Chandigarh, December 21
The controversy over seniority between Punjab Police promotees and directly recruited DSPs seems to be the government’s making with a large number of Inspectors being promoted as DSPs by giving relaxation from 1989 to 1994.

Principal Secretary, Home, A. R. Talwar has clearly mentioned this in his order fixing seniority between promotees and direct recruits. According to sources a number of promotee officers, who are currently even DIGs, were promoted as DSPs before they were eligible for the same. The report by Talwar mentions as such, saying “the promotees were appointed on ex cadre and temporary posts in excess of the vacancies of their share”.

Besides this, the government resorted to filling vacancies as and when these occurred with promotee officers as direct recruits were not available due to irregular recruitment. The last batch of PPS officers was recruited in 1994. Before this a batch was recruited in 1990.

Direct DSP recruits of the 1990 batch seem to be the worst sufferers of the tug of war with promotee officers. While direct recruits in other state services, including neighbouring states, get elevated to the IPS cadre within 10 to 11 years, they are in service for nearly 20 years without getting the IPS cadre.

The report also makes it clear that the seniority of directly recruited DSPs would not be ante dated but would be determined by the date of their confirmation. Direct recruits have got an advantage as on the date they were appointed sufficient number of vacancies existed in the service falling to the share of direct recruits. In direct contrast in the case of promotees many officers were given promotions to temporary posts. While promotee officers do not enjoy any protection from being demoted, the state government has accommodated them by creating ex cadre posts, which will be abolished on their retirement.

A study of the order also revealed that the government has like the Supreme Court earlier taken the Paramjit Singh Sandhu versus Ram Rakha case as a benchmark. The apex court, while delivering its judgement in the case, ordered that the quota rule (four promotions for promotees versus one for direct recruits) was intertwined with the seniority rule.

Sources said despite giving an assurance in court that a seniority list would be made, none was made from 1983 to 2005. During the last Congress regime, it decided to implement the seniority rule from 1989 onwards, which the direct recruits, who maintained that they should not suffer for non-implementation of the apex court’s order, protested.

The order has in keeping with the high court’s observations on the issue last year finalised a list of PPS officers who were in service against substantive posts as well as a separate list of PPS officers who are in service against temporary posts. The seniority of those against temporary posts will be determined on the availability of substantive posts. 

Bathinda, December 21
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) today gheraoed Primary Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank, near the mini-secretariat here, for three hours in protest against arrests of farmers for the non-payment of loans and forcible recovery of loans from them by bank officials.

The BKU (Ugrahan) announced that if arrests of farmers continued, then its activists and members would gherao officials of the bank in villages whenever they would go there either for the forcible recovery of the loan or to arrest any farmer. Later, the protesters took out a march from the bank to Hanuman Chowk and shouted slogans in support of their demands.

District president of the union Shingara Singh Mann said their main demand was to scrap Sections 63-C and 67-A of the Cooperative Act, as these gave powers to the authorities to initiate action against farmers and labourers.

Terming the Sections as an “act of injustice” towards the farmers and labourers, he said they would not tolerate any type of injustice.

Senior vice-president of the union Jhanda Singh Jethuke asked the government to stop the arrests of the farmers and labourers immediately. He also sought the release of all farmers arrested on account of the non-payment of loans.

He urged the protesting farmers to unite themselves to oppose officials whenever they went to their villages for the forcible recovery of loans or to arrest any farmer and labourer.

The union leaders also demanded the fixation of prices of crops in the light of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations; stoppage of auction of defaulter farmers’ lands and free insurance of crops for natural calamities.

Chandigarh, December 21
If anyone is single-handedly gobbling up all attention or has been at the centre of all political controversies in Punjab since the beginning of this month it is none other than Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee chief Paramjit Singh Sarna.

For the Shiromani Akali Dal-led Punjab Government and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, he has been the bete noire for his action in ordering an inquiry by a retired High Court Judge into incidents of violence in Ludhiana early this month. Besides, he has been trying to polarise all anti-Badal forces into a group to fight the coming elections to the SGPC.

