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Villages flooded as BBMB opens spillways
Engineers flay BBMB decision |
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No PSEB paper today, tomorrow
Indian fishermen arrive at the Attari-Wagah border near Amritsar on
Sunday after they were released by Pakistan. — PTI
Pak boy crosses over to India, sent back
Activists of the Democratic Teachers’ Front burn an effigy of the Director-General,
School Education, at Hanuman Chowk in Bathinda on Sunday. Photo by writer
Environmentalist: Enact law to ban straw burning
Patiala to get medical research centre: Dhindsa
Punjab DGP PS Gill and Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa release
the souvenier of laparoscopic surgeons’ conference in Patiala on Sunday. A Tribune photograph
Badal flags off relief trucks to Leh
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal flags off a truck carrying relief material for the flash flood victims
of Leh, in Jalandhar on Sunday. — PTI
Health infrastructure set to get a boost
Engineers flay Punjab on power policy
Sabha to move SC over reservation issue
Electrocution Deaths: JE arrested
Writer bodies flay non-implementation of language Act
Punjab pensioners seek arrears
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Villages flooded as BBMB opens spillways
Anandpur Sahib, September 5 With an inflow of 46,630 cusecs of water, 8,764 cusecs was released through the spillways, 33,900 cusecs through turbines, 12,500 cusecs was released in the Nangal hydel channel and 10,150 cusecs in the Anandpur Sahib hydel channel. The water release in the Sutlej was raised from 12,500 cusecs to 22,500 cusecs. The BBMB will continue to release water through the spillways to retain the water level of the reservoir at 1,680 ft. The district administration has already sounded an alert asking people living near the Sutlej to be cautious. Around 6 pm, water started entering villages, including Burj, Lodhipur, Ballowal, Baddal, Haiwal, Mehndli Kalan, Nikkuwal, Chandpur, Gajpur and Kalyanpur. Burj village remained the worst hit with the only approach road to the village getting flooded cutting its link with the city. A 325-ft breach in the Sutlej at Lodhipur added to the woes.
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Say it will cause power generation loss of 112 lakh units per day Tribune News Service
Patiala, September 5 Giving this information, AIPEF chairman Padamjit Singh said today that the BBMB opened the spillways of the reservoir in the morning and released 13,000 cusecs of water. “A spillage of 13,000 cusecs means power generation loss of 112 lakh units (LUs) per day at the Bhakra and a bypass loss of 40 LU per day at Anandpur Sahib Hydel Project”, he said. Stating that earlier also they had written to Shinde, the AIPEF chairman told The Tribune that now they had sent another representation to the Union Power Minister. “Weather forecast is that rainfall in Himachal Pradesh will decrease after 24 hours. The satellite picture on the IMD website shows clear weather over most of the HP areas and the catchment area of the Sutlej. Similarly, weather forecast of the BBC indicates clear weather conditions for the next five days in the catchment area of the Sutlej”, he added. He said in the past, the BBMB had regularly utilised filling margin of the reservoir up to 1,685 ft and even 1,687 ft as against the designed full reservoir level of 1,690 ft. He rued that with prevailing weather conditions and forecasts, there was no justification to spill water at 1,680 ft level causing an energy loss of 112 LU per day.
