SGPC to open schools, colleges worldwide
Patiala, January 12
The education wing of the SGPC is all set to take help from non-resident Indians (NRIs) to open educational centres across the globe. The main focus is on those countries where Sikhs are present in good number.

Sikh panel meets PM on Anand Marriage Act
New Delhi, January 11
A delegation, led by DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna and RS Jaura, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for granting citizenship to Afghan Sikhs and Hindus of Indian origin and passing of the Anand Marriage Act.

Chandigarh, January 12
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today filled the vacancy created by the ouster of former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal from his cabinet three months ago by falling back on an old Akali warhorse, Capt Balbir Singh Bath.

Bath, who is a three-time legislator from Sri Hargobindpur Sahib in Gurdaspur district, will be sworn in as Cabinet Minister on January 16. According to sources, Badal took the decision to fill the vacancy of a Cabinet Minister after all hope of reconciliation with his nephew Manpreet Badal died.

Till a month after Manpreet’s revolt against the party in October, there was hope in certain quarters that reconciliation could be reached.

Meanwhile, the choice of Bath indicates that the party is more concerned about the Majha region. The SAD wants to maintain its success in the Majha region in the last Assembly elections in the next poll.

Political mileage in the Majha region is said to be the reason behind granting Cabinet rank to Bath, according to sources.

Agriculture Minister Sucha Singh Langah, Sewa Singh Sekhwan and Nirmal Singh Kahlon from the same district already enjoy this status.

Bath is also identified with the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon, who is also the Chief Minister’s son-in-law. According to sources, Kairon’s position in the party has been strengthened after Manpreet’s ouster and the fact that his protégé has been rewarded with a cabinet post speaks of the new power dynamics in the SAD.

Meanwhile, the biggest loser has been former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, who is also Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal’s brother-in-law.

Sources said while Bikram, who had earlier resigned from the cabinet to pave the way for Sukhbir’s election, was a natural choice but circumstances had changed now. They said after Manpreet’s ouster the CM would not like to give the impression that he was presiding over a kitchen cabinet.

Sixty-eight-year-old Bath is a steadfast Akali and by rewarding the old guard the CM has sent out signals that loyalty would be acknowledged. A graduate from Barring College, Batala, he is a three-time legislator who has risen from the ranks. He has served as a village sarpanch besides heading the zila parishad. He has served for six years in the Jat regiment in the Army and was also jailed for nearly three years during the Akali agitation against the imposition of emergency in the country.

Chandigarh, January 12
The Punjab Government has decided to stop registration of all trucks and buses in the state after January 31 unless they are fitted with speed governors. All existing buses and trucks registered in Punjab will have to get speed governors by the end of the current year. The speed governors will ensure that the maximum speed of the trucks and buses in the state does not exceed 65 km per hour.

The vehicles that will be covered by this decision will include all types of light transport vehicles, medium or heavy passenger motor vehicles and medium or heavy goods vehicles.

The decision has been taken following the direction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court asking the state government to ensure compliance with the rules of the Motor Vehicles Act. Punjab has taken this decision very reluctantly as a majority of the private transport is owned and run by important politicians of the state, spread across different parties.

Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal told The Tribune that the government was keen to regulate the speed of big vehicles on the roads and would soon install cameras and other equipment to challan the vehicles that violate rules and speed limits.

Confirming the decision to stop registering vehicles without speed governors beyond this month, Secretary, Transport, SK Sandhu, said the notification would be issued shortly. “All vehicles on the road will be given one year to get speed governors fitted in compliance with the orders of the high court, failing which their registration will be cancelled.”

Though the Motor Vehicles Act does not specify any maximum speed limit for light motor vehicles, it specifically fixes 65 km per hour as the maximum speed limit for light transport vehicles, medium or heavy passenger motor vehicles and medium or heavy goods vehicle.

Sources in the government said that after losing the Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court, they had no choice about implementing the orders of the high court.

Master Mohal Lal added that the state was very concerned about the speed violations by private buses. Soon measures would be taken to ensure that these buses did not jeopardise the safety of the people travelling in these buses as well as the safety of those on the roads.

Chandigarh, January 12
The Punjab Government has decided to implement the recommendations of the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission that pertain to the state Transport Department. The state government will ensure that by the end of June this year, all registration of new vehicles is done by the dealer. College Principals will be empowered to issue learner driving licences and facility will be provided to deposit tax online for commercial vehicles.

