Jalandhar, April 23
The Punjab Government has cleared a proposal to increase the fees in engineering and other technical institutions affiliated to PTU by 10 per cent.

Official sources said the proposal in this regard was put up before the Chief Minister today. The increased fees will be applicable from the coming academic session. The students already on the rolls of various colleges will not have to pay the enhanced fees. The decision on the fee hike will affect about 80 institutions.

The managements of various engineering and other technical colleges had sought 33 per cent increase in the fees. They had argued that the fees had not been increased for the past seven years.

Going by the existing fee structure prescribed by Punjab Technical University for its colleges, new students joining the engineering colleges during coming academic session will have to bear an additional burden of about Rs 3,500 per semester. The PTU fee structure includes the tuition fee, development fund, students’ facilitation fee, securities (refundable), other fee and university- related fee.

The university had fixed a separate fee structure for each semester. For instance, the fee structure for the I semester (academic year 2009-10) of BTech, BArch and BPharma courses was Rs 35,505 and for the II semester Rs 27,750 and for the III , V, VII and IX Rs 28,025 per semester and for the IV, VI, VII and X semesters Rs 27,550 per semester. The university had fixed the fee structure on the basis of a notification issued by the state government on April 1, 2003.

The refundable securities include college, library, hostel and mess security. Other fee includes that related to souvenir, institutional membership, student amenities, development and identity card. However, that fee structure does not include hostel- related fee, mess charges, sports facilites, blazer charges, etc. 

Chandigarh, April 23
A day before the blast, the conspiracy to assassinate former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh could have been unearthed. Conspirator Gurmeet Singh’s roommate saw RDX and police uniforms in the room, but did not raise the alarm.

The startling revelation was made this morning during the hearing of appeals filed by the assassins. The former CM was killed, along with 12 others, in an explosion outside the Punjab Civil Secretariat on August 31, 1995. The RDX, stuffed in a belt, was used by human bomb Dilawar Singh to trigger off the blast.

Two of the assassins, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Balwant Singh, face the gallows. Three other convicts, Shamsher Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

As the appeals came up before Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice Arvind Kumar, CBI counsel SK Saxena and RK Handa said Satwinder Singh, alias Simpy, was sharing with Gurmeet the first floor room of a Phase IV house in Mohali. A diploma holder in mechanical engineer, he and Gurmeet Singh had studied together.

In fact, Simpy had sought, and was given, the landlord’s permission for Gurmeet Singh to move in. On August 28, 1995, Lakhwinder Singh, Dilawar Singh, Balwant Singh and Jagtar Singh Hawara came to the house. Just a day before the blast on August 30, 1995, Simpy saw all accused sitting together. Some uniforms, he had never seen before, too were hanging. They had in front of them a newspaper. “This was the one on which the RDX was kept,” the counsel told the high court.

Simpy said on the day of the blast, he was not in Mohali. In fact, he had left for Jalandhar for some work. When he came back, he saw Gurmeet Singh and his friends had left.

The CBI also told Lakhwinder Singh, arrested at a barrier near Kansal village chowk, after being identified by witness-cum-car painter Surinder Sharma, was carrying in his pocket a handwritten note. It said: “I want only Chief Minister, Punjab.

Chandigarh, April 23
On arresting spree, the Punjab Police believes in going slow when it comes to deposing as witnesses - a practice deprecated by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in its order in a drug trafficking case.

In fact, the impunity with which policemen disregard their duty to depose, particularly in the area under the Ludhiana police, has led to the HC to direct the initiation of action against the erring officials.

Statistics reveal that cops stayed away from witness boxes in over 73 per cent of the drug trafficking cases for more than two hearings just in Ludhiana district. The worse are the policemen of the Dakha police station. Out of 67 cases registered under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, they appeared in just one case. In 66 cases, the witnesses did not appear for more than two dates.