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No PSEB paper today, tomorrow
Mohali/Jalandhar, September 5 At a hurriedly called press conference, PSEB chairman Dalbir Singh Dhillon said since about 500 candidates could not get their roll numbers due to flooding in their respective areas, the papers had been postponed. He, however, denied that the papers had been postponed due to widespread reports of candidates not getting their roll numbers and inadequate number of question papers being dispatched to the examination centers. Sources said when the PSEB authorities received several complaints from different districts regarding inadequate question papers being dispatched to centre superintendents, the two papers were postponed. However, Dhillon denied that question papers had fallen short. He said he had got no such report from any district. The chairman said those candidates who could not get their roll numbers could approach the board in the next two days to get their duplicate roll number after showing the relevant documents. Squarely blaming the candidates for not being able to download roll numbers from board’s website leading to the fiasco, he said due to lack of awareness among the candidates and their parents, efforts of the board had failed. He also blamed private academies for trying to project the semester system as an inefficient system. A random survey conducted by The Tribune in some districts of the state also supports such claims. “We were short of over 70 question papers for the tomorrow’s exam. So it was impossible for us to conduct the exam in this situation”, said a government teacher posted in Nawanshahr district. Teachers and principals posted in some schools of Patiala district also confirmed the delay in the delivery of question papers and roll numbers. Sources also confirmed that the board had lost admission forms of scores of students from Abohar, Fazilka, Muktsar and surrounding areas. Meanwhile, managements of private-affiliated schools have registered their resentment against the board’s move. “Instead of postponing the exams in the entire state, the board could have arranged another phase of exams for those students who did not receive roll numbers”, said a representative of the PSEB Affiliation Schools Association.
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Another batch of fishermen back home
Amritsar, September 5 Pakistan has decided to release 442 Indian fishermen in which 201 have already been released while remaining 241 would gradually be released in next one week in two batches, the official said. One of the fishermen Babu Rana said though he had been in fishing business for last two decade but after spending days in Pakistan jail he has decided to give up fishing. "I am the only earning person in my family and I along with my family cannot afford to be in jail and now I have decided to give up my fishing profession," Babu said adding he would like to work in a farm. While another fisherman Shamji Koli said he would choose any other business but never go for fishing in future. However, most of the fishermen denied being tortured by the Pakistan jail authority but admitted that the quality of food given by the jail was not upto the mark. Almost all the fishermen belong to Gujarat and they were arrested off the Gujarat coast in the Arabian sea for ‘illegaly’ venturing into territorial waters of Pakistan.
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Pak boy crosses over to India, sent back
Jalalabad, September 5 Kasif, a school dropout and who was deserted by his mother after his father Mohammad Jaffar died a few years ago, crossed over to India yesterday from the Kamal Baler Ke
(KBK) border observation post (BOP) in this sector. Kasif was living with his paternal uncle for the past many years and could study only up to Class III. “Immediately after crossing over to India, Kasif was taken into custody. He was asked about his whereabouts and motive for crossing over to India,” said SPS
Sandhu, Commandant (BSF), Jalalabad, adding that Kasif said he had left his uncle’s house as he developed some differences with him. The boy, who belonged to Dipalpur tehsil of Okara district, Pakistan, kept on insisting that he would be living in India forever as he loved this country. He told BSF men that his uncle was harassing him and hence
he did not want to go back to him. “Today, a flag meeting was organised at the KBK BOP and a team of the Pakistan Rangers led by its company commander reached at a common place on the Indo-Pak border. The boy was handed over to them with Rs 530 of Pakistani currency, which was recovered from him yesterday,” said
Sandhu.
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Teachers protest, face police wrath on their day
Bathinda, September 5 Activists of the DTF said: “Dictator-like attitude of the DG has made us observe this day as a black day. The state Education Department has apparently given all powers to the DG to make way for the transfer of the entire education system to private hands.” “Under the garb of reforms, the DG is bent upon not only hurting our self-respect but also tarnishing our respect in eyes of students, which gives us an immense pain. Earlier, policies were made focusing upon requirements and improvement of the students, but now the DG has been running the affairs as if he is the one who is all-in-all,” they rued. Leaders of the DTF also passed some items on their agenda list which included the cancellation of ‘ill-motivated’ transfers of educational staff, termination of the post of the DG, promotion of all DPIs and granting of regular employee status. Meanwhile, volunteers of the Unemployed BEd Teachers’ Front (Punjab) held a state-level conference at the Teachers’ Home here and accused the state government of backtracking on providing them employment, which SAD leaders had promised them in their election manifesto. Raising their demands, activists of the Unemployed BEd Teachers’ Front lamented that even after fulfilling the required conditions, they were running from pillar to post, but were earning nothing for a livelihood resulting in their mental and physical exploitation. Issuing a warning to the state government, the protesting unemployed BEd teachers said if the government did not initiate the recruitment process, they would go to the public and seek support from farmers and labourers and start gheraoing the ruling leaders during their sangat darshan programmes.
