Chandigarh, October 29
Leftist farmers organisations led by the BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) today blocked rail and road traffic at several places in Punjab to demand procurement of all foodgrain coming to the market by relaxing norms in view of the spell of bad weather in the state. According to reports, train movement on the Bathinda - Sriganganagar, Bathinda - Ferozepur, Bathinda- Ambala and Bathinda -New Delhi sections was halted today.

Rail traffic was also blocked on the Moga-Ludhiana rail line at Bughipura on the outskirts of the town, Ajit Gill village in Faridkot district, Rampura Phul in Bathinda district, Khudi Kalan in Barnala district, Mansa town, Nabha in Patiala district, Chajli in Sangrur district, Gidderbaha in Muktsar district, Guru Har Sahai in Ferozepur district, Jagraon in Ludhiana district and Beas in Amritsar district.

Ferozepur division railway manager Neeraj Sahay said traffic at some places was regulated and some local trains were cancelled as a precautionary measure.

Over 225 passengers travelling in the Delhi- Amritsar Shatabdi Express were put to hardship as the train was stopped at Jalandhar station following a protest call by some farmer organisations. The Shan -e-Punjab was stopped at Ludhiana while the Flying Mail and the Tata-Moori Express did not ply as a precautionary measure. Road traffic was also affected at many places with blockades on the Abohar-Fazilka national highway, and at many places in Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar.

Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of the BKU (Ekta), who led the agitation at Moga announced that the blockade would continue till their demands were met.

He said the major demands of farmers included raising the moisture limit of paddy from the existing 17 per cent to 22 per cent and damage limit from 4 to 12 per cent.

Accusing the Union and state governments of adopting discriminatory policies towards farmers, Kokri said the Central team’s visit to Punjab to assess the loss of paddy was just an eyewash. Among the organisations that participated in the protest were BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), BKU (Krantikari), Punjab Kisan Sabha, Kirti Kisan Sabha, Kisan Sangrash Samiti, Kirti Kisan Samiti and labour organisations associated with them.

The rail traffic was disrupted on the Amritsar-Delhi route, when around 2,000 activists of various farmers’and labour organisations squatted on the railway track near Beas, 40 kms from here. The farmers, representing various unions rued that the government agencies had been refusing to lift their produce. Meanwhile, Ferozepur Division Railway Manager Vishwesh Chaubey said rail traffic at some places has been rescheduled and some trains have been cancelled. The Shan-e-Punjab Express between Delhi and Amritsar was terminated at Ludhiana railway station. The Amritsar Flying Mail was cancelled at Amritsar itself, railway officials said. The Tata-Muri Express was also cancelled at Amritsar.

“The trains coming in Amritsar from different destinations have been diverted via Pathankot. As precautionary measure, as many as four trains, from Amritsar have been cancelled”, he said. Activists of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) this evening stopped train service near Chajjli village here raising slogans against the state and union governments.

(With inputs from Kulwinder Sandhu, Sudhanshu Verma, Chander Prakash and Bipin Bhardwaj, GS Paul, Shariq Majeed)

Chandigarh, October 29
Seeking a prompt action on relaxation in the specifications regarding discoloration and moisture content for procurement of paddy, the Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal today, in a letter to the Prime Minister, reiterated his request for his direct intervention to resolve the matter without any further delay.

Badal had also written simultaneously to the Union Minister for Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, asking the Centre to bail them out in this hour of crisis as the paddy had been affected for reasons beyond their control.

The Chief Minister again requested for relaxation to be given in the specifications on damage, discoloration and moisture content for procurement and the corresponding relaxation to be extended to rice also.

Unfortunately, the rains and hailstorm on October 22 came at a time when the grain of PUSA-44 variety was at a pre-mature stage this year.

This variety of paddy had started maturing but because of conditions like low temperature and high humidity, the moisture was much more than the specification of 17per cent.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary SC Agrawal had also written to the Cabinet Secretary seeking his intervention for immediate relaxation of the specifications. 

Chandigarh, October 29
The visit of US President Barack Obama to the Golden Temple was cancelled due to security reasons and not “lack of time” as announced by the US State Department. Highly placed sources have said that the US Government sent teams to only Mumbai and Amritsar to ascertain if the Taj Hotel and the Golden Temple were safe for the President to visit.

