Jalandhar, January 11
With the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) summoning the three service chiefs for the alleged irregularities in Unit-Run Canteens (URCs), members of the All-India Defence Civilian Canteen Employees Union have expressed hope that it will help in setting things right in the URCs across the country.

The chiefs of the Army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the vice-chief of the Indian Navy will appear before the PAC on Wednesday. Members of the union said the decision had come as a breather for them as they had been highlighting the alleged irregularities for many years. Talking to The Tribune, organising secretary of the union TS Chauhan said though late, the union was contented with the fact that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) took notice of the issue.

It is a “scandal” as the turnover of the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) worth crores was revealed to the Centre and its share was also contributed to the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI), but that of the URCs remained concealed, he added.

He said every financial year, a major share of the profit of the CSD went to the military for carrying out welfare activities. “Surprisingly, till the time the amount is held with the CSD, it is a public fund and audited by the CAG. But when it reaches to the services through the URCs, the same money becomes non-public fund. Despite highlighting this issue, the CAG remained ignorant as the three service chiefs never responded to queries in this regard,” he added.

It was due to the alleged irregularities in the URCs that despite working in these canteens under the Ministry of Defence, its employees were denied any benefit as compared to those working with CSD depots.

The auditing of 3,600 URCs across the country was carried out either by service officers or appointed civil auditors. Huge earnings from the URCs were completely private undertakings of the Army and utilised by the service chiefs as per discretion in the name of welfare of the troops, he added.

The CAG in its audit of the URCs has recommended that the URCs should be recognised as retail outlets to the CSD. Operational results of the URCs should be disclosed in the CSD’s accounts to provide a true and fair view of the complete operations of the organisation. The Ministry of Defence should also take immediate steps to bring the URCs under the accountability regime that is applicable to all operations funded by the CFI.

The union has been demanding the implementation of the CAG recommendations made last year. 

Hoshiarpur, January 11
The tall claims of the Punjab government regarding the construction of flush latrines in houses in the rural areas of the district, under the Total Sanitation Campaign scheme, have been no more than false promises.

Information on the matter, recently provided by the District Development and Panchayat Officer, Hoshiarpur, to Jai Gopal Dhiman, the President of the Social Democratic Party, under the Right to Information Act has brought the government’s false claims to light.

As per information, thousands of latrines are yet to be installed in

Hoshiarpur I, Hoshiarpur II, Tanda, Dasuya and Mukerian blocks of the district, while the survey for the construction of latrines in many other blocks hasn’t even been carried out as yet.

The Union Government had introduced Total Sanitation Campaign scheme with the collaboration of the state government in 2004-05 in the rural areas, to prevent defecation in open fields by people in the rural areas and to make the environment pollution free.

While the Union Government was providing 60 per cent of the total cost of the scheme, the rest was being contributed by the Punjab government.

A grant of Rs 3,000 was being given to every beneficiary for the construction of flush latrines in his house in 2004-05, which was raised to Rs 6,300 each in 2005-06.

In 2008-09, this grant was increased to Rs 7,800 for each beneficiary and from April 1, 2010 it was raised to Rs 10,000 each. The grant was not being given directly to beneficiaries but was being spent through village panchayats for the construction of latrines in houses.

As per information, as many as 3,676 latrines had been constructed in Hoshiarpur I, 4,032 in Hoshiarpur II, 2,912 in Bhunga, 4,324 in Mahilpur, 2,879 in Garhshankar, 2,656 in Tanda, 2,042 in Dasuya, 1,914 in Mukerian, 1,596 in Hajipur and 1,698 in the Talwara blocks of the district, within six years of the inception of this scheme.

The total installation of flush latrines had been done in all the houses in only two villages of Hoshiarpur II, five each in Mahilpur and Garhshankar, three each in Tanda and Dasuya, four in Mukerian and two in the Talwara blocks.

As many as 6,795 latrines are yet to be installed in Hoshiarpur I, 12,211 in Hoshiarpur II, 19,229 in Tanda, 8,352 in Dasuya and 6,955 in the Mukerian blocks of the district.

The survey for the construction of the remaining flush latrines in the houses of the people in Mahilpur, Bhunga, Garhshankar, Hajipur and Talwara blocks had not been done by the concerned Block Development and Panchayat Officers (BDPOs) so far.