Stating this here today, Transport Minister Master Mohan Lal said the recommendations would become a reality in the next six months. Tenders were being floated for the services of a boot operator, who would then help the Transport Department make “minimum public interaction” with it possible.

Secretary, Transport, SK Sandhu, said nearly 91 centres would be started in the state, one at each subdivision, where after obtaining a learners licence, a driving test would be conducted. The report of the test would then be sent to the boot operator, who would make a licence and send it to the person concerned by post.

In another major decision, the department has decided that commercial vehicles travelling out of the state would be issued computerised permits after they pay the tax for the permit online, either by a direct bank-to-bank transfer or through credit cards. The department has also introduced steps to make passing of vehicles for road worthiness easier.

Reacting to a question about his being ignored by the Bathinda administration at a state-level traffic awareness programme, Master Mohan Lal said that he had written a letter to the Chief Minister with copies to state BJP president Ashwani Kumar and Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal demanding proper respect for ministers.

Chandigarh, January 12
Charging of exorbitant fee from their wards by various technical educational institutions here continues to bother people of Indian origin (PIOs) as well non-resident Indians (NRIs) belonging to Punjab.

The issue was raised today at the Punjab NRI convention organised by the International Punjabi Chamber for Service Industry (IPSCI) here today.

The members also urged the state government to declare 2011 as the year for infrastructure and skills development.

Owing moral responsibility to look after the disadvantaged sections of the society, it also gave a call to the overseas Punjabi community to adopt and sponsor boys and girls from the weaker sections of the society for higher education and professional courses.

The convention, eighth in the series and held two days after the national-level Parvasi Bharati Divas celebrations in the union capital attracted over 100 Punjabis who have made the USA, UK, France, Canada, Netherlands, Norway, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and several other countries as their second home.

Held under the aegis of the Punjab government, the conference not only focussed on infrastructure development but also to route investments both from within and outside the country to put the state in the development mode.

The participants also demanded a reliable mechanism to resolve various problems faced by them in a time-bound manner. They also suggested that the sangat darshan programme should be held once a month exclusively for overseas Punjabis.

The Minister for Punjab Industries and Commerce, Punjab, Manoranjan Kalia, who inaugurated the event, said there was now greater scope for overseas Punjabis to set up profitable ventures following implementation Punjab has implemented a new industrial as well as the SEZ policy.

Punjab Chief Secretary SC Aggarwal and Industries Secretary Swarn S Channy also took part in the event.

PS Narula of Thailand said while Punjab and Chandigarh had been talking about promoting health tourism, Thailand had already taken the lead with one of the leading hospitals in Bangkok getting about one lakh patients from overseas every year.

New Delhi, January 11
A delegation, led by DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna and RS Jaura, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for granting citizenship to Afghan Sikhs and Hindus of Indian origin and passing of the Anand Marriage Act.

In the absence of the Act, Sikh marriages have to be registered under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. “If Sikhs do not register the marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act, it attracts violation of the order of the Supreme Court according to which the registration of marriage is compulsory”, the delegation said.

“To maintain our independent identity, the Anand Marriage Act should be passed and rules should also be framed so that all matters of the community are settled under Sikh family law and not under any other law”, the delegation said.

The delegation also demanded granting citizenship to Afghan Sikhs and Hindus of Indian origin. They said after resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Afghan Sikhs and Hindus of Indian origin were left with no choice but to flee from there. They had been living here for the past 15 years but Indian citizenship had not been granted to them till, they added.

The leaders also demanded the scrapping of ‘blacklist’ of Sikhs living abroad. In a memorandum to the PM, they demanded that the matter should be resolved on priority.

Malerkotla, January 12
There are many 24X7 shops in this town. It’s strange but true that many shopkeepers here have not closed their shops for decades. Creating a record of sorts, Abdul Waheed (60), who runs a tea stall in Satha Bazaar here, has not closed his shop for three decades. However, it was only last year that he had to close his shop for a few days due to curfew imposed on the town.

“We work in rotation. I attend customers from 6 pm to 7 am, my father from 7 am to 12 noon and my brother from 12 noon to 6 pm. It has become a routine for us,” says Waheed, who has inherited Waheed Tea Stall from his uncle Umar Din, who died 36 years ago.

