The breach in the canal

Construction work on in full swing

With the construction work of the 3.75-km concrete wall, along the Hansi-Butana canal in full swing, Punjab and Haryana are once again ready for a face-off. The war of words between political leaders of both states has been on from quite some time, but with the start of the monsoon season, the issue is again on centrestage. While the SAD-BJP government in Punjab is squarely blaming the Haryana Government on the issue, the Haryana Government has termed the accusations levelled by Punjab as a political gimmick in the wake of the forthcoming assembly elections in the state. Amid the claims and counterclaims by both states, a perusal of the matter by The Tribune brought to light that the perennial problem of floods and the tussle between Punjab and Haryana needs an immediate solution - in order to save poor farmers and the inhabitants of the villages on the Punjab-Haryana border from misery.

Though Ghaggar, known as Patiala’s River of Sorrow, has been bringing misfortune to several areas in Patiala district in the form of floods for the past more than a decade, but experts of the Punjab Drainage Department are of the view that the construction of the Hansi-Butana canal has aggravated the problem.

What Punjab Irrigation Department has to say

The villages under water in 2010. File photos

According to Punjab Irrigation Department reports, there was a breach in the Hansi-Butana canal stretch near Tatiana village last year.

Since the embankment of the Hansi-Butana canal is 16-ft high than Ghaggar, the breach in Hansi-Butana leads to breaches in Ghaggar and its tributaries. Subsequently, the floods lead to large-scale devastation in Patiala. Besides loss of life, these cause immense damage to crops.

Speaking to The Tribune, AS Dullet, Chief Engineer, Irrigation Department, Punjab, said that the construction of the Hansi-Butana canal is absolutely against the natural contour of the land and hence, it obstructs the natural flow of water. “But now, the construction of the Hansi-Butana canal has created hindrance in the natural flow of water leading to back flow towards the Punjab side, thereby leaving Punjab villages flooded. “Learning no lesson from last year’s floods and instead of constructing a technically flawless new drainage system, the Haryana Government has now started the construction of a concrete wall to protect their own area.”

Parminder Singh Bhogal, Superintending Engineer, Drainage Department, Punjab, said that the Haryana Government was constructing the wall along that stretch of the canal where a breach had occurred last year. 

Nangal, June 30
The residents of Khera Kalmot village in Nangal have approached the administration alleging the stone crushers in their village were responsible for floods, which were never seen there in last 100 years. A delegation led by sarpanch Jograj submitted a complaint to the tehsildar holding stone crushing units around the village responsible for floods. The villagers said there are three stone crushers in the village, while several others dot the link road leading to the village.

“The crushers have knocked down high mountains for their use, thereby levelling the land. This has changed the flow of water towards the village. Earlier, water skirted around the village and merged into Swan rivulet. Now it enters into the households,” the villagers said.

They alleged that their crops are also affected. In last few days, heavy rains in the hilly area have resulted in flooding of the houses. Many of the families have been living here for past 100 years and this is the first time when rain water has entered into their houses.

They have appealed Chief Minister that measures be immediately taken to stop further stone crushing in area as well as to stop water from flowing into the village. Most of the mountains, which do not fall under Section 4, Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLA), are privately-owned. In a bid to earn fast bucks, the owners sell these to stone crushing units.

“Since the government has no control over this transaction, it has led to problem of mountains being turned into rubble of stones. Everyone knows about the problem, but from the district administration to the Punjab Pollution Control Board, all have turned Nelson’s eye,” rued the villagers.

SDM Lakhmir Singh said that he would look into the issue.

Rajpura, June 30
The Pakistani nationals living in India, who are not getting renunciation certificates from Pakistan to get Indian citizenship, now have got a ray of hope. In a communiqué to Rajya Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna, the Home Secretary, Government of India, has stated that Pakistani nationals living in India before December 31, 2004, will now be able to get Indian citizenship with a simplified procedure.

The Government of India has identified 7,635 such Pakistani nationals in the country, whose matter would be taken up on individual case basis.

Khanna added that the Pakistanis residing in India earlier had to get their renunciation certificates from Pakistani authorities but now the procedure has been simplified. “People would now be able to get the same from Indian authorities by simply submitting an affidavit”. Khanna had earlier written to the Government of India raising issue of granting Indian citizenship to the Hindus who have migrated from Pakistan due to various reasons.