The Union and Punjab governments had provided a grant of Rs 2,21,82,800 to Hoshiarpur I, Rs 2,36,08,100 to Hoshiarpur II, Rs 171.16 lakh to Bhunga, Rs 238.739 lakh to Mahilpur, Rs 179.766 lakh to Garhshankar, 
Rs 1,72,86,400 to Tanda, Rs 140.55 lakh to Dasuya, Rs 112.61 lakh to Mukerian, Rs 94,45,300 to Hajipur and Rs 1,00,34,200 to Talwara blocks.

The BDPOs of Hoshiarpur I, Hoshiarpur II, Tanda and Talwara blocks further admitted in the information that the said grants had to be utilised within three months after they were received, whereas BDPOs of Bhunga, Garhshankar, Dasuya, Mukerian, Hajipur and Mahilpur stated that they had to be utilised within six months of the receipts.

Jai Gopal Dhiman demanded a probe into the entire utilisation of the above said grants and to get its audit from the CAG to ascertain the proper utilisation of funds.

Phagwara, January 11
Road and rail traffic remained disrupted due to dense fog which enveloped the entire region today. Vehicles plied at snail’s pace on the roads, with their head lights on due to poor visibility caused by the thick fog.

The railways put all its “fog signal posts” in operation, to give clearance signals to trains arriving in the foggy weather. Still, most of the trains ran behind schedule.

Frontier Mail, Jhelam Express, Howrah Express, Moorie Express, Shane-Punjab Express, Barauni Express, Himgiri Express and Superfast Express were among the dozen trains which ran late today.

Meanwhile, the Northern Railways have cancelled 65 mail, express and superfast trains today, due to the foggy weather.

Following are among the trains cancelled today due to fog - 19772/19773 Amritsar-Jaipur Express, 19023/19024 Ferozepur-Mumbai Express, 14649/14650 Amritsar-Jaynagar Saryu-Yamuna Express, 54641/54642 Ferozepur-Delhi Express and 64516/64517 Nangal-Ambala Cantt.

Hoshiarpur, January 9
Capt Amarinder Singh, PPCC president and former Chief Minister, will visit the town on January 17 and address a rally of the workers of the district Congress at Roshan ground to mobilise them for the forthcoming elections of the Punjab state assembly, according to the spokesman for the District Congress Committee here yesterday.

It will be his first visit to the town after becoming president of the PPCC.

Lov Kumar Goldy, MLA from Garhshankar, has been made in charge for holding the rally. Goldy today convened a meeting of the party workers here in which MP Santosh Chaudhary, former MP Kamal Chaudhary, former ministers Naresh Thakur and Romesh Dogra, secretary, PPCC, Jasbir Singh Pal, general secretaries of the PPCC Kuldip Nanda and Dr Dilbagh Rai, former Chairman of the Improvement Trust, Hoshiarpur, Pawan Kumar Adia, media in charge, DCC, Sunder Sham Arora, president, DCC, Dharampal Sabharwal and many others were present. 

Gurdaspur, January 11
The area manager, FCI Gurdaspur, has refuted reports appearing in a section of the media that the corporation has not been paying incentive bonuses to farmers from whom the FCI purchased paddy in 2009-10.

In a letter written to the District Mandi Officer, FCI area manager Nahar Singh said the bonus payment had been received by its Chandigarh-based regional office and that the mandi officer should inform farmers, through commission agents, that they can take their payments through the FCI’s pay offices at Batala and Gurdaspur.

Nahar Singh said the Central Government had agreed to give a bonus of Rs 18.26 per quintal to farmers for the 2009-10 session. He said half of this amount - Rs 9.13 - will be given now and the pending amount will be distributed later.

The area manager claimed that he had also asked the District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) to provide wide publicity to ensure that farmers get their incentive bonus on time.

Jalandhar, January 11
Rich tributes would be paid to former chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust, Dr Lekh Raj Sharma, during a ‘shradhanjali samaroh’ to be held at the local Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall.

Dr Sharma was the father of Varinder Sharma, MP from Eailing UK.

He died on January 4 due to a cardiac arrest. Nimisha Mehta, member, vigilance and monitoring committee of the Congress, Nawashahr, said tributes would be paid by Congress leaders to Dr Sharma during a ceremony to be held from 12 noon to 2.30 pm tomorrow.