In an apparent attempt to arrest the practice, Justice Rajive Bhalla ruled: “The data discloses disturbing state of affairs. The impunity with which police officials disregard their duty to depose as witnesses must be deprecated. The trial courts are compelled, by the failure of the police officials, to depose as witnesses, to issue summons, bailable warrants, letters to senior superintendent of police. But to no avail.”

Coming down heavily on the police, Justice Bhalla asserted: “The Ludhiana SSP is directed to consider the reasons for the absence of police officials from the courts and initiate action, failing which appropriate orders shall be passed.” “The SSP shall also file a detailed report,” Justice Bhalla said, directing the case to be fixed up for hearing next month.

The directions came on a bail plea filed by Baljinder Kumar against Punjab in a drug trafficking case. He is facing trial for almost two years, as the police has failed to depose. Taking a note of his submission, Justice Bhalla had called for a report.

As it came in, Justice Bhalla took on record the affidavit of Ludhiana SSP Harinder Singh Chahal. The affidavit shows in Jagraon, 75 cases were under trial under the NDPS Act, in 61 cases the witnesses did not appear for over two dates; in Jagraon city police station the total was 34, witnesses did not appear in 30.

In Sidhwa Bet police station, the total was 133, witnesses did not appear in 95 cases. The situation was worse in Raikot police station, where in 84 cases out of 86, the witnesses did not appear. In Sudhar police station, the witnesses did not appear in 10 out of 74 cases. On all, the witnesses did not appear in 346 out of 469 cases.

Ludhiana, April 23
Lack of storage space for wheat is turning out to be a major concern for the state government.

Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, food and civil supplies minister today said the state was short of 60 per cent storage capacity for wheat.

“From the last two years we have been trying to provide space for 79 lakh tonne but have been unsuccessful in doing so,” said Kairon, who was in Ludhiana today to attend an Indo-French seminar on textile industry.

He said tenders have been invited for renting buildings but they have not been successful. To attract people to give away their space, the annual rent of the warehouses in the state should be increased. In addition to this he said he was not satisfied with the parameters on which the godowns are taken by the government.

Further Kairon said warehouses should be made modern equipped with state-of-art facilities. “Quality storage facilities are not available in the state,” he said. Classifying storage facilities he said open space could be used if the produce was to be kept for a short period while space with modern facilities should be taken for keeping the produce for a longtime.

The harvesting season has shrunk, said Kairon. Initially it use to be from April 1 to May 30 but now it has been limited till April 1 to April 21 due to various mechanical reason.

Commenting on today’s seminar on Indo-French seminar on textile industry he said Ludhiana’s textile industry should adopt the technical know-how from France. “Machinery from France will prove very beneficial for the textile industry of the city.”

Jalandhar, April 23
Although townships, shopping malls and flyovers are mushrooming across the state, the government has failed to extend its welfare schemes to construction workers under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act.

As per the government’s data, nearly 4 lakh construction workers are working in an unorganised sector in the state. However, till February 2010, the state labour department has registered only 4,895 as beneficiaries under this act. The act covers all those involved in projects such as mega housing projects, construction, maintenance and repair of houses, roads and any other project involving element of construction.

The state had implemented this act on October 1, 2008, and efficiency of the labour department can be judged from the fact that it took nearly over one year to register only 1.2 per cent of total unorganised construction labour in the state. District Kapurthala performed worst with just 90 workers enrolled as beneficiaries.

State Labour Commissioner NK Vadhavan said the government had launched a campaign to promote benefits under this act. “We are working on a proposal to register NREGA workers also under this act. Representatives of labour unions are also being sensitised about the act,” said Vadhavan.

The act was passed to provide financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to the family in case of accidental death of its breadwinner on a construction project. Medical benefits up to Rs 30,000 per annum to the beneficiary and four of his family members and Rs 5,100 for the marriage of daughter are part of welfare schemes. There are also provisions of scholarships to the children and interest free loan for the marriage of daughters.To implement these welfare schemes, the state government had notified the enforcing Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, which empowers labour department to collect 1 per cent cess on the total construction cost of project.

