Chandigarh, June 2
Punjab Chief Minister and Patron of the Shiromani Akali Dal Parkash Singh Badal, who came back last night after attending to his wife convalescing in the US, may also have to take on the mantle of his son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for the next couple of weeks.

And the immediate task before senior Badal would be making public the name of the SAD nominee for the Rajya Sabha. Of two seats falling vacant on July 4 this year, one will go to the SAD. Normally, it is the President of the Dal, authorised by both the Parliamentary Board and the Working Committee of the party, who takes the final call in such matters.

But since Sukhbir Badal, President of the Dal, is abroad and is scheduled to return much after the entire election process has been completed, it will be Parkash Singh Badal who will announce the candidate.

Before Sukhbir Badal left for Europe on his way to the US to see his ailing mother there, Parkash Singh Badal was already in the US for his second personal visit in the past two months to attend to his wife.

After spending a week in Europe, Sukhbir Badal, accompanied by his wife, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, MP, and children will go to the US for a week and will return only in the second half of this month. Sukhbir Badal had been to the US in April to look after his mother there.

Reports suggest that Surinder Kaur Badal has been responding well to treatment there.

Interestingly, since the end of March, both father and son had been taking turns in visiting her regularly. In the past three months, there have been at least two occasions when both Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir were abroad simultaneously.

Though sources in the SAD maintain that the decision about the party candidate has already been taken, it has been only between the father and son.

Next week when the state goes in for paddy transplantation officially, conflicts and tensions over the shortage of power and water cannot be ruled out. Though Chief Minister Badal is apt in handling such situations, the absence of the Deputy Chief Minister will be a handicap.

Other than that, 17 organisations of farmers have taken exception to the remarks made by the Punjab Director-General of Police saying they were the public face of Naxalites. Now these organisations are planning a massive protest rally at Moga on June 7. Besides assailing the DGP for his reported comments, these organisations are also opposing the restructured Punjab State Electricity Board, withdrawal of free power and water supply to the farm sector and also use of force against peaceful demonstrations by various farmers’ organisations in different parts of the state during the present SAD-BJP regime.

Bathinda, June 2
In yet another goof up by the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), a city girl, who had a record of scoring above 98 marks in mathematics, underwent needless mental agony when the PSEB authorities erroneously declared her Class XII result with a compartment in maths.

Ironically, after the girl and her teachers realised the mistake, the PSEB authorities revised her result with 100 out of 100 marks in the same subject.

Showing two different printouts of her result, Rajni Rani, a student of MSD Senior Secondary School, Bathinda, said she was not at home on Tuesday when one of her friends informed her mother about the result.

“When I came back, I found my mother very depressed. She was upset after hearing about an unexpected result as I had always topped in maths. Initially, I did not think it to be true but after visiting a cyber café, when I personally checked it, I found that this was indeed true,” she said.

Narrating her harrowing experience, Rajni said, “I could not hold back my tears and got depressed. My parents took me to the school from where we went to the regional office of the PSEB, located here, but the staff there expressed their helplessness in the matter.”

“Taking notice of the erroneous result, the director of the school immediately forwarded a complaint to the PSEB. Going through the complaint, after a couple of hours, the PSEB authorities posted the revised result, in which I was declared having passed with full marks in the subject,” she further said.

On his part, the director-cum-maths teacher of MSD school, Suraj Setia, said, “The earlier result was quite shocking for us as she had always scored full marks in maths. After our complaint, the result was corrected. But the mistake that occurred in the result gave a reason to people to point a finger at the functioning of the PSEB.”Admitting the anomaly in the result, the Chairman, PSEB, Dalbir Singh Dhillon, said, “It was a provisional result and after thorough re-checking, we are updating it.

Moreover, the report cards, which will be despatched day after tomorrow, shall be termed as the final result.”

Chandigarh, June 2
The wrangling in the state BJP, which has caused a lot of bad blood besides causing a setback to its image, may finally be resolved in Patna. There is a proposal to take a “fact-finding report” on party affairs in general and outbursts between state Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jagdish Sahni in particular to party chief Nitin Gadkari at the BJP two-day national executive meeting.