Now, citizenship cases would be processed on a case-to-case basis considering an affidavit filed before the authority prescribed under rule 38 of the Citizenship Rule, 2009, as renunciation certificate. There are around 25 members of three families residing in Peer Colony area of Neelpur village in Rajpura. The families came to India in 1994 and since then they are doing menial jobs at Rajpura. “We are living without voter cards, ration cards and have got expired passports. We moved to India following riots near Loralai in Balochistan in 1994 wherein our houses were burnt,” said Rajesh.

Another Pakistani national, Lachhman Singh, said they had taken up the matter many a times with the Deputy Commissioner, senior Congress leaders and others, but nothing could be done. As per the letter, certain categories of foreigners (especially Pak nationals) have been exempted from the provisions of Passport (entry into India) Rules, 1950, to facilitate grant of long-term visa. The Indian government had also issued a gazette notification on May 15, 2010, in this regard.

However, the main problem was getting renunciation certificate, which Pakistani authorities issue. The ostensible reason behind their not issuing such a certificate was that most of the people did not possess computerised national IDs owing to the fact that when such field work was done in Pakistan, these people were already residing in India. 

Mohali, June 30
Adopting a cautious approach, the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) has deferred the case of regular appointments to the vital posts of Secretary and the Controller of Examinations. Both posts are important as far the administrative functioning and conduct of annual examination by the board are concerned.

In the Board of Directors meeting held yesterday, the issue for the post of Secretary could not be taken up as the panel of three officials had not come. There were three contenders for the post from within the Board. “The post of Secretary is very important to carry out administrative and financial decisions of the Board but the post has not been filled since 2009 due to legal complications”, said a senior official of the Board.

At present, the additional charge of the Secretary is with the Board’s vice-chairman Dr Suresh Tandon.

Sources in the Board disclosed that certain quarters in the Board, who were opposed to filling of the post of the Secretary from outside, were citing the stay granted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding the filling of the post after quashing of the appointment of Pavitar Pal Kaur as Secretary. Sukhwinder Kaur Saroya, senior legal adviser of the Board had challenged the appointment on the grounds that Pavitar Pal Kaur had a criminal case pending against her.

But since the Board was sticking to the previous qualification, no one should have objections to filling of the post from within or outside, said the official, adding that the appointment of the Secretary and Controller of Examinations were inter-linked.

Regarding the appointment of Controller of Examinations, the Board decided to take legal advice on the application moved by Sukhwinder Kaur Saroya for the post. The senior legal adviser had written to the Board authorities that since there was no case pending against her, she should be made the Controller.

Chandigarh, June 30
Punjab is set to remain power surplus in the run-up to the assembly elections and has for the first time in 10 years done away with the weekly off imposed on the industry.

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has not only doubled power banking arrangements with other states as compared to last year, but has also gone in for short-term purchase of Rs 1,000 crore, its managing director-cum-chairman KD Chaudhari said. He claimed that despite more power being purchased this year, the cost was less because the state had gone in for purchases in January. “This gave us leverage and we were able to purchase power at Rs 4 per unit as compared to a rate of Rs 6.07 per unit purchased last year,” he added.

Against a projected power purchase figure of Rs 6,300 crore submitted in its annual revenue receipt to the Regulatory Commission, the utility may now purchases power worth only Rs 5,000 crore due to its present comfortable position, he said. The timely arrival of the monsoon and the staggered transplantation of paddy due to labour shortage have resulted in a problem of plenty for the PSPCL. Right now, it has closed down four thermal plant units — two at Ropar and one each at Lehra Mohabbat and Bathinda. It is also surrendering 50 to 60 lakh units daily out of its allocation from the central sector.

The excess power has, however, emboldened the power utility to do away with the mandatory weekly off for the industrial sector. It has also decided to release loads of 250 MW in Mandi Gobindgarh industrial area and 150 MW in Ludhiana. This would bring in revenue to the Board and offset the burden imposed by heavy purchases.

Chaudhari maintained there was no scheduled power cut in the state since April this year and that this position would continue for the rest of the year. He said power disruptions had, however, happened due to inclement weather on a few occasions.