The government, semi-government and private firms are legally bound to pay cess to the labour department. Even the individuals, constructing house with construction cost more than Rs 10 lakh are also covered under the act. However, in the past one and a half years only Rs 31 crore has been collected by the labour department 

Jalandhar, April 23
Lashing out at the state government for putting a huge burden of Rs 5,000 crore on the people of the state in recent months by raising various taxes, levies and other charges, including power tariff hiked today, the CPI said the right course was to make substantial reduction on the running of the popular government by removing chief parliamentary secretaries and politicians appointed as chairpersons of various boards and corporations.

“The state government has put a burden of Rs 950 crore on the people today by increasing the power tariff. Earlier, the Sukhbir-Kalia committee had put a burden of Rs 4,000 crore on the people by increasing various taxes, levies and other charges a few months ago,” said Joginder Dayal, a member of the national executive of the CPI and vice-president of the Kisan Sabha. He said in recent months, the bus fare was raised, electricity duty was increased and apart from it drinking water and sewer charges were also increased.

Asserting that the CPI with the support of other Left and like-minded parties would launch an agitation against the government to force it to withdraw the power tariff hiked today, Dayal said instead of putting a back- breaking burden of taxes on the people of the state, the government should remove chief parliamentary secretaries and politicians appointed as chairpersons of various boards, corporations and other organisations.

He said there would be no need to hike the power tariff in case the governments showed the will to make a substantial reduction in the line losses, in the range of 25 per cent, worth Rs 2,500 crore.

Chandigarh, April 23
A special committee of the Punjab police constituted to probe custodial deaths due to poisoning has stated that there is a fair possibility of the inmates either having committed suicide or having been murdered while they were in jail.

The committee headed by ADGP SK Sharma was constituted following orders of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission and submitted its report recently.

Th committee members have stated that in cases where the jail inmate is found to have died of “organic phosphorous compound” a chemical used in pesticides, there is a possibility that the inmate procured it from an outsider during meeting time and committed suicide or someone having poisoned the inmate by mixing it in food, water or alcohol. The committee members pointed out that at least one in every hundred cases of custodial deaths is due to poisoning.

In most such cases jail authorities put forth an explanation that the inmates were exposed to insecticides sometime during their lifetime and though the cause of death is a heart attack or something else, residues of the chemical have shown up in the postmortem report.

The jail authorities had also held that since pesticides are sprayed on most of the food items traces of these compounds would show up in almost everyone’s viscera.

The committee’s report, however, pointed out that though this could be an explanation of some such deaths, attributing every case to “residual poisoning” was not possible.

The committee also brought forth the lack of coordination between the various departments, which are supposed to look into such cases. “There are no standard procedures laid down on how to proceed when an inmate is found to have died due to poisoning. The report added that since the jail authorities are the first ones to deal with such cases their tendency is to try and shield their own employees.

The committee suggested that jail authorities should have a standing order on how to deal with custodial deaths, which should be stringently followed. It further suggested that jails should have separate barracks for inmates who are suffering from health problems and deal with them accordingly.

A detailed health profile of each inmate should be maintained by Jail authorities.

The committee members also said there was an urgent need to revise the capacity of the jails. “A jail should only have 10 per cent inmates more than its capacity at any given time,” report said.

The report adds that there should be strict monitoring of the inmate’s meeting with outsiders using CCTV cameras.

A copy of an identification card of the outsider should be kept in jail records.

Malerkotla, April 23
Officers of the Malerkotla Improvement Trust are facing a problem of “additional charge” as certain key posts are vacant in the office.

According to information, executive officer (EO) Jawahar Lal Sibia handles the additional charge of Samana in Patiala district. Though Sibia belongs to Bathinda, he has to go to Samana for two days.