And in Congress circles, though he is known to be a confidant of former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, his alleged recent comments about Beant Singh have put him in the thick of controversy within the higher echelons of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. One of the former MLAs, Raj Kumar Verka, has gone to the extent of demanding a ban on his entry in Punjab.

Sarna, who, after breaking away from the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) more than a decade ago, has now established supremacy over managing the affairs of historic gurdwaras in the Union Capital, and is known for his political leanings towards the Congress in general and Capt Amarinder Singh in particular. His strong point has been the support from the urban or non-Jat Sikhs. And he had played a role in getting Sukhdev Singh Libra to vote for the UPA government in the last vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha.

He has also extended tacit support to the revival of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal) currently headed by the wife of Governor of Tamil Nadu Surjit Singh Barnala. Even if one looks back, both the SGPC and the DSGMC have been at daggers drawn over religious issues, including the definition of Sikh, besides being engaged in long unending legal battles.

But comments reportedly made by Capt Amarinder Singh at Tarn Taran recently that he would support anyone to dislodge the Badals from the SGPC had a section of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee dissociating itself from anything to do with the religious affairs of the Sikhs. PPCC chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha Rajinder Kaur Bhattal went public saying that they had nothing to do with Paramjit Singh Sarna or the supporting of any group openly in the coming SGPC poll.

This confrontation within the Congress intensified when Sarna reportedly commented that the soul of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh had entered Parkash Singh Badal with an indirect reference to the growing threat of revival of terrorism in Punjab.

This has provoked the Beant Singh lobby within the PPCC to react strongly and demand a ban on his entry in Punjab. Others in Congress, too, have reacted adversely to his reported statement.

Only yesterday a strong section of the SAD had made a similar demand after a two-member inquiry committee headed by T.S. Doabia, a retired High Court Judge, went to Ludhiana to start probing the incidents of violence that rocked the industrial city early this month.

It also provoked Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal to tell Sarna to stay away from Punjab and concentrate more on fighting a battle for the victims of the 1984 massacre of Sikhs in the Union Capital.

Harvinder Singh Sarna, brother of Paramjit Singh Sarna, reacted to the statement of Harsimrat Badal, saying that she should look into the deeds of her in-laws’ family that had used the Panth for its “own propagation without ever bothering about the interests of the Sikh community.”

Amritsar, December 21
Guru Nanak Dev University will effect a hike of nearly 25 per cent in students’ fee from the next academic session, while a range of developmental, administrative, admission and examination-related reforms are on the cards for the next year.

Even as the university with its 37 teaching departments, two regional centres at Jalandhar and Gurdaspur and three constituent colleges is imparting education to nearly 10,000 students, the nominal increase in the intake of students as compared to the previous year is a matter of concern.

The Rs 124.34-crore university budget at present is expected to cross well over Rs 150 crore from the next fiscal to meet the hike in pay expenditure effected by the Sixth Pay Commission.

Although the university has 149 affiliated colleges and 105 associate institutes, their number has been more or less stagnant for the past some years. Notably, the University Grants Commission (UGC) released Rs 50 crore to its 80 colleges under the Eleventh Plan. Vice-Chancellor Ajaib Singh Brar, who turned the university towards decentralisation this year by allowing students access to answer sheets, aims at introducing more revolutionary measures in examinations, admission and merger of similar departments the next year.

A committee has been formulated to suggest credit-based evaluation and semester system for the science, engineering and management courses. To increase efficiency and reduce expenditure, merger of similar departments like chemistry and applied chemistry, physics and applied physics, sugar and alcohol technology with food science technology, human genetic and Center for Genetic Disorders is on the cards.

The university under the UGC scheme to take higher and quality education to remote and backward rural areas of the border districts has decided to open three constituent colleges with faculties of arts, science and commerce at Mithra (Kapurthala), Chung (Tarn Taran) and Narot Jaimal Singh (Gurdaspur) villages.