Chandigarh, June 30
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Capt Amarinder Singh today released a list of 51 achievements of his government between 2002 and 2007 and asked the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal to show if he really had anything to his credit.

Responding to Sukhbir’s demand that Amarinder should list five of his achievements, Capt Amarinder said that in the first phase, he was not just releasing five, but a list of 51 achievements. He said in stark contrast, Akali claims on the power front, metro train and Ring Road in Ludhiana had already fallen flat.

Amarinder said his government had sanctioned 367 mega projects at an estimated cost of more than Rs 1 lakh crore with job prospects for more than 13 lakh people. “Have you added anything beyond this count?” he asked Sukhbir.

The former Chief Minister said that his government had enacted the Punjab Termination of Water Sharing Agreements 2005, had ensured hassle-free procurement of foodgrains, had introduced Bt cotton, set up Punjab Farmers’ Commission, brought in many private players to encourage diversification and introduced the farm to fork concept. “Tell me what have you done on the agriculture front?” Capt Amarinder asked the Deputy CM.

On the power front, the former CM said his government ensured regular and uninterrupted power supply for eight hours to farmers, decided to commission the Lehra Mohabbat Plant: Stage III which stands commissioned at the moment.

Bathinda, June 30
Tirath Singh Brar, junior engineer with the state Irrigation Department, has been repenting his action of exposing a scam in the department in 1999 as he has been facing harassment at the hands of state irrigation authorities ever since.

Though a criminal case was registered against five officials of the department and two civil works contractors immediately after he exposed the scam worth crores of rupees, he had to pay the price for it as he was denied promotion while his batchmates have promoted as sub-divisional officer in January 2008.

Apart from exposing the scam, Brar handed over a cheque of Rs 50,000 to the then CM Parkash Singh Badal at a public function in this town in November 1999 which he got from his senior officer, who was involved in the scam, as a share in the booty.

Badal, who hugged Brar at the function, publicly announced that Brar had been forgiven for his fault of taking a share from his senior officer involved in the scam. He was also issued a letter of forgiveness by the then Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda on behalf of state government on December 3, 1999.

However, after four years, the irrigation authorities issued a chargesheet to Brar in 2003 for “taking a bribe and extending a favour to some contractor”. This was that reason that Brar had returned Rs 50,000 to CM Badal, they reasoned.

Interestingly, the state irrigation authorities did not attach any documents along with the chargesheet. And surprisingly, the inquiry started four years later in 2007.

The inquiry was launched despite the fact that the then Chief Engineer, Drainage, Punjab, had written a letter to Principal Secretary, Irrigation, to stop the inquiry stating that Brar was a government witness in the criminal case registered against Irrigation Department officials.

The inquiry has not been completed yet. Interestingly, about 10 inquiry and presenting officers have been changed since then by the irrigation authorities.

Brar said that he had approached the court to get his promotion, but he withdrew the case later as he feared that irrigation authorities would make the case an excuse to deny him promotion as he is to retire on August 31. He added that he had written to the Deputy CM and Irrigation Minister, Punjab, for justice.

Vinod Chaudhary, Chief Engineer, Drainage, said that he was not aware of the issue. He promised that he would look into it and would do the needful.

Jalandhar, June 30
On the intervention of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, the dispute between the Punjab Technical University (PTU) and the Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) with regard to a 7 acre piece of land was resolved today.

After hearing from the officials of both the universities, Badal ordered to allot 2.27 acres from the 7 acres to the PTU to set up a teacher training institute.

Confirming the development, Dr Rajneesh Arora, Vice Chancellor, PTU, said that the process for the construction of the training institute would begin by next week. He hoped that the institute would start working by September end.

Earlier, the state government had allotted the entire land to the GNDU to shift its constituent education college from an old building in the city.

Now, the education college of the GNDU will continue to function on the remaining part of the land.

Meanwhile, at the meeting held under the chairmanship of Badal, a decision was taken to start an autonomous campus of the PTU at Bathinda. The Government Engineering College at Bathinda would be made a constituent college of the autonomous campus.

That campus would be used to start post-graduate and research courses such as MTech, MSc and PhD in various engineering and other streams.