The recent spurt in militancy related activity, showing renewed effort on the part of Pakistan to activate sympathisers of militants in Punjab was one factor that resulted in excluding Amritsar from the President’s itinerary. Besides the possibility of Islamic fundamentalists from Kashmir, who have close ties with jihadis in Pakistan and Afghanistan having easy access to Amritsar, further supported the US Government.

The Indian intelligence agencies regularly share information with their American counterparts. The US agencies were, therefore, aware of the activity in the Babbar Khalsa International support base. The group’s head, Wadhawa Singh Babbar, also called “Chacha”, currently in Pakistan, is under tremendous pressure from the ISI to regroup his cadres in Punjab. Two operatives of this group were arrested earlier this week from Uttar Pradesh.

The arrest of Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) activist Sukhwinder Singh and reports of some others former militants re-grouping also contributed in President Obama’s crack team deciding against his visiting Punjab.

Meanwhile, while reacting to President Obama’s itinerary, which skips a visit to the Goldent Temple, Dr Rajwant Singh, Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, said, “This is disappointing that President Obama will not visit the Golden Temple. Three months ago, I had proposed this visit by President Obama to the Golden Temple only for spiritual reasons. I deeply regret President Obama missed the opportunity to send a powerful message of global peace and harmony in the South Asian region and in the world.”

He said if President Obama visited the Golden Temple “it surely would have shown America’s respect for all faiths and traditions. Also this would have been a wonderful opportunity to show that America is not all about war and money."

Dr Rajwant Singh said “the Indian government was under this impression that President Obama was set to go to Amritsar and I’m told that certain ministers were already assigned to accompany the President to Amritsar. The change in decision has hurt most Sikhs”.

A 35-member advance team of US officials had visited Amritsar and according to officials in Amritsar, all necessary requirements were met. There is no record of a team of this size checking any other site in India for Obama’s visit. Obviously the message was clear that President Obama will visit Amritsar.

Amritsar civil administration gave full assurances to the US secret service team and the embassy officials were fully satisfied about the arrangements according the civil administrator in Amritsar.

Dr Singh added, "I truly want to know whether this decision was taken by the President himself or some aides advised him based on some domestic compulsions.” 

Amritsar, October 29
Former Akali minister Manjeet Singh Calcutta has alleged large-scale discrepancies in the voter list of the SGPC poll scheduled to take place early next year.

He has shot off a missive to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram seeking his intervention in the issue. In his letter to the Union Home Minister, he accused the Gurdwara Election Commission of working under the influence of the SAD-BJP government. He also alleged the violation of the Sikh Gurdwara Act and Sikh religious code of conduct in the process while demanding that ID cards be made mandatory to check the registration of bogus voters.

According to him, the Gurdwara Election Commission had given a specific instruction that every applicant would present in person before the competent authority appointed by the commission to register himself/herself as a voter. However, the rule had been completely flouted, he claimed, while quoting some figures as per which a huge number of voters were registered in the past few days.

He claimed that between June 1 and August 6, 2010, the number of voters registered was 16,71,577, but by August 18, it rose to 52,36,475. “It means that around 36 lakh voters got themselves registered in the past few days when there were no reports of people standing in queues outside the election offices,” reads the letter.

He has demanded a thorough probe into the voter forms received by the commission by some Central government agency.

Later, in a separate letter to the commission, Calcutta pointed out various discrepancies like no age or no address in the voter list of Amritsar East and Amritsar Central seats.

Kot Shamir (Bathinda), October 29
Despite the cancelled the affiliation and prohibited fresh admissions in three Ayurvedic colleges of the state by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Saint Sahara Ayurvedic College in Bathinda held the counselling for the next batch of the BAMS. The counselling was held under the supervision of the Registrar.

Though the college authorities claimed the counselling was being done only for the allocation of students to the college and not for admission purposes, sources informed that the college had been running a batch of 50 students of the BAMS earlier too, without valid permission. Speaking to The Tribune, the chairman of the college, Dr Naresh Pruthi, said, “The university authorities had been creating hurdles in the functioning of the college last year also. They have been asking for the unnecessary affiliation. We have approached the High Court to get interim orders for the counselling.