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Jobless ETT teachers cane-charged
Amritsar, September 5 The union claimed that its 13 members, including a woman, sustained injuries while 17 others, including two women, were detained. Gursharan Singh, a union member from Bathinda, got his ankle fractured while Ranjit Singh of Ropar had two of its teeth dislodged. The unemployed teachers assembled twice in front of the main gate of the university, but failed to go inside as the district police as a preemptive measure had restricted the entry to the university by erecting barricades. Repeated assurances by senior police officials of arranging a meeting with the ministers failed to bore any fruit following which the teachers lost cool and marched towards the gate. The cops held some agitating teachers and bundled them into the bus. However, all of them were released later. The union has been demanding the recruitment of 3,425 ETT teachers, orders for which were passed by the state Cabinet sometime in the past, and reservation of 70 per cent of the posts for those who have done their ETT course from Punjab. Meanwhile, at the teachers’ felicitation function, 15 secondary and seven tlementary teachers were honoured. Manpreet Badal and Upinderjit Kaur claimed since the state government came into power, nearly 40,000 teachers were recruited.
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Environmentalist: Enact law to ban straw burning
Jalandhar, September 5 Baba Sewa Singh, an environmentalist, who was awarded Padma Shri this year owing to his contribution to promote sapling plantation, today urged the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to pass the Punjab Prohibition of Burning of Crop Residues Act, 2010, the draft of which has been prepared by KS Pannu, Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar. Baba Sewa Singh also handed over a letter in this regard to Badal. Pannu himself has taken several initiatives to enhance green cover in the Amritsar belt. The session of the state Assembly is to be held in last week of this month and the Bill to enact the law could be introduced in that session. Baba has been working hard for the past several years to spread the green message in the state. He has planted lakhs of saplings along the roadsides in Majha belt and has also motivated people to plant fruit trees. Some factions of the Bharti Kisan Union have also supported the enacting of the law. Chairman of the Punjab Farmers’ Commission GS Kalkat has also laid emphasis on the framing of a law to ban the straw burning. Pannu, justifying the framing of a law in this regard, has stated that vital nutrients worth Rs 200 crore were burnt along with the paddy and wheat straw. More over, the burning of residue causes huge damage to sapling plantations along the roads, in fields and elsewhere. Moreover, it is a big health hazard and causes lot of hardships to people suffering from respiratory problems and allergies. With the burning of paddy and wheat residue, all efforts to improve the environment in the state are negated. Already, Punjab, a small state, is one of the most polluted states because of very high number of vehicles, the number of which is near 50 lakh. Its main rivers, in which effluents of various factories are discharged, not only carry highly polluted waters but are also sources of many diseases in the countryside.
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Patiala to get medical research centre: Dhindsa
Patiala, September 5 Dhindsa said the Centre had come up with a proposal of establishing one medical research centre in each state where latest researches would be carried out which could be used for the treatment of people. The Centre and the Punjab Government had reached a consensus that in Punjab, this centre would be established at Patiala. He said in countries like America, huge sums of money were spent on researches, which was the reason behind their technological success. The Central Government should also increase research budget to ensure better progress in the medical field. Lauding the efforts of Government Medical College’s principal, Dr Surinder Singh, for organising the conference, he said it was a historic event at Patiala where 84 internationally renowned surgeons from across the country had come as faculty. Speaking on the occasion,
DGP, Punjab, Paramdeep Singh Gill also stressed on the need of encouraging research for better facilities. Speaking about medical facilities in Punjab, Dr SS Gill, Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences,
Faridkot, said there was no dearth of talent in government hospitals but infrastructure was missing. “While we were getting a grant of Rs 98 crore, PGI alone was issued a grant of more than Rs 300 crore. How can we compete with their infrastructure? The Punjab Government must find some way to increase our grants only then we can match up with private institutes,” he added. Giving information about the conference, Dr Surinder said a total of 60 surgeries of needy patients were carried out by renowned surgeons from across the country.
