Patiala, April 4
Reverting their decision of making Hindi an optional subject in Class X, the Punjab School Education Board has once again included Hindi as a compulsory subject at the matriculation level. With this decision, the board has reverted to teach nine subjects instead of introducing the eight- subject pattern of the CBSE. Board chairman Dr Dalbir Singh Dhillon said here today that the decision was taken on directions of CM Parkash Singh Badal.

Dhillon explained that the education board had introduced teaching of eight subjects (with two languages) on the CBSE pattern from this very session, which had also seen the introduction of semester system. But the Punjab government directed that nine subjects should be taught, including teaching of Punjabi, English and Hindi simultaneously. He said the board norms would make the teaching of mathematics, science and social studies compulsory along with physical education, computer science and an elective subject at this level. The evaluation of the last three subjects would be done by the schools themselves in Class X.

This move has been welcomed by various city residents, including government school teachers, who feel that Hindi being the mother tongue, it must be made compulsory for all students.

Supporting this decision, one of the teachers said, “There were arguments that our neighbouring states like Haryana, HP did not make Punjabi compulsory and taught only two compulsory subjects. So why should Hindi be made compulsory in Punjab, but one should understand that Hindi is their mother tongue like Punjabi is in Punjab. It’s just a coincidence that it’s a national language and thus they don’t have to teach the third subject. Therefore, one should not argue on these grounds and accept the fact that Hindi being our national language, it needs to be a compulsory subject.” 

Chandigarh, April 4
Now when the final word on the retirement age has been said, the Punjab government will have to activate both its Public Service Commission and the Subordinate Services Selection Board to start filling hundreds of vacancies in various departments.

The number of job seekers has been rising by the day and prospective job seekers had been waiting with bated breath for the final word on the retirement issue.

The prospective job seekers have more than one reason to feel elated. The foremost of these is the end of job freeze. The Council of Ministers decided to ask all departments to send comprehensive proposals for filling vacancies so that working of essential services continued unaffected.

For example, though Punjab may have the highest ratio of policemen to total population of the state, it still has decided to go ahead with fresh recruitments so as to infuse young and fresh blood in the force.

The forces also need to have a substantial number of techno and computer savvy people at all levels to combat the changing face of domestic, inter-state and international crime.

Now when the Council of Ministers took a unanimous decision not to alter the retirement age, all those aspiring for a year-long extension in service will have to look elsewhere for their rehabilitation.

The recommendation for raising the retirement age was made by the Sukhbir-Kalia Committee.

It had stated that as a part of fulfilment of the manifesto, the retirement age of all employees of the state government and its boards and corporations be enhanced from 58 years to 60 years as has been done in other all-India cadres.

The committee had also made two stipulations. The first one said that employees seeking two years’ extension in service would continue to work on the last pay drawn at the otherwise retirement age of 58 years. The other stipulation was that those seeking extension would also be eligible for promotion but without any increase in their wages.

While the Council of Ministers at its earlier meeting held on January 22 accepted the rest of the recommendations of the Sukhbir-Kalia Committee, it opted for a middle path on the retirement issue, allowing employees retiring in 2010 an option to seek extension for one year.

This decision came under severe criticism as many expected the government to take a firm policy decision - either to retain 58 as retirement age or make it 59 or 60 for all employees across the board without any option. Questions were raised as how the state can let an employee decide when he wants to retire, at 58 or 59.

Subsequently the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the January 22 decision of the Council of Ministers last week.

An emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers was called on Saturday last, primarily to take a final decision on the retirement age. And it decided not to change the age of retirement to give the issue a quiet burial for the time being.

Will the new decision be applied to those PCS (Executive Branch) employees who have been re-employed by the state and given key field postings is still not known.

Staff unions up in arms over power board unbundling
Say it’s been a fiasco in other states, threaten statewide stir
Umesh Dewan
Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 4
Reacting sharply to the decision to unbundle Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), various employees unions of the board today announced that they would strongly oppose the Punjab Government’s move and threatened massive protests and strikes across the state.

Terming the move anti-employee, Swaran Singh and Pal Singh Moga, representatives of the PSEB Joint Forum, Punjab, a conglomerate of various employee unions, said, “Unbundling would adversely affect board staff. There would be no certainty as to how issues related to the EPF, promotion policy, retirement benefits, balance pay revision issues, funds for unfunded liabilities and other benefits would be handled by the new companies post-unbundling.”

They said that the day the government issued the notification for unbundling, the agitation would be launched. “Any decision on unbundling has to be taken in prior consultation with employees unions,” they said, adding that a meeting of the PSEB Joint Forum had been convened for April 8 to chalk out a further course of action.

