Patiala, June 21
In what may turn out to be a repeat of the infamous Bihar fodder scam, the state Animal Husbandry Department has allegedly failed to justify crores of rupees that came as central subsidy and was meant to be distributed to cattle farmers for Barseem fodder seed.

And what has deepened the mystery further is that three inquiries have been ordered into the alleged misappropriation so far -- the first probe indicted the officials, the second let them off and the third is on.

Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike ordered the inquiries following allegations that the department officials connived with private firms to buy fodder seeds from three Amritsar-based dealers and from a Jaito seed firm for Rs 80 even as the seed was available for Rs 50 per quintal in the open market.

Later, the seed was sold at higher rates to the farmers when the demand was at its peak, it is alleged.

Notably, documents available with The Tribune reveal that in the financial years 2009-10 and 2010-11, the Union Government had released over Rs 6 crore as subsidy for Barseem fodder seeds to cattle farmers.

However, due to the alleged hand-in-glove role played by officials and seed agency owners, the subsidy never reached the farmers and instead "fake reports were prepared to show the amount being disbursed".

An initial inquiry marked by Ranike to a departmental committee confirmed that the funds were allegedly misused by the department officials. However, instead of taking any action, another probe was marked to Deputy Director (Animal Husbandry) AS Ghumman, who gave them a clean chit. Not satisfied, Gulzar Singh Ranike ordered yet another probe, this time by an IAS-level officer.

For his part, Ghumman said: "I have not found any scam and all funds were utilised properly and all cashbooks were personally checked by me. The complainants in the case are themselves unavailable and the final report prepared by me is 100 per cent correct and according to this inquiry, the fodder seeds were given on subsidised rates to the farmers."

Gulzar Singh Ranike, meanwhile, confirmed that the (third) departmental probe was already on. "There is another inquiry that has been marked into the scam, which is being conducted by a senior IAS officer. And if need be, I will shift the case to the Vigilance Bureau," Ranike assured, adding the guilty would not be spared. 

Chandigarh, June 21
Largesse for Agriculture Sub-Inspectors (ASPs), especially those from Gurdaspur district, is in the offing in the state Agriculture Department. The government will be amending rules to allow Agriculture Sub-Inspectors (ASPs) to be promoted as Assistant Development Officers (ADOs) by cutting down the waiting period from 20 to ten years. A large number of the ASPs who stand to benefit from this amendment are from Agriculture minister Suchha Singh Langah’s home district of Gurdaspur. According to norms established in 1983, a 20 per cent quota was kept aside for promoting ASPs who had completed 20 years in service as ADOs. The latter is a Class One post with the minimum qualification of Bsc Agriculture, while ADOs eligible for promotion are matric pass and only need to pass an ASP training course.

Agriculture Minister Suchha Singh Langah, when questioned on the issue, said the amendment had been made on the basis of similar changes effected in other departments. When questioned how the ASPs would function in a job that required technical expertise, he said the ASPs proposed to be promoted as ADOs would be barred from conducting checks on pesticide shops.

When asked whether the fact that a large number of ASPs in line for promotion were from Gurdaspur had a role in the decision, the minister said there were more ASPs from Gurdaspur as the training course was held there. “This cannot have any impact on my decision as I am the Agriculture Minister for the entire state”, he said. As many as 65 ASPs stand to get promoted as ADOs if the Agriculture Minister has his way. Around 20 of the ASPs are from Gurdaspur district.

Meanwhile, ADOs have been protesting against the change in norms.

Financial Commissioner, Development, N S Kang also seems to see some merit in the case of ADOs. He said ASPs could be promoted but steps were proposed to ensure they did not come in the same channel as ADOs, keeping in view the issue of qualifications. Kang said he had written a letter to the Agriculture Minister to review the earlier decision to allow ASPs to be promoted as ADOs after completing 10 years in service.

Amritsar, June 21
A 232-member Sikh jatha led by SGPC member Gopal Singh Jania today left for Pakistan on a special train to observe the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Gurdwara Dehra Sahib in Lahore.

Giving details of the jatha’s programme in Pakistan, Jania said they would pay obeisance at Gurdwara Sacha Sauda tomorrow before leaving for Gurdwara Panja Sahib on June 23.

The jatha will reach Gurdwara Dehra Sahib in Lahore on June 27. The devotees will also visit Gurdwara Rori Sahib, Emanabad, and Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib.