Though we applied for the affiliation along with the required fee the university authorities have not conducted the inspection. Now the newspapers stories talk about the cancellation of the affiliation but nothing in writing has been issued to us. Now since we have the court’s order, we are counselling.” Regarding the “illegal” admissions done last year, he said, “We charged no fee from the students and made it clear to the students that admissions were subject to the court’s decision.” However, when asked as to what would happen to the admitted students if the college lost the case as they would have to apply somewhere else and begin from the scratch, he said, “The college is not entitled to hold any fresh admissions. Observing deficiencies in the required formalities, we have cancelled their affiliation and imposed a ban on the admission. However, the college authorities have court orders.

In accordance with that, we have allowed them to hold counselling from the next batch of the BAMS but with the clear instruction that counselling would be held only for allocation of students and not for admission purposes. 

Dera Bassi, October 29
Dera Bassi residents have been filing their protest and concern over the provided land for the construction of judicial complex because this land is the part of choe in the record of the Revenue Department.

They expressed the fear of flooding on proposed site and other nearby areas if the judicial complex constructed on the choe land. Following this protest, Local Zila Parishad member Salita saini has filed a PIL in the Punjab and Haryana High Court to reconsider the proposed site for the construction of judicial complex at Dera Bassi.

He also sent an application to the Punjab Drainage Department to notify this choe in the public interest. Some lawyers also opposed the construction of judicial complex on choe land.

The issue of choe land came to light when the Punjab and Haryana High court deposited Rs 6.51 crore to the Dera Bassi Municipal Council to get the proposed land transferred in the name of the Law Department for the construction of judicial complex.

On the other hand, SDM Dera Bassi Puneet Goyal did not give any comment on the issue. However, the Executive Officer of the Municipal Council said they were not aware of regarding the choe land where judicial comlplex was proposed to be constructed.

In the PIL Salita stated that the proposed land for judicial complex falls in the area of Madhupur village Khasra no. 107 that was mentioned as gair mumkin choe in the record of the Revenue Department. In this PIL it was also mentioned that an inquiry was also marked regarding above land in 2006 by the Deputy Commissioner, Mohali, over some dispute and this inquiry had shown this land as gair mumkin choe.

Salita appealed to the high court to find out new place for the construction of judicial complex, Dera Bassi, and provided an option of suitable land at Devinagar village. 

Kalwa (Hoshiarpur), October 29
With the death of five more persons, including one of the accused arrested by the police, the death toll in the hooch tragedy today reached 20.

The deceased have been identified as Sodhi, Balbir Singh, Sadiq, alias Kala, Bhola (all from Kalwa) and Charan Singh (Gilzian).

Kala was arrested by the police for selling hooch to the victims. During questioning, he had admitted to have consumed the same liquor.

The IGP, RP Mittal, who has been asked to enquire the tragedy, today visited the hospital and interacted with the victims.

Meanwhile, residents of the surrounding villages, lead by certain local politicians, blocked the Dasuya-Miani road to lodge their protest against the state government. The irate villagers blocked the road for over two hours demanding a hike in the compensation announced by the state government. They were also demanding government jobs for next of kin of all deceased.

Ropar/Nangal, October 29
Migratory birds from Siberia, Russia, Indo-Tibet border, China and other parts of Central Asia have reached the Nangal National Wetland. Around 3,000 migratory birds, including ruddy shell ducks, tuffet ducks, common teal, common pochard, gadwall, wigeon, common coot and shoveller, have forayed into the calm waters of this national wetland.

Bird watcher Prabhat Bhatti said the birds were spotted around 10 days back. “The number will keep on rising in the days to come. Birds will stay here before taking off in March or early April,” he said. While migratory birds have marked their presence at Nangal wetland, the Ropar International Wetland seems to be missing from the route map of the Siberian visitors. Till today only a handful of ruddy shell ducks have been spotted at the Ropar wetland, an internationally notified Ramsar site.

Jaspreet Singh, who has been watching birds for past three decades, said by this time of the year a plenty of ruddy shell ducks, coots, comb dicks and shovellers used to reach the wetland.

“With increasing deforestation in the hills, the content of silt getting deposited in the Sutlej bed has been increasing. With shallow riverbed, macro organism and aquatic plants have had short-lived lives. The silt also makes visibility inside the water poor,” he said.