Brar said Rs 10 crore would be invested to turn the university’s library into an e-library and install sophisticated equipment in science laboratories. Besides Rs 2 crore for upgrading computer libraries and management centres, Rs 1 crore each would be earmarked for upgrading infrastructure and computer labs in regional centres at Gurdaspur and Jalandhar. New courses would be introduced in chemistry and physics. The course on nuclear physics and technology would be incorporated in physics while a department of education for granting PhD in education would also be set up.

Meanwhile, the areas of concern for the university are a marginal rise in the intake of students and 25 per cent vacant seats in the teaching faculty. A confident Brar said more teachers would be recruited early next year and entrance tests would be restricted to those courses for which the number of applicants surpasses the actual number of seats.

This year the university signed an MoU with the Babha Atomic Research Corporation (BARC), Mumbai, Ranbaxy Laboratories, CSIR Palampur and Karl-Franzens University and Medical University of Graz Austria to carry out research and development jointly while it inked an agreement with the Punjab government for setting up a heritage village on its campus. 

Chandigarh, December 21
The year 2009 may well be recorded as the year of announcements as far as infrastructure projects are concerned in Punjab. The state planned big but most projects failed to take off in time due to a financial crunch. Now most of the big projects are slated for completion in 2011, just short of the Assembly elections in early 2012.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) dreamt big, which was a first for the state with Sukhbir himself presenting outlines of a expressway project from the new international airport to Ludhiana as well as beautification of the Sidhwan canal in Ludhiana. While the first project had to be shelved following protests by farmers, the second is still to be awarded.

Similarly the PIDB was unlucky with recession making investors shy away from previous commitments due to which a few projects, including the bus terminal project at Mohali, had to be reworked.

However, the government has hit the fast button with time running out for it and major projects have been awarded to private parties. Both bus terminal projects at Mohali and Patiala that have an estimated cost of Rs 300 crore and Rs 175 crore, have been awarded to private players and are likely to be completed by April 2011 and June 2011. The Bathinda bus terminal project to be constructed at a cost of Rs 250 crore is running behind schedule with work likely to start in March 2010.

The government has similarly awarded work for the two Greenfield super-speciality hospitals at Mohali and Bathinda, which will cost Rs 200 crore each and are likely to be completed by July 2011 and December 2011 respectively. Similarly work has also been awarded for the five star hotels slated to come up at the New City Centre in Amritsar and the Thermal Lakes in Bathinda at a cost of Rs 250 crore and Rs 175 crore respectively. Both projects will be completed in the latter half of 2011. Work on the five star hotel and international convention centre in Mohali, which is to be taken up at a cost of Rs 350 crore, will start in November 2010.

Projects conceived for some time but which are still running late as far as awarding work is concerned are the Habitat Centre and the Sports Complex in Mohali. Both projects, which are estimated to cost around Rs 300 crore and Rs 150 crore, are likely to see start of construction in October 2010 and are likely to be completed by December 2011. The Rs 400 crore project involving upgrading infrastructure along the Sidhwan canal in Ludhiana is likely to start by December next year and see completion by December 2011.

Next year is also likely to see the start of construction of Guru Gobind Singh medical college, senate campus and academic campus for Baba Farid University at Faridkot at a cost of Rs 80 crore as well as construction of associated hospitals of Government Medical College, Amritsar, at a cost of Rs 90 crore. Work orders have, however, been given for the Rs 200-crore infrastructure work at the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar.

The government is also concentrating on upgrading road infrastructure as well as the construction of railway over bridges (ROBs).

Amritsar, December 21
The working of a Standard Chartered Bank’s branch here has come under scanner with 45 of its account holders alleging that nearly Rs 2.5 crore had been misappropriated.

Majority of the account holders are small-time farmers and NRIs. The “scam” has shocked the public, forcing them to recheck their banking transactions. SP (D) Harjit Singh Brar, who is heading a special investigation team to probe the alleged scam, said the spread of the “fraud” was extensive and with each passing day, more and more victims were coming out. He said it was too earlier to say how many persons were involved in the “scam”.