Party sources said the report was prepared during the visit of Gadkari to Punjab, but couldn’t be presented to him at that time because of his preoccupation with other matters. Now, there is a move to take the report to Patna on June 12 and seek the national party chief’s intervention in the matter during the two-day national conclave.

The differences within the state BJP surfaced some time ago after officials of the Health Department raided a private clinic run by a close relative of Sahni and booked doctors after discovering some illegality. This led to an outburst by Sahni against Chawla, who was accused of “large scale corruption in the Health Department”. Chawla reacted strongly and snubbed Sahni, following which Sahni rendered his resignation that was accepted by the party. Finding himself cornered, he even retracted from his anti-party statements.

Though the party leadership did not come out openly against Sahni or Chawla, Balbir Punj, in charge of state party affairs, said, “We don’t want to do anything that harms the interest of the party.” Though the resignation of Sahni was accepted, the much talked about action against Chawla did not happen. On the other hand, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal made a statement saying there was no proposal to change the Health Minister’s portfolio.

Senior party leaders, however, say the entire episode has tarnished the image of the party and at the same time, they are unhappy with the functioning of Chawla due to her “un-obliging nature”.

“When you are part of a political party, you have to keep your workers and supporters happy and not adopt rigid positions like Chawla has done,” a senior leader said.

State BJP leaders are now proposing that the matter should be raised before the national executive at Patna. However, some other senior leaders said “this is merely a wishful thinking”, as this issue is not on the agenda, so it couldn’t be taken up.

However, they add that the possibility of this matter coming up before Gadkari in Patna, outside the conclave, is not ruled out. If this happens, they would press him to direct the state BJP chief to initiate some action against Sahni and Chawla. Chawla’s detractors are demanding that she be dropped from the ministry. But they confide that they would even be happy with a change in her portfolio. 

Patiala, June 2
President of the ex-servicemen wing of the SAD Col Partap Inder Singh Phoolka (retd) passed away at his residence here this morning. Phoolka (60) is survived by his wife Gurjeet Kaur, son Vikram Partap Singh and daughter Upneet Partap Kaur.

He was cremated this afternoon. His son lit the pyre. A large number of workers from frontal cells of the SAD, members of the ex-servicemen wing of the SAD and NGOs paid tributes to Phoolka. They recalled meritorious services rendered by Colonel Phoolka in the Army during his tenure of 21 years. He was commissioned in the Army on December 24,1972. Colonel Phoolka has to his credit locating families of over 50 Army officers and jawans, who were killed during the 1984 riots. He stood for “one rank, one pension” for ex-servicemen and had recently organised a rally to press for the issue.

Chairman of the District Planning Committee Surjeet Singh Rakhra, Mayor Ajitpal Singh Kohli, chairman of the Improvement Trust Indermohan Singh Bajaj and former SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar attended the funeral.

TNS adds from Chandigarh: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal have expressed grief over the death of SAD’s ex-servicemen wing chief Col Partap Inder Singh Phoolka (retd).

In a condolence message, Badal said Phoolka was a disciplined soldier of the party, who always worked to strengthen the party and for the welfare of the ex-servicemen. “In his death, the party has lost a gem and a void has been created which was difficult to be filled,” he said. SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said Colonel Phoolka would be remembered for his contribution in consolidating the ex-servicemen of Punjab and suggesting various welfare measures for them to the government. State Defence Services Welfare Minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan also expressed grief over the death of Phoolka.

Chandigarh, June 2
It is an exam the police of each district in Punjab will have to sit for every three months. The Punjab police has finally in place a quarterly assessment system to evaluate the functioning of the police in the districts and the results of the first quarter of this year are out.

The Sangrur police has topped the state while the Jalandhar rural police is on the other end of the list -- first from bottom. Ferozepur is the next best district police followed by SAS Nagar. The other good districts include Mansa, Khanna, Gurdaspur, Faridkot, Batala, Ludhiana Rural and Patiala. The rest of the districts are on the downslide of the list.