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Badal flags off relief trucks to Leh
Jalandhar, September 5 The Chief Minister was here today to flag off a convoy of 120 trucks of fodder and cattle feed for the cloudburst-affected Leh. Twentyfive of them were flagged off from Jalandhar, whereas 95 were dispatched from five other districts - Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur. On the issue of resentment brewing among local farmers for the acquisition of 380 acres by the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT) for carving out a residential colony, Badal ruled out ant possibility of acquiring the land. He said the government had already laid down a policy of land pooling for the acquisition under which even an inch of land could not be acquired by the government without the consent of the people and assured that no farmer would be uprooted under the scheme. On a query regarding the hike in the salaries of MLAs, Badal said he had no objection to it as the matter was under the consideration of the general purpose committee of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. On the issue of disparity between the urban and rural development, Badal said there was no such geographical discrimination in the allotment of funds for the execution of the development works in both segments. On flood protection works, the Chief Minister said he had taken up this issue with the Union Ministry of Home to allow Punjab to spend 10 per cent out of the calamity relief fund on preventive flood protection measures.
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Health infrastructure set to get a boost
Tarn Taran, September 5 “Two super-specialty hospitals are being set up under the public-private partnership mode with MAX Healthcare in Mohali and Bathinda at a cost of Rs 300 crore. An amount of Rs 250 crore is being spent to improve infrastructure of government medical colleges in Amritsar, Faridkot and Patiala,” said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal after laying the foundation stone of a 50-bedded Civil Hospital at Khadoor Sahib. Meanwhile, residents of Khadur Sahib, Goindwal Sahib and Chohla Sahib townships will get better civic amenities with Badal laying foundation stones of various development projects for these areas today. The Chief Minister also addressed public rallies at Khadur Sahib, Goindwal Sahib, Fatehbad and Chohla Sahib and asserted that the SAD was the lone political outfit, which was concerned about the welfare of the masses of the state. “The Congress, which has been claiming to be the party of the ‘aam aadmi’, has exploited people for its vested interests. The state is on the verge of ushering into an era of all-round growth as the SAD-BJP alliance has surpassed the Congress on development,” said Badal, who also inaugurated a 220 KV power station at Reshiana for supply of power to Goindwal Sahib, Fatehbad, Reshiana and 70 nearby villages. The Chief Minister also inaugurated an SGPC-run degree college at Chohla Sahib. Besides, he laid the foundation stones of water supply and sewerage treatment plants worth Rs 6.98 crore at Goindwal Sahib, Chohla Sahib and Khadoor Sahib along with that of a 10-acre new grain market at Goindwal Sahib.
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Chhatbir zoo to don a new look
Chhat (Banur), September 5 A sum of Rs 34 lakh was being spent on the project and the work will be completed in a phased manner. The zoo authorities have received the first instalment of Rs 10 lakh and installation of signboards, construction and renovation of toilets and roads will be done within the next three months. Zoo field director, Churchil Kumar, said besides the construction work they would also train young literate and unemployed people surrounding Chhat village as guides. Visitors can hire the services of guides at nominal rates. “They would help visitors in tracing location of animals and birds of their choice and will also inform about their history, nature and other basic details of animals and the zoo”, said the field director. Zoo officials said iron signboards, animal paintings, toilets, roads and fencing of animals got perished during the past years, which are now been changed with the help of the Punjab Tourism Department. Details of this project were sent to the Punjab Government for approval a few months ago and the final nod was given with the first instalment of money. Zoo officials said apart from toilets in the zoo, a sulabh toilet (pay and use) would be constructed adjoining the main entrance where a cafeteria and an ATM machine would also be provided to visitors. Zoo officials said the zoo was loosing its sheen due to lack of funds, big animals and other basic amenities during the past years and it had also reduced a number of visitors. The zoo will get an attractive look with installation of fresh boards, painting and eating-joint. Visitors have continuously been complaining about untidy canteen, roads and potholed small roads for plying of vehicles. Meanwhile, a two-and-a-half-year-old tigress is also expected to arrive in the zoo next week.