However, he said, an official of the bank, Jatin Mahajan, had been arrested so far in this regard. Nearly 11 residents of Vallah village had been “victimised” by the bank official. All of them had become customers of the bank after selling their agriculture land at a hefty amount to private real estate developers nearly three and a half years ago.

Gurinder Singh, a villager, who sold five acres of land, alleged that his Rs 9.95 lakh were cheated in the name of FDRs. Another villager Ajit Kaur, alleged that her Rs 5 lakh had been siphoned off. Another victim Kanwaljit Kaur said she received a call of a relationship manager that she would get an increased rate of interest after converting her Rs 5 lakh from the saving account to FDR.

She said the official had allegedly got her signature on a self cheque and asked her to return after a fortnight to collect the FDR, as it was made at the bank’s global processing office in Chennai. She said even after making a number of rounds of the bank, she did not receive the FDR. Talking to The Tribune over the phone from Mumbai, Head, Media Relations India, Standard Chartered Bank, Arijit De, said the bank would compensate the account holders, who had incurred losses owing to “fraudulent” conduct of its official. 

Harike (Ferozepur), December 21
Harike, one of the largest wetlands of northern India, is witnessing the arrival of a large number of migratory birds from Siberia and Central Asia as the winter intensifies.

Birds belonging to about 30 varieties have descended on the wetland so far and are enjoying a habitat best suited to them in winters. So far, about one lakh migratory birds have reached here and the number is expected to cross 1.5 lakh by the end of January 2010, say officials of the Wild Life Department deployed for the protection and maintenance of the bird sanctuary. Effective checking on poaching and illegal fishing in the wetland and clearing of hyacinth from a larger area have started attracting migratory birds in large numbers this season after many years, said Harbans Singh Dhillon, District Wild Life Officer, Ferozepur. The wetland had also started attracting a large number of bird watchers, he added.

“Now we have increased the number of checkposts in and around the wetland. New observation towers have been erected to keep an effective watch on the movement of strangers in the wetland,” said Dhillon, adding that the police chiefs of Ferozepur, Tarn Taran and Kapurthala had been requested to provide policemen in adequate number to ensure effective round-the-clock patrolling of the area.

Jalandhar, December 21
All schools in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh connected with the Diocese of Jalandhar will remain closed on Tuesday.

Over 150 convent schools will remain closed in protest against the alleged “misconduct” of a Congress leader Tarlok Singh Chackwalia, who along with his armed gunmen forcibly entered Sacred Heart Convent School at Takarpura in Patti of Tarn Taran district and thrashed the director of the school, Father Lawrence, on Saturday.

The decision to close the schools has been taken at an emergency meeting held in Jalandhar on Monday under the presidentship of Bishop of Diocese of Jalandhar Anil Couto.

Soon after the meeting, the chairman of the Catholic Education Board, Father Josh Putanpura, announced that the schools would remain closed in support of their demand of immediate arrest of the Congress leader. Narrating the incident, Father Lawrence said Chackwalia with his armed gunmen had entered a classroom on Saturday morning and he objected to it as, according to the school rules, no one was allowed in the classroom with any weapon.Father Lawrence, who is at present convalescing at Sacred Heart Hospital at Maqsoodan in Jalandhar, further said one of the gunmen slapped him soon after he had objected to their forcible entry.

Subsequently both gunmen beat him up with the butts of their weapons and legs at the behest of the Congress leader, he said, adding that he sustained internal injuries. Interestingly, though an FIR under the Arms Act against Chackwalia and his two private gunmen on Saturday itself after protest by Christians, the police failed to arrest the Congress leader.

Tarn Taran, December 21
Four members of a family were killed while one injured when the car they were travelling in had a head-on collision with a truck, near Harike, 26 km from here, today.

The deceased have been identified as Sumitter Singh (35), an NRI, his mother Gurnam Kaur (65), nephew Pradeep Singh (24) and niece Gurmit Kaur. Veerpal Kaur (18) sustained serious injuries and her condition is also stated to be critical.

The incident took place when they were going to the Golden Temple to pay obeisance. SSP Sukhdev Singh Brar said a case had been registered against the truck driver identified as Rinku Kumar of Pathankot.