The jatha will observe the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh on June 29 before returning home on June 30.

Out of 232 members of the jatha, 203 are visiting Pakistan under the aegis of the SGPC, while 17 are from UP Sikh Mission and 12 from Gurudham Yatra Society, Uttarakhand.

Earlier this month, the SGPC had not sent any jatha to Pakistan to observe the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev as the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) was observing the event as per the original Nanakshahi Calendar on June 16.

The SGPC had applied for Pakistani visas to observe the event on June 5 as per the amended calendar, but the Pak embassy declined the same, contending that PSGPC was observing the event on June 16.

Though the SGPC did not send a jatha later, a 160-member Sikh jatha from other Sikh organisations like the DSGMC had visited Pakistan between June 8 and 17 to observe the event.

Amritsar, June 21
Research work in the religious arena has taken a hit at the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) here, as six out of eight chairs set up at the varsity have become non-functional.

The university has eight chairs-Guru Gobind Singh Chair, Baba Budha Chair, Guru Ravidass Chair, Sant Kabir Chair, Bhagat Namdev Chair, Hazrat Mian Mir Chair, Dr BR Ambedkar Chair and Namdhari Guru Ram Singh Chair. Out of these, only the Guru Ravidass Chair and Namdhari Guru Ram Singh Chair are functional. The rest have stopped functioning.

Out of the two functional chairs too, only Namdhari Guru Ram Singh Chair finds mentions in the annual report of the university for 2009. Interestingly, seven of these chairs find mention in the Budget Estimates 2011-12 of the university as funds have been shown to be allocated to them. Namdhari Guru Ram Singh Chair has been allocated Rs 14.74 lakh, Guru Ravidass Chair Rs 13.13 lakh, Sant Kabir Chair Rs 11.23 lakh, while Guru Gobind Singh Chair, Dr BR Ambedkar Chair and Hazrat Mian Mir Chair have been allocated Rs 12.44 lakh each. For Baba Budha Chair, Dr Jagir Singh Randhawa, an NRI, had donated Rs 25 lakh for setting up the corpus fund in 2002. The chair functioned for sometime before becoming non-functional.

Earlier this year, Bhagat Puran Singh Chair ceased to exist in the university after the All India Pingalwara Charitable Society sought a refund of the corpus of Rs 25 lakh, contending that the Chair had remained almost non-functional since the time it was set up more than six years back.

Former Vice-Chancellor GNDU, SP Singh said if there is a sense of commitment, it is not difficult to run these chairs. “The existing staff can be given additional charge of these chairs. Besides, even if each of these chairs organise a seminar annually it would not cost much. It all depends on commitment as well as the policy of the university,” he said, adding that the varsity should have at least fulfilled the commitment of the chair with an endowment fund like Baba Budha Chair and Bhagat Puran Singh Chair.

On the other hand, GNDU Registrar Inderjeet Singh said the university doesn’t have enough resources to run these chairs. “Our priority here is the salary of staff and running the university smoothly. Our expenditure budget has gone up to Rs 100 crore after the new pay structure came into being. We receive only Rs 36 crore as grant from the government. We have to raise the rest with the help of our own resources,” he said.

The registrar said it was difficult to run these chairs unless a special grant is given. As far as the chairs with an endowment fund are concerned, he said at least Rs 1 crore is required as as corpus to meet the annual expenditure of a chair.

Mohali, June 21
For the current year, the Punjab Education Department has decided to withdraw the job of conducting Elementary Teachers Training (ETT) exams from the State Council of Education and Training (SCERT) and hand it over to the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB).

The decision has been taken in light of the due to leakage of the question papers of the ETT exams due to alleged negligence of the certain officials of the SCERT. Confirming the move, Sewa Singh Sekhwan Punjab Education Minister said the PSEB had the experience of handling lakhs of students under a foolproof system. “Handling 5000 students would not be a difficult task for the board”, said the minister.

Though after the introduction of the semester system, board officials admit that they are overworked because throughout the year exams of over 6 lakh students are conducted annually by the board. This would put an additional burden on the board officials.

Sekhwan, who was at the PSEB headquarters today said an official inquiry into the ETT paper leakage was trying to pinpoint the responsibility behind the negligence of the SCERT officials.

No objection certificates were given to 22 schools of the state to get affiliation to either the CBSE or the ICSE.