Council of Junior Engineers PSEB general secretary Davinder Singh said that unbundling of electricity boards in other states had not yielded positive results. “The Punjab Government should desist from taking any decision that is against the interest of employees. In coordination with other unions, we would definitely go on strike if the government goes ahead with unbundling,” he announced.

PSEB Diploma Engineers’ Association general secretary SS Gill echoed a similar plan of action. “All employees are united on this issue and we won’t allow the government to plunge the future of thousands of employees into darkness,” he said.

PSEB Technical Service Union circle secretary BD Sharma said that they would stage dharnas at various circle offices of the board from April 7 to 12.

PSEB Engineers’ Association president HS Bedi said that their association was committed to introducing meaningful reforms but would reject halfhearted attempt to unbundle the existing structure just to comply with the Electricity Act, 2003.

Leaders of various other PSEB unions also demanded that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal convene an immediate meeting to discuss the crucial issue with board staff before issuing the notification. 

Ludhiana, April 4
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has signed contracts worth Rs 1,100 crore to purchase power from different states during the paddy season. This is a short-term measure for four months-from June to September.

The PSEB had purchased a similar amount of power last year too to enable farmers to sow paddy. It is learnt that the PSEB authorities are undertaking maintenance of thermal plants to run the same during the peak summer period and to meet power need of farmers. So far as the coal supply position is concerned, three thermal plants do not face any problem of meeting the same at present. Bathinda thermal plant has coal for 20 days, Ropar 20 days and Lehra Mohabbat for 10 days.

Meanwhile, with the rise in temperature, snow has started melting and the inflow of water in dams has started increasing although the level of the same remains low compared with the level of last year. Water level in Bhakhra complex is low by 45 ft and Pong Dam by 20 ft. Inflow of water in Bhakra was reported at 9,000 cusecs against 5,000 cusecs of last year and at the Pong Dam , the inflow was 2,590 cusecs against 1,116 cusecs of last year.

PSEB officials feel that generation at hydel power stations would increase next month with more discharge of water for irrigation purposes. 

Kalalwala (Talwandi Sabo), April 4
At the crack of dawn, a group of 80 men, women and children get busy plucking roses from the six-acre farm of Rajinderpal Singh. The exercise is completed by 9 am when the flowers are sealed in boilers with mud paste on the cover to extract rose oil, which has a good market here and abroad.

This is the success story of Rajinderpal who, through his innovative effort, has in the waterlogged village in the desert area of Kalalwala near Talwandi Sabo made roses bloom in his farm.

The intelligently planned diversification was fetching anything between Rs 3.50 lakh to Rs 3.75 lakh per litre of rose oil. The entire activity of plucking roses and extracting oil is possible only two months in a year, says Rajinderpal. The farm has become a seasonal source of employment as each person is paid Rs 3 for each kilogramme of pluck. Generally each labourer plucks 10 to 15 kg of flowers every morning.

He is perhaps the only farmer who is engaged in this type of activity in this part of Punjab. He has set up in the backyard of his house an indigenously developed boiler system to extract rose oil by experts from Uttar Pradesh.

He sold a litre of rose oil for Rs 3.50 lakh last year and is holding back a stock of 4 litres, waiting for the price to improve. He is expecting a bumper harvest this year as roses are in full bloom in his farm. He is expecting to pluck 15 to 16 quintals of flowers this season.

He says that the flower crop over each acre gives a yield of only 200 to 250 millilitre of rose oil. The residue is marketed as rose water that, too, has a good domestic market.

Rajinderpal took up the challenging job of cultivating roses at a time when most of the government buildings, including the school and health centre, were abandoned due to acute problem of water logging that had rendered the land infertile. Moreover, the village is situated in the desert area where extra effort had to be put in to make the land fit for floriculture.

He says that a sum of Rs 80,000 was annually being spent for the upkeep of the farm, whereas he was earning anything between Rs 50,000 to Rs 80,000 from each acre of rose cultivation. He has hired an expert hand, Mujeeb Khan, of Hathras in UP to extract good quality rose oil. He comes to the village only for a month during which the activity of extraction of oil and packing is done.

Rajinderpal says that due to lack of marketing facility of his produce in Punjab, he has to go all the way to UP to sell the rose oil. The tendency of the middlemen in the trade is to exploit the innocent farmers by keeping a big margin of money with them. The rose oil traders at Delhi pay less than those in UP for the produce.

For extracting oil, he has brought specially designed copper utensils from UP where rose oil business was flourishing. He is planning to expand the area under rose cultivation to make handsome earnings out of the business.

Fatehgarh Sahib, April 4
Commission agents of grain markets at Fatehgarh Sahib today threatened to boycott the wheat procurement procedure in view of delay in Rs 1.5 crore labour charges and stitching expenses of sacks pending with the government for the past more than four months.