Jaspreet reasoned that these factors have led to scarcity of food for the visiting and the local birds. He reminisced that three decades ago, the area below the bridge over the Sutlej used to be the main nesting ground for fish.

“During monsoons, the fish seeds used to get accumulated in large numbers emanating a strong odour. Plenty of fish meant plenty of food for the birds. With pollution and silt, fish have lost adequate nesting grounds affecting the flight of the migratory birds,” he said.

Chandigarh, October 29
Just over a month after Randhir Singh alias Dheera and another accused were directed to face trial in two FIRs registered in 2002 in Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) cash-for-job scam, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed further proceedings till further orders.

Taking up a petition filed through counsel Baldev Singh, Justice Jaswant Singh also issued notice of motion to the state of Punjab for December 1.

Dheera was among nine accused in the alleged recruitment scam. He was initially accused of entering into a criminal conspiracy with PPSC chairman Ravinder Pal Singh Sidhu. He is alleged to have obtained illegal gratification to show favour to a candidate in his selection as a DSP. Dheera had later turned approver in one of the FIRs.

Patiala sessions judge by an order issued on July 25, 2002, had granted pardon to both Dheera and co-petitioner Prem Sagar. In all, three FIRs were registered.

Counsel Baldev Singh, in their plea before Justice Jaswant Singh, contended both the petitioners supported the statements, on the basis of which they were made approvers.

As such, “there was no question of any violation of any condition of contract”.

But Patiala sessions judge, vide impugned order dated September 27, recalled the earlier order dated July 25, 2002, and directed their trial.

The sessions judge also summoned them through non-bailable warrants of arrest for October 29. Describing the order as “illegal, manifestly wrong, perverse and without jurisdiction, Baldev Singh contended the special judge observed the petitioners had resiled from their statements in the two FIRs.

They have, as such, violated the conditions on which the pardon was granted.

Seeking the quashing of the impugned order, he added the two cases were registered after granting pardon to the petitioners. 

Ludhiana, October 29
The State Legal Services Authority today held Labour lok adalats in sixdistricts of Punjab. In these lok adalats, 271 cases were settled amicably and the workmen were granted compensation of Rs 19 lakh.

In Ludhiana alone, 101 cases out of 168, were settled by the lok adalat headed by the presiding officer of Labour Court, GS Gill (Additional

District & Sessions Judge). An amount of Rs 11,65,251 was settled to be paid to the workmen in these cases.

Amicable settlement of cases has saved the parties the rigours of litigation.

Notably, a case involving 48 agitating workers of Municipal Council, Khanna, in respect of their right to recieve wages for the work done by them on Saturdays during the last 15 years, was settled.

While in Bathinda all 12 cases before the lok adalat involving Rs 2,71,500 were settled, Patiala saw 41 cases out of 77 involving Rs 2,65,570, Gurdaspur 31 out of 40 cases involving around Rs 1 lakh, Jalandhar 50 out of 70 cases involving Rs 89,189 and Amritsar 36 out of 68 cases involving an amount of Rs 16,000 were settled.

Matters pertaining to retirement benefits,etc were also taken up in the adalats.

Patiala, October 29
Acting on a tip-off, the Patiala police today recovered fake currency worth Rs 5,32,200 from a house in Bahadurgarh, Patiala. Giving information in this regard, Patiala SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill informed that a police team led by DSP (D) Ashish Kapoor raided the house and recovered fake currency from Harjeet Singh, Thakur Gill and Bahadur Singh.

The currency included 530 notes of Rs 1,000, 13 notes of Rs 100, 16 notes of Rs 50 and five notes of Rs 20. The police also recovered coloured printer, scanner, computer and other belongings from them. A scanned note of Rs 1,000 was also found on the computer desktop.

“The arrested persons accepted that they have been involved in this activity since a long time and further enquiry is on,” added SSP. A case under Sections 420/489-A/489-C/489-E of the IPC has been registered against the alleged accused.

Throwing light on an another incident, Gill informed that CIA, Patiala, recovered fake documents from possession of Milkha Singh, including voter id card, identity card, merit certificates, detailed marksheets, birth certificate, driving licence and receipts of DTO office. He said these certificates were attested also. A computer, printer and scanner were recovered from his possession. A case has been registered.