The SDO of the Improvement Trust, Narinder Kumar, is also working at two places. He has a dual charge of Malerkotla and Barnala. Accountant Ashwani Kumar has an additional charge of Patiala. He attends office in Patiala for three days out of five days on duty.

When asked, Jawahar Lal Sibia said the state had over 150 posts of executive officers, but had only 64 at present.

Clerk Kuldeep Singh said even the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) applications of the Trust were answered by chairman Sabir Ali Dhillon instead of executive officer Jawahar Lal Sibia who is the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Trust.

The local residents rued that their works at the Trust were lying incomplete in the absence of officers. “Whenever we go to the office, we are told the officer has gone to another station due to additional charge,” they added. 

Chandigarh, April 23
A saleswoman of Punjab’s hugely popular Verka cooperative milk bar at the Secretariat here threw babu’s in a tizzy by suspending supply of all products to the state hospitality and other departments because of pending payment of credit due to her.

The woman, who is due to retire this month, was apprehensive that the credit given to the hospitality department as well as public relations department and even officers, would be deducted from her retirement benefits if not realised.

Her apprehensions were partly true. Verka does not sell any of its products on credit. In case of the milk bar in the secretariat all stock is advanced in the name of the staff.

The staff member heading the bar usually extends credit under an informal arrangement to government departments. The products sold include milk, lassi and fruit drinks.

According to sources, the sales woman had been trying to get her accumulated dues of around Rs 20,000 cleared from various departments since nearly two months. With only a few days left to her retirement she took the unprecedented step of suspending supply of all products to the state hospitality department, which serves the chief minister’s office as well as other senior functionaries two days back.

The hospitality department, however, did not take kindly to this and shot off a letter to the Verka general manager asking him to restore supply or face requisite action.

Markfed manages Verka and its managing director VK Singh when contacted today said directions had been issued to restore supply to all government departments. He said the woman had done the correct thing by asking for money due to the milk bar but was not authorised to suspend supply.

The MD said corrective steps were being taken and that the department had asked for a list of pending bills so that it could pursue the case and ensure due payment was made to the milk bar.

Chandigarh, April 23
Punjab Technical University (PTU) Vice-Chancellor Dr Rajneesh Arora today told The Tribune that a course in ‘Human Values and Professional Ethics’ would now be mandatory for all students enrolled in nearly 208 affiliated colleges of PTU.

He said: “The course has been exclusively designed by professors of the Indian Institute of Technology- Delhi and Kanpur.”

He exhorted the students of human resource (HR) to contribute to the field of education and offered them jobs in the university.

Speaking at Surya World HR Summit 2010 at the CII Auditorium here, he said the public must be looked upon as an asset rather than a liability. He also called for an academic-industry partnership to create better HR managers. Rajansh Thukral, honorary secretary Surya Educational and Charitable Trust, welcomed the guests and participants.

The summit highlighted the changing facets of HR industry. Rajiv Goyal, chairman Surya Educational and Charitable Trust, said the summit aimed at bringing HR professionals, academicians and researchers on a common platform to deliberate on various aspects of human resource management.

Patiala, April 23
Punjab PWD minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa today visited the head office of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) here to take stock of the electricity supply related works in Patiala and Sangrur. The meeting was attended by PSPCL members Gurbachan Singh Bachhi, KD Chaudhry and VK Gupta. Dhindsa said he was satisfied with the pace of electricity supply-related development works in Patiala and Sangrur districts.

“The corporation is preparing well for the electricity supply during the coming paddy season,” he said, adding, they had assured that 25 new substations would be commissioned by June.

Chaudhry said 66KV new sub-stations at Gandua, Jhakhepal, Sheron, Daska and Sekhuwas would be commissioned before June 30. He added that capacity of 66KV sub-stations at Chaharkorian, Bakhopir, Kuthala, Nadampur, Sularghat, Kanakwal, Aspal Kalan, Dhaula and Kanjla was being upgraded by adding new transformers.