A brainchild of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and DGP PS Gill, the assessment of police functioning entails marks based self-appraisal of each district. “Various aspects of policing are appraised and marked by the Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) which are then cross checked by the DIG of the ranges,” said Rajan Gupta, ADGP (Crime) Punjab. The research and development wing of the crime branch is the nodal centre for the analysis of the gathered data. The SSPs have to mark their force not only on the basis of crimes solved but also on the basis of services rendered like passport verifications, service verifications, disposal of complaints etc. Another criterion, “in-house administration” includes action against erring police officers, training, arrest of absconders and proclaimed offenders, etc. Interestingly, the Deputy CM insisted on keeping aside at least 10 marks for the “public perception” of the district police.

The criteria laid down for the DIG to evaluate the district police include giving marks for the general quality of policing. What is, however, more amusing is that the DIGs have to also give negative marks for incidents like escape from police custody, assault on public servant, crime in custody, violation of orders from headquarters, number of snatchings and molestations per police station etc. The ADGP (internal vigilance) is supposed to give negative marks for inaction against corrupt cops.

“We started the system towards the end of last year and took out a report of the last quarter of 2009. Now the system is streamlined and we are now working towards the results of the second quarter which should be ready in July,” added Gupta.

Amritsar, June 2
A senior state cadre IPS officer is in the news for wrong reasons. His wife has lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner, Amritsar, against him for torturing her physically and mentally for the past eight years.

The officer in question is Pradeep Kumar Yadav, a 2002 batch IPS officer.

Confirming this, Police Commissioner Varinder Kumar said the complaint had been brought to the notice of the Director- General, Punjab police, for further action. “Yes, she had approached me and her complaint has been registered. The department will soon question the officer. Our initial step will be to counsel him,” he said.

Over a week has passed since Pallavi Chopra Yadav had submitted a complaint against her husband, but no action has been taken by the Police Department so far.

Pradeep Kumar Yadav showed total ignorance about any such complaint and preferred to withhold his comments. “I have no knowledge about any such complaint,” he said, adding that “I do not have to say anything,” when told about the serious allegations levelled against him by his wife.

Accusing him of having a “cruel nature”, Pallavi in her complaint, a copy of which has been dispatched to the National Women’s Commission, New Delhi, has said that she sees a threat to her life.

While showing a copy of an earlier FIR against the officer for indulging in domestic violence with the Lucknow police, Pallavi said, “In 2006, he beat me mercilessly at his parents’ house in Lucknow. Then a compromise was reached between us at Gomti Nagar police station on his assurance to not indulge in this type of violence again, but that did not happen.”

“I have been in mental trauma for over eight years. He is trying to prove that I’ve an unsound mind. My in-laws often say that the market worth of an IPS officer is over a crore whereas this “Punjaban” has brought nothing,” she wrote in her complaint.

While talking to The Tribune, Pallavi, the mother of a nine-year old daughter and a nine-month-old son, said it was an intercaste marriage held in 1999. He was without any job, then.

Just a few days ago, Yadav has moved to Chandigarh to join his new posting. 

Phagwara, June 2
Transplantation of paddy with machines has been made easy this year. Paddy transplanting machines were introduced in a big way last year in the state facing a huge shortage of migrant labour required to transplant paddy manually.

However, at most places farmers had rejected the machines as they faced problems in growing paddy nurseries in a scientific manner, a requirement to transplant paddy with a machine. Farmers also faced problems in handling the machines.

This year at most of the places the Multipurpose Agricultural Cooperative Societies have taken the initiative to grow paddy saplings at common nurseries set up in this regard. The brain behind this is Harinder Singh Dhaliwal, a progressive farmer, who runs an agri-clinic in Sadhuwala village,near Talwandi Bhai. In Faridkot and Bathinda, societies have set up common paddy nurseries in 20 villages and in Muktsar six villages. One machine covers about 200 acres during the sowing season.

The societies will provide paddy saplings to people interested in the transplantation of paddy with machines. One nursery, where paddy saplings of different varieties have been grown by a society, has been set up in Ghandam village, near here. “ We will be supplying paddy saplings for 100 acres”, said Balwinder Singh, secretary of the society. The paddy saplings are grown on polythene sheets. The machine should have no difficulty in picking them up for transplantation in the field.