The agents said they would not hesitate in moving court against the government for delay in payment. “We have paid labourers from our pockets to get paddy loaded in trucks after getting it stitched for procuring agencies and bills of same have also been submitted with the authorities concerned a long time ago,” said president of the Khamano Arhtiya’s Association, Gurdev Singh.

He said even the commission of agents was pending with the government. As per the rules, this amount should have been paid before December 31, 2009. “The lifting of paddy got delayed due to a lackadaisical attitude of procurement agencies and we got it lifted after repeated requests and pleas,” said another arthiya Prem Singh Manaili. He said the agency officials were delaying payment over the pretext that paddy they had received was less in quantity and was not as per bills arhtiya’s had submitted.

“Earlier they wanted to deduct 20 per cent amount from our payments and now they have raised same to 40 per cent,” he said, adding at least rest of the amount should be released immediately.

He said the amount was pending with procuring agencies, including Markfed, PUNSUP and Warehouse. Representations to agency officials, Fatehgarh Sahib Deputy Commissioner, SAD-BJP leaders and the minister for Food and Supplies has been given in the past but to no avail, they said. As per the rules procurement should be done within 24 hours and lifting must be completed within 72 hours however it always got delayed due to shortage of space, lack of coordination and let go attitude of the government officials, they alleged.

A representation of arhtiya’s have fixed “last meeting” with the Deputy Commissioner tomorrow. “If our pending amounts are not paid in coming few days then we would knock doors of court,” they said.

“We will also boycott process of wheat procurement in all grain markets of Khamano including Ucha Pind due to delay in payments,” said the arhtiya’s. Commission agents from Khamano, Ranwan, Nanowal, Majri and Sanghol were present today in grain market to discuss the problem. Deputy Commissioner Yashvir Mahajan said two months ago the same issue had cropped up. “I had then convened a meeting of managers of various procurement agencies and asked them to resolve the matter expeditiously. I will again see into the matter,” he said.

Mohali, April 4
The Punjab’s Town and Country Planning Department allowed the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and other urban development agencies to sit on its money for two years, resulting in revenue loss of Rs 46.02 crore to the state exchequer. The revenue was in the form of licence fee collected from developers of colonies.

Not only this, GMADA also retained an amount of Rs 15 crore for two years. The Town and Country Planning Department should have recovered the money collected from a promoter for change of land use for a project in Mohali.

Bring the issues under its scanner, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its recent report has pointed out that since the Chief Town Planner (CTP) of the department failed to collect the licence fee from the concerned development agency, the government suffered the loss.

The report reveals that as per government notification issued in January 2005, the senior town and district town planners were empowered to grant licence to the developers of colonies, measuring up to 10 acres. For areas exceeding 10 acres, the CTP has the powers. In August 2007, the government decided to levy licence fee, ranging from 0.25 lakh to Rs 2 crore per acre for different categories while granting the permission to colonisers and promoters of projects.

In August 2007, the government allowed the urban development agencies to grant the licence and retain the licence fee for planning and development of areas under their respective jurisdiction and approvals in 40 cases were given. But as per the 2005 notification, the licence fees continued to be government receipts and were to be credited to the state exchequer.

In reply to a query by the CAG, the government pointed out that the 2005 notification had been amended in March 2008. But the loss of revenue of Rs 46 crore pertained to the period (from September 2007 to February 2008) when the amended notification cannot be applied. In another instance of irregular retention of government money, the CAG pointed out that GMADA illegally retained Rs 15 crore, deposited by a promoter while seeking change of land use for a project in Mohali.

As per the August 2007 orders of the government, the promoters were required to pay development charges (EDC), licence fee and CLU charges at rates prescribed from time to time. While the EDC and licence fee were to be retained by the development agency, the conversion charges were to be deposited with government treasury. Of the total Rs 42.38 crore deposited by the promoter, Rs 15 crore were the conversion charges. Instead of crediting the conversion fee, GMADA retained the money for two years. 

Punjab’s Town and Country Planning Department allowed urban development agencies to sit on its revenue, which it had collected from developers in the form of licence fee, for two years

Samlah (Anandpur Sahib), April 4
A cluster of 26 villages, known as the changar area in Anandpur Sahib, is now braving the drought for the fourth consecutive year.

While the area has been battling water scarcity for more than five decades, the problem has grown severe in last four years with no water available for human consumption or for animals.

Around 20,000 villagers of the Changar area are dependent on small ponds constructed under a project couple of years ago. “Seven years ago, the dairy business supported our livelihood. Due to drought, now we have to take cattle to the downhill towards Kiratpur Sahib to meet their water requirement,” said Bhola Ram of Lakher.

With no water to drink or for irrigation, penury is writ large in these villages.“There are no jobs. Every year, we buy seeds on loan and end up being defaulters,” rued Raju from Samlah.

