagers chased and nabbed him near Dera Sacha Sauda on the Fazilka-Abohar road.

The police have registered a case against the driver under section 304 of the IPC.

Moga, July 7
An 11-year-old minor Dalit girl hailing from a poor family was allegedly raped by her neighbourer at Himmatpura village in Nihalsinghwala sub-division of the Moga district on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.

The police had registered a criminal case against the alleged accused Raj Bhupinder Singh, son of Swaran Singh, under section 376 of the IPC, at the Nihalsinghwala police station on Monday. ASI Jaswant Singh said the accused was yet to be arrested, when the report was being filed. — TNS

Bathinda, July 7
The news emanating from weather room is not appearing so bright for the rural as well as the urban populace in the region. And if the information is any indication, Malwa has to apparently wait a little more for having a stormy date with the monsoon.

Moreover, while the monsoon has seemingly returned to hibernation, mercury in no time went back to alarming level.

Bathinda and the adjoining areas, which have been enjoying pleasant weather conditions following June 30 and July 1 showers, are again hovering around 40 degrees Celsius mark. And there is also no apparent signs of rain.

The temperature had declined considerably due to first showers of monsoon witnessed on June 30. On that day, the north-bound mercury literally took a nosedive to record 33.4 degrees Celsius, nearly 10 degrees lower than its previous days. It dipped further on July 1 when the region witnessed abound 14.8 mm rain.

The ‘good days’ abruptly took a break as clouds carrying rains disappeared and with that the mercury gradually started to rise nearly one degree Celsius a day and touched 40 degrees on July 6, making life miserable – added by powers cuts - in urban areas and also giving sleepless night to farmers.

Today, the mercury recorded 41.6 degrees Celsius, 1.6 degrees higher than that on Monday. The day’s low was 27.2 degrees, as per the Agro-Met advisory services, PAU regional station, Bathinda.

As far as the weather forecast is concerned, chances of rain in the next three to fours days are bleak as the monsoon activities are subdued.

According to the weather forecast made by the IMD, Chandigarh, for Bathinda region on Tuesday and received by the Agro-MeT advisory services here, the weather is likely to remain dry and clear with possibility of dust storms and partial cloudiness in isolated pockets of the region in the next three to four days. The day temperature is likely to increase in the period.

The weathermen, however, said that there were chances of improvement in the weather conditions in near future.

Bathinda, July 7
With government allocating more funds to upgrade the higher and technical education in the country, Punjab plans to take the development a step further by opening multi-discipline academies in the state where students would have access to various disciplines of education at one campus. 

This was stated by Tajinder Kaur, principal secretary, technical education, Punjab. But, educationists in the rural Punjab feel that focus of the government has always been on metropolis and rural education would still lag behind.

“There is nothing new for us in this budget and we are not sure of anything till we get details about what would be allocated to technical education. Facilities already exist in educational institutes. 

So, we plan to open multi-discipline academies in Punjab where students would have an access to various disciplines of education like in an engineering college there would be a polytechnic and class XII also. As of now, I cannot say which region would be benefited,” Tajinder said.

Shaminder Singh Gill, vice-chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, felt that the focus of the government was on metropolis and not on rural areas. “Mine is a rural university and the government never bothered about rural institutes. The state university has got benefited but my university has not.”

Government also announced Rs 495 crore for upgrading polytechnics but principal of polytechnic in Bathinda Darshan Singh said, “We might not get benefited because the funds have always been used for upgrading metropolitan institutes.”

J.S. Anand, principal of DAV College, Bathinda, felt that a decision taken in haste boomerangs. “The increments given to higher education should be channeled towards rural colleges as they are dying due to financial crisis,” he added.

As the government plans to allocate Rs 827 crore to the 16 upcoming Central universities in the country, Dr Jai Roop Singh, vice-chancellor of the Central University to be set up in village Ghudha near Bathinda, did not comment much on how extra funds would help the university. “My university will be benefited” was all Dr Jai Roop Singh said.