“I am happy that we are getting good number of customers. I married off my two daughters and educated son through the income generated from here. Among one of my regular customers is Gurloveleen Singh, SDM of this area, who has been coming here since his college days.”Muhammad Rafiq Maggi (55), who runs Maggi Tea Stall, has also not only earned a livelihood for his family, but has educated one of his three sons, Shahzaad Ali, up to Class X in this town having a low literacy rate.

In the Noor Basti area, Lal Din (45) has also not closed his shop for decades. Other areas where shops remain open day and night are Ludhiana bypass and Kailon Gate.

Amritsar, January 12
The SGPC has set the ball rolling for spreading awareness on Sikhism at the global level in the aftermath of instances like the ban on ‘kirpan’ in schools in France and frisking of India’s envoy to UN Hardeep Puri in the US.

Talking to The Tribune after holding a meeting with Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh here today, SGPC president Avtar Singh said he had asked the SGPC secretary to identify Sikh intellectuals having knowledge of different foreign languages so that work to publish literature to make people abroad aware of the Sikhism in their language could be started. “The secretary will soon submit a panel of names to me,” he said.

He added that they had also initiated process to form another panel of Sikh intellectuals that would help members of the community settled abroad in dealing with issues emerging out of lack of awareness about Sikhism in foreign land, mistaken identity and security barriers.

On the issue of replacing the gate of the Darshani Deodhi at the Golden Temple, though the committee formed to look into the matter is yet to submit its report to him, the SGPC chief said he had come to know that the gate could not be repaired anymore.

The panel headed by the Jathedar of Akal Takht would hold another meeting in the coming days before submitting its final report. The SGPC chief also rejected the talk of the old gate being handed over to Somnath Temple stating that the gate would be preserved at ‘toshakhana’ (treasure) of the Golden Temple.

On the authenticity of ‘Kalgi’ that was brought to Amritsar in 2009 claiming that it belonged to Guru Gobind Singh, the SGPC chief said his viewpoint, right from the beginning, was that it could not belong to Guru Gobind Singh. “Had it been of Guru Gobind Singh, it would have been unique,” he said. However, he added that the committee formed to check its authenticity was yet to submit its final report.

On the confusion surrounding the date of Guru Gobind Singh’s birth anniversary, he said 98 per cent of the Sikhs had celebrated it on January 11 as per the amended Nanakshahi Calendar.

On the DSGMC celebrating the Gurpurb on January 5, he said only the Jathedar of Akal Takht could comment on the matter.

Jalandhar, January 12
The district police has failed to nab an NRI son of an Akali leader who allegedly attacked Tarun Sharma, a cloth merchant from the city, eight days ago.

The victim has alleged that the police has succumbed to political pressure as the accused is a son of a former leader of the Akali Dal.

The victim underwent head surgery at the DMC, Ludhiana, and is in a coma. His wedding was to be solemnised on March 8.

The suspect, Canadian NRI Gurmukh Singh, is a son of Jasbir Singh Rode, a former Jathedar and close associate of the Punjab Chief Minister, and allegedly attacked Sharma with a baseball bat in the busy Model Town market on January 6 and fled. Sharma was seriously injured in the incident.

The police first booked Gurmukh Singh, a resident of Hardial Nagar, under Sections 307, 506 and 34 of the IPC after his car was found to have been used in the incident.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP, City-II), was unavailable for comments.

The victim’s kin have alleged that the police is not taking action in the case.“We were asked to stage a protest in front of the CM’s residence in Chandigarh when we were holding a protest in front of the police station, division No 6, demanding the arrest of the accused.”

Jalandhar, January 12
Africa is a continent of vast opportunities for those in search of greener pastures. Indians especially Punjabis, interested to settle abroad, should go for any of the 54 countries of this continent.

During his visit to his native place here on Wednesday, Honorary Consul-General of India in Liberia, Upjit Singh Sachdeva, said, “Punjabis usually prefer England, US and Canada in their sarch for greener pastures but Africa is a continent which is still not much explored.”

Among the natural resources with which Africa was abundantly endowed were oil, gold, iron ore, diamond, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, plutonium, exotic woods, tropical fruits, rubber, cocoa, coffee and cashew nuts.