About 16 years ago, the Punjab Tubewell Corporation had dug deep bore tubewell near Paharpur village that has been successfully irrigating around 40 acres of land and providing drinking water as well. “Now the water level in the area has gone beyond 1,000 m beneath. If the government wants to install a tubewell it would be a very costly affair, but can surely quench thirst of many parched throats,” pointed out an official of the tubewell corporation.

Mohinder Singh of Lakher said the situation was not so bad in the nearby villages that fall in Himachal Pradesh. “The Himachal government has provided water through the lift irrigation system. Though it’s not sufficient, but something is better than nothing,” he added.

Officials of the corporation pointed out that a few years ago, the government had directed to make a plan for lift irrigation, which did not mature due to political reasons.

The SAD-BJP government had also sanctioned Rs 40 lakh for installing tubewell two years ago. A tubewell that was installed at Missewal village, does not provide adequate water.

Interestingly, this BJP-dominated pocket has always been an issue during general and assembly elections. In last 40 years, the area has seen many political changes but their water problem remains unaddressed.

Meanwhile, MP Anandpur Sahib Ravneet Singh Bittu said he was planning to bring jobs through NREGA work, while adviser to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema said,“We have planned to study the Himachal Pradesh’s system of providing water in the same area and the decision in this regard would be taken soon,” he asserted. 

Patiala, April 4
Digital technology holds the key to develop an ultimate machine that will be able to perform all visual functions of human beings.

This was stated by Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor Jaspal Singh in his inaugural address at a national seminar on “Recent Advances and Future Trends in Digital Image Processing”, organised by the university’s Department of Computer Science here. He added digital image processing was one of the most rapidly evolving fields in information technology, having multi-dimensional applications in astronomy, medical sciences, biological sciences, etc.

On the occasion, he elaborated the work done by the university for computerisation of Punjabi language, which included the development of Gurmukhi optical character recognition system, Punjabi search engine, online Punjabi teaching website, Gurmukhi-Shahmukhi transliteration and Punjabi-Hindi machine translation systems.

KK Biswas, IIT-Delhi, talked about recognition of human actions in video clips. He demonstrated how the computer could be trained to automatically detect suspicious movements on camera, which can prove useful in aiding automatic surveillance by closed circuit cameras.

CV Jawahar, IIIT-Hyderabad, focused his discourse on challenges related to the effective visual search, applications of image and video retrieval.

A new dimension in video compression, which could remove the existing anomalies in signal reception in television sets, too, was discussed.

Jayanta Mukherjee, IIT-Kharagpur, focused on color image processing in compressed domain and demonstrated how it could be utilised to develop cheaper and faster video conferencing systems.

Gurpreet Singh Lehal, HoD, Computer Department, said the first Gurmukhi OCR system with recognition accuracy of more than 97 per cent had been developed by his department.

Kingpin of fake VAT refund racket held
Kanchan Vasdev/TNS

Ludhiana, April 4
The state Taxation Department and the police have busted a racket of swindlers, who were instrumental in getting VAT refunds worth crores after supplying fake bills to industrial units, by arresting their kingpin, Parmod Bhalla.

Bhalla was nabbed from Mandi Gobindgarh, who allegedly helped industrialists fleece the state exchequer of crores of rupees by supplying fake bills and getting kickbacks in return within four years. Sources said the total amount of VAT refunds, that were withdrawn through him by supplying fake bills, might run to as much as Rs 3,000 crore.

Additional DCP, Harsh Bansal, who is investigating the multi-hundred crore bogus VAT refund scam, said Parmod allegedly helped industrialists get refunds by showing at least 12 bogus firms to withdraw the money. During interrogation, it was found that he got bills printed in the name of various firms that did not exist and supplied these to industrialists. They then submitted those to the Taxation Department and withdrew the money.

Bansal said with his arrest, more skeletons would come out of the closet after investigations. He said interestingly, Parmod lived like a pauper but is learnt to have many benami properties worth crores. Since he kept on operating for four years and industrialists kept on withdrawing refunds, the connivance of officials of the department could not be ruled out.

During interrogation, he also claimed he used to pay lakhs to several officials every year. He is said to be in touch with several industrialists of Ludhiana as well as Mandi Gobindgarh. Most of the industrialists involved in the racket deal in steel.

The police tracked down on him when the racket came to light. They found out firms registered with the department that had bogus sale transactions three months ago.

The department then identified industrial units who were involved in preparing bogus sales bills and getting themselves registered with the department allegedly in connivance with officials to evade tax. A complaint was sent to the police to start criminal proceedings.

During the investigation, it was found that these units evaded sales tax and got a refund by showing bogus transactions and Parmod was behind the scene. An inquiry revealed that the units had shown many buyers and their addresses. When the probe team reached the buyers, they only found dhaba owners and drivers.