Patiala, June 21
The Contractual PRTC Employees Union (Azaad) members, staging a state-level dharna against the PRTC management and the Punjab Government over the issue of regularisation, were lathicharged by the police here today.

A large number of cops had sealed the bus stand area since early morning and checked the buses to ensure that the protesters did not reach the area from where the rally was scheduled.

The cops surrounded the protestors while they were trying to block the main gate of the bus stand. The agitators were not even allowed to raise slogans and upon objection from the protesters, the police lathi-charged the employees.

The police has also arrested around 35 employees. Meanwhile, the police had already arrested 100 PRTC employees a few days back and they were still in jail.

Ferozepur, June 21
The completion of construction of a bridge over the Sutlej from Lalowal (Ferozepur) to Gidderpindi (Jalandhar) villages to establish a direct road connection among Malwa, Doaba and Majha regions of Punjab is likely to be delayed by about five months.

The bridge, which was scheduled to be completed by the end of June and opened to vehicular traffic in July, is likely to be completed by the end of October.

Its construction was hampered by floods, which took place in Sutlej last year and again by the rise in level of water in April this year.

Daljeet Singh, Executive Engineer, PWD, said, “Over 70 per cent of the work has been completed. If the level of water does not rise in Sutlej for a month or so, the bridge can be completed by November-end.” However, if the water rises, it would lead to a month’s delay, he said.

Presently, a common road and rail bridge, which is more than a 100 years old and was constructed during the British rule in India, is the only link between Ferozepur and Jalandhar districts of Punjab.

Though a proposal to construct a separate road bridge over the Sutlej near Gidderpindi was approved during the British era, the bridge could not become a reality.

Due to the absence of separate road bridge, the people living in pockets close to the Sutlej in these areas have to cover 20 km more than the actual distance to reach their destinations. The construction of the bridge, 10 m wide and 720 m long with approaches on both sides measuring 1,575 m, was started in March 2010 and was to be completed within 15 months at the cost of Rs 41 crore.

Jalandhar, June 21
Aiming to cash in on the scheme in the run-up to the state assembly elections, the Punjab Government has decided to give away 1.2 lakh bicycles to girl students on August 15. Official sources yesterday said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would hold a meeting in this regard with the authorities concerned tomorrow.

Copying the Bihar model, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh had directed the officials concerned to examine the proposal to provide cycles to girl students.

During its first term, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar had given cycles to all school going girls at the elementary and secondary level. The scheme became a hit with the rural population, thus giving a lot of political advantage to his party JD(U), which won the second consecutive term.

However, in Punjab, cycles would be provided only to the girls studying in Class XI and XII. Sources said the make of the cycles had not been decided yet. The cycles were likely to be purchased through a contract system.

Sources said the Chief Minister had earlier told the officials concerned to enquire from the cycle manufacturing companies at what price they would provide the cycles if purchased in bulk.

In the wholesale market, a good cycle is available for Rs 2,100-2,200. However, in the retail market, it is available for Rs 2,700-2,900 depending on its make and brand. The cycles would be distributed through the Welfare Department, it is learnt.

In the state, there are several villages from where girls go to schools in towns and cities. Even girls go to the neighbouring villages where secondary schools are located. Most of the villages in the state have primary and middle schools.

Rajpura, June 21
The 1,276-acre agricultural land, earlier earmarked for setting up of an IT Park-cum-Knowledge City, was auctioned today following cancellation of the said project. The auction took place amidst protests by a section of farmers, who claimed that the land still belongs to the Punjab InfoTech on papers and should be restored to the respective panchayats before auction proceedings.

Out of the total land in six villages, 121 acres at Pabra village was auctioned today. The auction was to be held earlier on Friday, but was cancelled in view of the protests by the farmers. They again blocked the Rajpura-Patiala road today for one-and-a-half hours.

The Punjab InfoTech, the agency entrusted to develop the IT Park, took the land into its possession last year and had paid Rs 3.74 lakh for 121 acres. The officials conducting the auction said this time they expect collection of more than Rs 5 lakh in the auction. The panchayat land would be given to the farmers for an year on the contract basis through open auction and money collected would be utilised for the villages’ development.

Takhtumajra sarpanch Harsangat Singh said the farmers who have deposited money after the auction of their land have sought police security fearing trouble while taking the land back into their possession. “While the entire process took off peacefully, it was only a section of farmers who wanted to cultivate land free of cost, created ruckus,” he said.