Patiala, June 30
Last-minute change in the syllabus of physical education candidates, appearing in the Punjab State Teacher Eligibility Test (PSTET-2011) to be held on July 3, has led to confusion among students. The SCERT changed this syllabus on June 24, just 10 days before the final exam.

Earlier, the SCERT had common syllabus for all the candidates appearing for this test, which included child development and pedagogy, Punjabi and English languages and social sciences. The decision was earlier condemned by the physical education students because leaving aside their main subject, they had to prepare for social sciences. When they had almost studied the entire syllabus according to the guidelines of the SCERT, this new syllabus comes as a shock to many.

Surinder Singh, one of the physical education candidates, said that earlier he was reluctant to take this test because his main subject was not even included and he had to study the subjects with which we had no connection lately. Now that he had prepared the entire syllabus, the SCERT had replaced social sciences with health and physical education.

“Till yesterday, there was so much confusion as the website showed that the syllabus had been changed on June 24, whereas when I took a print of my roll number, it read that I still had to take social study exam. Today, the roll number shows health and physical education as the subject. Despite the subject being my area of specialisation, the fact remains that I have not prepared for its syllabus,” he added.

“This is unbelievable. Everything related to this exam is online and I got to know about the change in syllabus today when I opened the website for taking a print of my roll number. I am staying in a hostel and did not have access to internet. Moreover, who checks the website everyday to see whether there was some change once we have checked the syllabus and final date of the test? Now, I am just left with two days to study the new syllabus,” he rued.

Director of the SCERT Neelam Bhagat could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

Chandigarh, June 30
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the Cultural Affairs Department to chalk out a comprehensive plan within a week for smooth functioning of the Ishmeet Sangeet Academy, Ludhiana, to impart quality music education.

Badal directed the PWD to complete the construction work at the academy site till October 2011.

He also gave nod to enhance the total project cost of Harpal Tiwana Academy, Patiala, from Rs 12.08 crore to Rs 14.5 crore to establish an electric sub-station, a guard room facility and other works, including regular anti-termite treatment of the wooden structures of the theatre.

A decision to this effect was taken by the CM during a meeting to review the ongoing works for the academy and Ishmeet Sangeet Academy, Ludhiana, here at his residence this morning.

Manpal Tiwana, son of Harpal Tiwana, said the academy would tie up with 'Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London' and 'University of West London' for arranging joint workshops. —TNS

Ludhiana, June 30
For providing better health facilities to the people, the Health department has been trying its level best to appoint specialist doctors, but it seems to be a distant dream, reason being the department pays very less salaries to the specialist doctors as compared to the private hospitals.

Due to this, experts of different diseases do not apply for the said posts. Last year also, these posts were advertised, but very few doctors in radiography, gynaecology, paediatricians and medicine joined. This year also, the department has advertised the posts for specialised doctors.

According to sources, “In 2009, the department advertised 125 posts of specialist doctor, but only 25 doctors joined as the department pays less salaries i.e. around Rs 40,000 per month. However, the private hospitals pay more than Rs 70,000 per month.''

Requesting anonymity, a doctor who left the job of a cardiologist from a reputed private hospital said, “I joined my services in the Health department in 2009 but I get half of the salary as compared to the private hospital where I served earlier. Moreover, facilities in government hospitals are far less."

Another doctor said, “Most of the time, the doctors remain busy in attending to the medico legal cases, which is a time- consuming process. The medical officers of the hospitals should be assigned this work and the specialised doctors should not be bothered about it."

Ludhiana, June 30
Following in the footsteps of the Himachal Pradesh Government, Director Public Instructions Schools, Punjab, has issued directions to schools urging for a ban on leather shoes. The request is a form of protest against the environmental destruction that the leather industry causes.

In addition to the cruelty to cows, leather shoes are not suited to India's hot and humid climate. Plus, leather manufacturing takes a tremendous toll on the environment. Leather shoes in school uniforms should be replaced by comfortable, environmental friendly and easy-to-clean canvas shoes, read the instructions issued by DPI, Schools, Punjab.

Leather shoes worn by children had also irked PETA activists. They have welcomed the decision taken by the Education Department. “Concerned over tanneries emerging as a major polluter of water sources and the killing of animals for their hide, PETA had also urged the government to ban leather shoes in schools,” said Himani Shetty of PETA.