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Engineers flay Punjab on power policy
Patiala, September 5 Giving details of the federation’s meeting held yesterday at Panchkula, NIPEF secretary general HS Bedi said it was attended by representatives of the Power Engineer Associations of all states in the northern region, including Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and J&K. He added that all of them were of the unanimous view that policy of complete privatisation in the power sector was not justified. “In the field of power generation, the gates have been opened for private players, particularly in Punjab, where all new generating plants are being awarded to private players. The present policy of Punjab to rely only on the private sector will be detrimental, as the future economy of the state will be dependent on private companies,” Bedi said. He added that states other than Punjab were dependent on power capacity addition in state sector and the private sector was playing only a supplementary role. “Rajasthan has planned over 7,000-MW, Haryana 1,710-MW, Andhra Pradesh over 11,000-MW, Gujarat 1,700-MW, Maharashtra 12,000-MW, Karnataka 5,900-MW, but Punjab has not planned to add a single MW power generation capacity under the state sector,” claimed NIPEF representatives of Punjab.
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Sabha to move SC over reservation issue
Chandigarh, September 5 The decision was taken unanimously not only by office-bearers but also by the cadre of the sabha by voice vote. Kainth has been authorised to adopt a legal path and to take corrective measures. Kainth alleged that the government had been following policies detrimental to 37 castes over the matter of reservation and trying to ignore their sentiments and create a wedge between the Valmikis and others through its acts and policies. He also blamed the SAD as well as the Congress for adopting a negative attitude on this matter. The meeting was attended among others by Amar Singh Talania, Phool Chand (both vice-presidents) , Ravinder Bhatti (general secretary), Paramjit Rai, Amit Jassi (Jalandhar), Gurmail Singh Mehdoodpur (Fatehgarh Saihb), Jasbir Singh (Ludhiana) and Karnail Singh (Patiala).
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Electrocution Deaths: JE arrested
Batala, September 5 Baljit Singh had given a contract for this to Harpreet Singh, one of the deceased, and the remaining five persons, Lakhwinder Singh, Gurmukh Singh, Sarwan Singh, Sarabjit Singh and Lakha Singh, were working as labourers. Batala SSP Gurdeep Singh said prima facie, Baljit Singh was responsible for the deaths and he had been arrested and a case under Section 304-A, IPC, had been registered against him. Baljit Singh is also reportedly facing departmental action for other irregularities. Meanwhile, state Vidhan Sabha Speaker Nirmaljit Singh Kahlon visited the houses of the deceased and announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh for each family.
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Writer bodies flay non-implementation of language Act
Jalandhar, September 5 These organisations have constituted a common platform in the form of a “coordination committee” to intensify the struggle for the implementation of the Act, which says that all official works should be done in Punjabi in state-run offices and it should be a compulsory subject in schools and colleges. Representatives of all major political parties, employees and teachers’ associations, farmer unions, and prominent individuals will be inducted as members in the committee. Dr Joginder Singh Puar, former VC, Punjabi University, Patiala, was elected as a convener of the committee. Resolutions, which were passed by Dr SP Singh, former VC of GND University, include demands to amend the present form of the Act and the expatriation of bureaucrats, who are non-committal to the spirit of the Act.
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Punjab pensioners seek arrears
Mohali, September 5 General secretary of the association Mohan Singh said they had also sought time for personal hearing on the issue. He said recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission came into being around 14 months ago, but they had not received arrears for the past 43 months. He said a meting of the association would be held on September 7 to decide on the future course of action. If the government did not invite them for talks, they would hold a dharna on September 15, Mohan Singh said. They would also participate in the nationwide strike to be observed on September 7 in protest against rising prices, he added.
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In order to provide better health facilities to the people of the region, a medical research centre on the pattern of PGI would soon be established at Patiala to ensure that people do not have to go far off places for treatment.
Jalandhar, September 5