Rajpura BDPO Ravinder Kaur said the auction was conducted as per the state government’s instructions. Around 35 farmers have expressed their desire to take land on one-year contract for cultivation after depositing the auction amount with the Panchayat Department. Land at Sehra, Sehri, Aakar, Aakri, Takhtumajra and Pabra villages would be auctioned in the next three days.

Patiala, June 21
Following recent drug recoveries, the district police has started a special campaign to check the flow of drugs in Punjab. The Police Department is on its toes to check the drug couriers by putting up nakas and identifying the transit routes.

“The excess production of drugs in Rajasthan and Punjab’s border areas is the reason behind increase in the supply of the contrabands in the region. “We have recently recovered over a quintal of opium and many other drugs, including smack from the drug peddlers,” said the senior police officials.

An officer deputed with the Crime Investigating Agency (CIA) confirmed to The Tribune that the peddlers had recently adopted another method of smuggling, wherein they use couriers to send the contrabands. “The couriers are easily available for a few thousand rupees and if they are caught, the kingpin is safe from the police investigations,” he added.

“The big-time smugglers promise a fixed percentage on the drugs being sent. The courier acts as a middleman and from fixing the price to collecting the money, they play a vital role,” said SP (Detective) Harbhajan Singh.

“Once the courier is arrested, it usually becomes tough to arrest the kingpin, as these smugglers have a strong nexus and the kingpin goes underground as soon as we arrest any of his men,”he said. In recent incidents, a drug peddler was caught with 30-kg opium and in another case, a Rajasthan cop was held trying to smuggle another 6 kg of opium. Thirty four kg of opium has been recovered in three separate cases recently. — TNS

Ludhiana, June 21
Patients suffering from cancer and their attendants are facing a lot of problems in getting their applications processed for the CM’s Cancer Relief Fund. The process is too long and cumbersome.

This was stated by wife of a 45-year-old cancer patient. “I went to the office of the senior medical officer to collect the required form for my sick husband. It took about half an hour to get the form, but the employees working in the office disheartened me saying that such works take 4-5 months to materialise.” Principal Secretary (Health), Punjab, Satish Chandra said, “I think it will not take more than three weeks to release this cheque to a particular patient through hospital.”

The decision about this fund was taken by the state assembly in the Budget session. Minister for Health and Family Welfare Satpal Gosain, on June 5 at Ludhiana, said, “The CM constituted the specific fund for providing financial help of Rs 1.50 lakh to each cancer patient for treatment. A corpus fund of Rs 20 crore has been constituted for this project,” he said.

The patient gets the amount through the hospital where he or she is getting the treatment. For this, a patient has to fill a form available at the Chief Medical Office or with the Health Department. The filled form will be handed over to the CMO, along with a verification certificate from the hospital concerned (verifying that the patient is getting treatment from this hospital and suffers from cancer. The CMO will then handover the filled form to the DC of the district concerned. The DC will send it further to the Principal Secretary, Health Department or Punjab Health Minister. After recommendation, the Health Department will send the cheque to the hospital.

Chandigarh, June 21
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked the Central Bureau of Investigation today to specify why no criminal case has been registered against those allegedly involved in the alleged multi-crore “rip-off,” reportedly involving misappropriation of subsidy for upgradation of PAU 201.

The directions came during the resumed hearing of a petition filed in public interest alleging loss of more than Rs 120 crore to the Centre due to alleged misappropriation of PAU 201.

The petition has been filed by Manpreet Singh and six other rice millers from Punjab. The petitioners have alleged cheating with Central Government subsidy to the tune of Rs 120 crore.

The petitioners have also sought directions for protecting the evidence, which is in the form of paddy lying in the stocks of the guilty parties/rice mills.

It was submitted that the Union government sanctioned Rs 190 crore to compensate rice-shellers for upgradation of the damaged crop.

The rice millers had, in fact, suffered great losses due to the PAU 201 crop in 2009-2010.

The court was informed that many persons, rice millers and Food Corporation of India officials placed PAU 201 of 2009-10 with other rice varieties produced in subsequent years to cheat central government and dishonestly claim the amount payable under the Centre’s scheme.

Already, several crores have been wrongfully distributed and claimed by showing other varieties of rice as PAU 201, advocate APS Shergill, appearing for the petitioners, had told the court.