“ There was no alternative to tackling the labour shortage problem except to transplant paddy with machines. And for doing so one needs paddy saplings grown at a nursery in a scientific manner”, said Harinder Singh. “ Machines failed to transplant paddy at most places because nurseries were not set up in a scientific manner”, he added. While machines transplant up to 35 saplings in 1 sq metre, manual labour transplants about 25 saplings.

“ There is always a better yield in fields where the machines are used”, asserted Harinder Singh. He said with the introduction of the concept of common nurseries, most farmers would be saved the trouble of setting up their own paddy sapling nurseries.“Farmers will be able to buy saplings of different varieties as per their requirement from common nurseries”, he added.

Chandigarh, June 2
The state Health Department is likely to hold an entrance test to screen candidates for recruitment to 214 posts of medical officer in the state. Principal Secretary Health, Satish Chandra, said yesterday that the number of applications received were much higher than the number of posts for which a screening test needed to be conducted. He added that many more applications were being received as the last date had been extended to June 12. Over 1,500 doctors had already applied for these posts.

“We had increased the age limit from 35 to 37 years due to which we had to also extend the last date,” he said, adding that only those who passed the entrance test would be interviewed. The criteria for the interview, he said, would remain the same as advertised. He said here would be no need to hold an entrance test for recruitment to 128 posts of medical specialist as only about 150 applications had been received for the same. A panel of experts from the PGI would be conducting the interviews for these posts. “However, we have received an overwhelming number of applications for recruitment to 34 posts of dental doctor. This is mainly due to the fact that recruitment of dental doctors in the government sector has not taken place for a long time now. The number of applications has already crossed 3000,” he said. Almost a thousand applications have also been received for the 34 posts of drug inspector to be recruited by the Health Department for which also an entrance test is likely to be conducted.

The Department has also decided to increase the age limit for doctors working in the rural areas through the Zila Parishads and under the NRHM to appear for these recruitments. “A candidate with a certain number of years in service will get an increase in age limit equal to the number of years, he or she has served in a rural area,” said Satish Chandra. He added these proposals were awaiting the CM’s nod.

The state Health Department had taken all theses posts out of the purview of the PPSC following allegations of irregularities in the appointment of 312 medical officers last year. Despite the fact over 3,000 applications had been received for 312 posts, no entrance test was conducted by the PPSC. The main criteria for the selections was an interview for which 50 marks were set aside.

Gurdaspur, June 2
A three and a half years old girl fell into a 180-feet deep bore, got stuck at 30 feet, at Dheera village, 45 km from here, following which a panicky district administration called in the Army from Tibri cantonment, 10 km from here, and Amritsar for rescuing the child.

As news of Dilnaz Kaur’s fall into the bore spread like wildfire, the entire village was enveloped in hushed anticipation.

At the time of filing this report, the ordeal of Dilnaz was continuing with the Army and the police making a combined effort to save the child. Digging in the parallel bore being done by the Army had to be stopped around 7pm when it was learnt that there was a septic tank nearby. Fearing that water might enter the fresh bore being dug, the

Army stopped digging operations and workers of the Batala Municipal Council were called in to ensure that water was drained out quickly --- if at all that happened. CCTV cameras were pressed into operation but they did not have much effect as they could not reach where the child was stuck between life and death.

The district administration called in two ambulances from Batala even as the Gurdaspur Civil Surgeon, HS Batra, who reached the spot along with the Deputy Commissioner, Prithi Chand, and SSP Lok Nath Angra, made emergency arrangements to perform a surgery in case the girl needed it when she was pulled out from the bore.

Dilnaz, daughter of Gurbez Singh, a resident of Deriwal village, had come to her maternal grandparents’ home on a vacation. Rattan Singh, her maternal grandfather, said a few days ago the electric motor of a submersible pump had been removed from atop the bore and in its place some gunny bags and clothes were placed. “We had placed these things to avert a tragedy. However, we are in the midst of one and we do not know whether Dilnaz will survive or not.”

This morning when Dilnaz was playing with a couple of her friends, she accidentally removed a bag and slipped deep into the bore.