Muktsar, January 12
The government today accepted the long-pending demand of the veterinary doctors for granting non-practice allowance (NPA). An announcement to this effect was made by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal here today. In turn, all veterinary doctors have agreed to provide service to the cattle rearers in the villages for which they would not charge any money.

Sukhbir was here to distribute prizes at the concluding ceremony of the five-day National Livestock Competition-2011, here, in which around 5,000 animals from various states, including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, vied for a total of Rs 1.25 crore prize money.

Speaking on the occasion, Sukhbir said, "We had organized the event to encourage people to promote livestock breeding, horse breeding and equestrian sports. I believe the competition will motivate farmers to rear high milk yielding breeds of buffalos, cows, cross-bred cows, goats, sheep, pig and poultry."

Claiming that the state government was committed to improving the breed of livestock, he said the state government had imported one lakh injections of semen and keeping in view the huge demand for these injections, the same quantity of it is being imported.

He added that the state was setting up five new state-of-the-art cattle mandis equipped with quality veterinary care to give fillip to the rapidly growing dairy industry.

Further, he mentioned that state government wanted to promote the animal husbandry as a subsidiary profession to the traditional occupation of agriculture.

"For this purpose, we have introduced a new scheme of subsidizing livestock under which any person (belonging to general category) buying an animal would get 25 per cent subsidy as per stipulated norms and the beneficiaries of the Scheduled Caste schemes would get 33 per cent subsidy," Sukhbir announced.

Hailing the response that the livestock championship gained here, the Deputy CM said, "We had started the cattle fair in the state with Rs 40 lakh prize money but the total amount that includes all district, zonal and national level championships held this year, has reached Rs 4 crore. And finding people across the country appreciating our efforts, I commit that the next year, the prize money would be increased to Rs 5 crore."

Later speaking to The Tribune, the Deputy CM accused the Central Government of having failed on all fronts. He alleged that it was the prime responsibility of the Centre to check the inflation but despite the hue and cry raised in the country, the Congress-led UPA government was doing nothing fruitful.

When questioned about the preparations for the Maghi Mela, scheduled for January 14 at Muktsar, Sukhbir claimed that it would be historic.

Nabha, January 12
The mortal remains of Bibi Satinder Kaur, founder president of the Punjab Mahila Congress, who died yesterday at Fortis Hospital in Mohali following a massive cardiac stroke, were consigned to flames at Shahi Smadhan on Bhawanigarh Road here.

Bibi Satinder Kaur was a sister of DGP, Punjab, Paramdeep Singh Gill, and former DGP Rajdeep Singh Gill. Escorted by hundreds of vehicles, the body of the Congress leader was brought to her residence, Sewa Bhawan, in the town this morning where it was kept for almost two hours. Thousands of people made a beeline to pay their last tributes to the departed soul.

The body was taken to the cremation ground in an open ambulance in a procession joined by a huge number of residents. The body of Bibi Satinder Kaur was wrapped in the Congress flag.

Kaka Randeep Singh, MLA, Nabha, senior Youth Congress leader Jasdeep Singh Nikku and Gurdeep Singh consigned the body to flames.

Mohali, January 12
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that no government employee will get extension in service after retirement. Speaking at a during sangat darshan here, the Chief Minister told mediapersons that the decision was taken during the last Cabinet meeting.

The government was now planning to fill vacant posts in all departments on a regular basis so that unemployed youth in the state could get jobs instead of giving extension to employees after their retirement, he said.

Badal also announced setting up of a modern vegetable and fruit market in Phase XI here. The head office of the Punjab Mandi Board would be set up close to the market and would be equipped with “packed houses”.

A four-member committee was formed under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary for proper development of Mohali. The other members of the high-powered committee were chief administrator of the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority, commissioner of the Municipal Corporation and managing director of the Small Industries Development Corporation.

Badal announced Rs 316 crore for the Kajauli Water Works and sanctioned Rs 2.21 crore for the construction of a road from Jagatpura to Bakarpur village.

Lashing out at president of the PPCC Capt Amarinder Singh, Badal said the former Chief Minister was interested in pursuing vendetta politics to malign his (Badal) image for his vested interests. He said, “ I am only concerned about the development and prosperity of the nation”.

While talking about an open debate on the issue of development in Punjab, the Chief Minister said Amarinder would be given an opportunity to put forth his views in the coming budget session of the Vidhan Sabha.