The DC said he was not sure of the actual position as there was no clear view available of the child. However, he added that the girl had got stuck around 30-feet deep into the bore.

The Punjab Powercom Deputy Chief Engineer, RN Sharma, instructed Executive Engineer VK Tara to make arrangements for proper lighting as the rescue operation was expected to go late into the night. The Batala Subdivisional Magistrate Rahul Chaba, who was among the first to arrive at the site, confirmed that digging of a parallel bore had been stopped due to the presence of a septic tank nearby.

In the afternoon when the locals saw the Army coming to rescue the child, there was a mood of optimism all around. However, as thick dark clouds enveloped the site in the evening, hope slowly turned into pessimism. There was gloom among the villagers as reality dawned upon them that it was over eight hours since Dilnaz had fallen into the pit.

Jalandhar, June 2
A youth from the district was murdered in Manila on Tuesday. Over 100 Punjabis have already been killed in the Philippines during the past seven years, three-fourth of whom belonged to Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr and Hoshiarpur in the Doaba region. Over 15 persons from Kapurthala district alone have been killed there in the past three years.

Gari, son of Lashkar Singh, hailing from Kurali village in Jalandhar district here, was living in Manila for the past 13 years. He was reportedly in the money-lending business there.

It is learnt that some persons stabbed him when he asked them to repay him their debt. He was taken to a nearby hospital but the doctors declared him brought dead. His relatives said they were trying to bring his body to his native place here for his last rites. They hoped the body would be brought here in a week.

Most of the Punjabis living in the Philippines are reportedly doing the illegal business of money lending. They have been living in the Philippines for several years and hail from the Doaba region.

A sudden spate of killings of Punjabis started there seven years ago and has been going on since.

The then Indian Ambassador to the Philippines, Navrekha Sharma, had brought the situation there to the notice of the Government of India. Subsequently, the then Commissioner, Punjab NRI affairs, NS Kalsi, wrote to Deputy Commissioners of all districts of the state that Punjabis should be discouraged from going to the Philippines.

Patiala, June 2
The Punjab Medical Entrance Test (PMET) and the entrance test of Jawahar Lal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER) this year fall on the same date, June 6. This has led to widespread confusion among medical aspirants, who have applied for both these tests.

It is pertinent to mention here that the JIPMER had announced the date of its entrance test long time back, as the last date of depositing its admission forms was April 15. Whereas the last date for the submission of admission forms for PMET, as set by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, was May 21.

“This is inappropriate as our kids have filled the forms for both tests after spending a lot of money. So Baba Farid University should change PMET date, as the date for JIPMER test was announced earlier,” said one of the parents whose child has applied for both tests.

Another parent said, “We have even contacted the VC of Baba Farid University and Secretary of Medical Education and Research, but to no avail.”

Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University SS Gill said, “In JIPMER, there are only 14 seats for outsiders and nobody from Punjab has ever made it to the institute. So we had to set the date according to our hectic schedule. There are only a few students, who have applied for both institutes. Much hype is being created in this matter but the fact is that it would not make much difference.”

Patiala, June 2
Doctors posted in rural dispensaries, being run by Zila Parishad, across the state, are facing extreme problem on account of irregular supply of the commonly prescribed medicines, being supplied to them by Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC).

According to majority of the doctors, many times they get substandard medicines and there had been instances, when the samples of the medicines even failed laboratory test.

In wake of the above said problems being faced by the doctors, the State Rural Medical Services Association (RMSA) had urged the PHSC authorities to give representation to the doctors serving in the rural dispensaries in the medicine purchase committee.

Notably, presently on monthly basis, medicines worth Rs 7,500 are being given by PSHC to each of the 1,193 rural dispensaries, spread across the state. According to the doctors, they are always short of the medicines, which are prescribed to maximum number of patients.

Dr Aslam said in rural areas, every third patient coming to dispensary suffers from hypertension, every fourth patient from diabetes mellitus and every fifth patient from coronary artery disease. “But unfortunately, the supply of medicines for these diseases is meagre”, said RMSA state president Dr Aslam Parvez. He further pointed out that despite their less requirement, medicines like Paracetamol, Chloropyramine and iron folic acids are supplied in bulk and many times, these medicines cross their expiry date and are thrown in the dustbin. “We do not get any medicine for gynaecological problems, reproductive tract and sexually transmitted diseases”, he said.

The doctors stated that in year 2007, the then secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat’s Satish Chandra had written to PHSC for giving representation to the doctors posted in rural dispensaries in the medicine purchase committee. Also, the director, Rural Development and Panchayat had communicated the same to PHSC. While stating that in Haryana, the annual turnover of the pharmaceutical companies from which medicines are being purchased is minimum of Rs 35 crore, several doctors told The Tribune, “In Punjab, the annual turnover condition for the pharmaceutical company is just Rs 5 crore, following which they get substandard medicines.”

Substantiating the claims, RMSA adviser Dr JP Narula said the medicines being provided are substandard this could be gauged from the fact that once rural dispensaries were directed to send back the Amlodipine medicine as its samples failed the laboratory tests. The association leaders have urged the PHSC to look into the matter and ensure that doctors posted in rural dispensaries are inducted in medicine purchase committee.

Patiala, June 2
Even as the world is getting ready to observe the Environment Day on June 5, the irresponsible attitude of the Patiala Municipal Corporation (PMC) safai sewaks has certainly left city residents high and dry. The safai sewaks have now developed the habit of burning the waste on roadside, which not only pollutes the environment but can also lead to respiratory problems.

The problem is quite common in several city areas. A visit to Model Town, Bhupindra Road, Passey Road, Jail Road and bus stand brought to light the fact that rather than dumping the waste at earmarked dumping sites, the safai sewaks burn them at the roadsides itself.

“Rather than shifting the garbage from garbage bins and roadside to the dumping sites, they not set the garbage on fire in our area. Resultantly, the people have to inhale dense smoke,” said Harbax Singh, a resident of Urban Estate.

According to doctors, smoke emanating from burning of waste not only causes immense air pollution but could prove fatal for the health. “The PMC should see that they don’t dispose of the garbage and plastics by burning them, as it releases very poisonous gases, which are harmful for the health, particularly for those suffering from asthma,” asserted KRS Thind, a noted homoeopath.

Municipal Commissioner, Manjit Singh Narang, initially claimed that they had completely banned the practice. However, when he was told that The Tribune had visuals of waste being burned on Jail Road, he said, “I would once again issue strict instructions to the sanitation wing that waste and garbage should not be burnt and be dumped at proper earmarked sites only.” 

Chhat (Banur), June 2
Some unscrupulous elements today tried to encroach upon a piece of land that belongs to the forest department adjoining Mahendra Choudhary Zoological Park. The zoo authorities had to call the police twice in view of intimidations by the encroachers who were allegedly carrying arms and sharp-edged weapons.

Field director of the zoo, Tushar Kanti Bahera lodged a complaint with the police in this regard and demanded stringent action against the accused besides immediate registration of FIR.

The zoo authorities alleged that some unscrupulous elements tried to encroach a piece of land, around 100 metre away from the boundary wall of zoo adjoining the main entrance.

In a complaint written to the SSP, the field director alleged that encroachers threatened zoo employees of dire consequences.

They were carrying sticks and sharp-edged weapons to encroach upon the land, however, they fled immediately as soon as the police arrived in the morning. They again turned up and the police had to be called in the afternoon as well. The accused then fled from the spot, said the zoo officials.

Zirakpur SHO Yogi Raj said a complaint in this regard has been received by the police and an FIR has been registered against a retired colonel, Subhash Chander Kohar. He said Kohar had tried to construct a bridge over a small water channel to make an entrance into his agricultural land without any approval or permission from the forest department.

He said the people who had sold him the land have got permission but they could not get the bridge constructed. Since the retired colonel does not have any permission he would not be able to use the forestland. Denying allegations of people carrying arms and sharp-edged weapons, he added that there was nobody when the police reached the spot.

The SHO said the accused have violated Sections 32 and 33 of the Forest Act and an FIR in this connection was being lodged against the retired colonel.