He, however, would have nothing to his credit to vindicate his stand on the development issue, added Badal.

Anandpur Sahib, January 12
Hola mohalla celebrations would be held at Anandpur Sahib from March 18 to March 15. It would be held at Kiratpur Sahib from March 15 to March 17.

Deputy commissioner Arunjit Singh Miglani held a meeting to oversee arrangements for the function that attracts lakhs of devotees from all over the globe. SDM Anandpur Sahib APS Sandhu has been deployed as the mela officer and other departments have been designated different duties.

Miglani said the city was divided into nine sectors for the hola mohalla celebrations. All nine sectors would have sub police control rooms, medical facilities, toilets, parking lots, proper ventilation, cleanliness and drinking water facility.

All sectors will have towers installed to oversee the proceedings and activities during mohalla. Around 25 to 30 lakh pilgrims are expected to pay obeisance. The District Administration has set up 12 massive parking centres and 400 temporary toilets.

For the six days of the celebrations, traffic has been diverted to various routes. The SDM Anandpur Sahib office would be manned with staff for 24 hours. Strict action would be taken against those who encroach upon roads or try to disrupt easy flow of traffic.

Liquor shops would remain closed during six days celebration period. A special meeting regarding langar would be conducted with Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). Further decisions about arrangements would be taken during next meeting to be held after 15 days.

Patiala, January 12
“DGP sahib aaye huaen hain aur hamara function bhi hai. Kal ko aana. Sab busy hain, (DGP is in town and we have a function, come tomorrow as everyone is busy,” a junior munshi at Tripuri police station told a complainant. The complainant had come to see SHO Vimal Sharma following a dispute, late last night.

Despite government claims for the increased facilities for the “aam aadmi”, a single VIP visit sent the city police out of order. Usually ruing prolonged working hours, the Patiala police today took a day off from working.

In the morning, the police was busy arranging for the Punjab DGP’s visit. He was on a personal visit to Nabha and by the afternoon the city police had arranged a function. Later, the death of a close relative of an OSD to the chief minister, kept the police engaged.

The police had decided to hold a function to return recovered valuables to the rightful owners in the morning, but the visit of the state police chief, PS Gill, made SSP Gurpreet Singh Gill change the timings of the function. Following the change chaos prevailed in the police department as the public kept waiting.

The SSP office and the IG office were empty since morning. All DSP’s and SHO ranked officials were busy arranging for the function and clearing the route for the DGP’s visit.

“I have come with all documents to meet the IG, after checking that he will be in office. Today upon reaching, were told that he is busy in some function and will be available in the afternoon. After waiting for three hours we are being told the DGP is in town and the IG is busy,” rued a Nawanshahr resident, who had come to discuss a case. The scene was the same in the SSP’s office where two elderly women were waiting for the SSP to return, but were told that the SSP would be back only in the evening or might not come. “You can see how the system works,” she added.

Anandpur Sahib, January 12
The forest department officials have confiscated 50 quintals of khair logs from village Lakher. The local officials have ignored the problem of illegal felling of khair trees for its wood. Now, the range officer has intervened in the matter.

Earlier, the divisional forest officer, Vishal Chauhan, had raided a house in Changar area and confiscated 136 illegal fell trees. While police is yet to register a case against the accused in this case, the forest officials caught another booty of 50 quintals of khair from Lakher village. Chauhan said police was informed about the accused and he would soon be nabbed.

On December 13, the department had detected illegal felling of khair trees from Paharpur village. Officials found that 136 trees had been illegally axed down in the area protected under the Section 4 of Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), which prohibits felling of trees on this land.

Officials found 136 pits from where the khair trees were uprooted. Khair mafia removes entire trees, with roots, to give an impression that no tree ever existed at such spot. The axed trees have over a quintal of wood and most of trees had 60 cms thick bark, wide enough for harvesting.

Fatehgarh Sahib, January 12
The elections for the post of vice-president in the Sirhind Municipal Council have been deferred once again.

Municipal Council president Gurvinder Bhatti said the elections had been postponed to next week due to unavailability of officials supposed to be present. Insiders, however, revealed that the elections could not be held due to competition among the two BJP councilors who wanted to stand for the post

The post has been lying vacant for the past around four and half months.