Bhullar’s wife moves SC on Presidential order
New Delhi, July 9
Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s wife has moved the Supreme Court, seeking quashing of the recent Presidential order rejecting his mercy petition. Bhullar has been sentenced to death for the 1993 bomb attack on the then Youth Congress leader MS Bitta.

Soon, 6-yr BTech course at Mansa PIT
Jalandhar, July 9
Announcing the counselling schedule of admissions to its engineering college from Monday, the Punjab Technical University plans to offer six-year integrated BTech course for students after Class X for its Punjab Institute of Technology (PIT), Mansa.

Sikh Reference Library may be shifted
Amritsar, July 9
Plans are afoot to shift the Sikh Reference Library, which suffered extensive damage during Operation Bluestar in 1984, to an alternative location in the Golden Temple complex so as to give it proper and adequate space.


The Sikh Reference Library in Amritsar. Tribune photo

Hans Raj bids adieu to politics
Jalandhar, July 9
Having unsuccessfully contested the last parliamentary election as an Akali candidate from Jalandhar constituency about two years ago, renowned Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans has got fed up with politics and has bid adieu to it.
Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans addresses mediapersons in Jalandhar on Saturday. A Tribune photo

Patiala ill-prepared to check floods in villages
Patiala, July 9
Learning no lessons from the last year floods, the authorities of the district administration have not made proper flood-control arrangements, notwithstanding the fact that the monsoon season has started.


A resident of Dharmheri village, Patiala, shows an unused boat. A Tribune photograph

Turban issue
Sikhs still facing problems at airports, Italy Govt told
Patiala, July 9
Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, who is currently on a visit to Italy, has asked the Italian authorities to implement assurances on the Turban issue in letter and spirit.

COURTS

Destroying Heritage Buildings
High Court issues notice to state
Chandigarh, July 9
If allegations in a petition filed in public interest against “demolishing or tampering with heritage buildings of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation complex are to be believed, the government under the “Chief Minister and his son Deputy Chief Minister has made up its mind to give away prime heritage public property into private hands”.

CRIME

Hotel raid: Akali leader, 11 others held
Barnala, July 9
The police busted a sex racket and arrested six couples from a hotel late Thursday night. The hotel owner, a senior Akali leader, was arrested. A local court yesterday sentenced the accused, including hotel owner Gurjinder Singh Sidhu, who is also state president of the ex-servicemen wing of the SAD, to judicial remand till July 22.

4 booked for constructing shops on forest land
Fatehgarh Sahib, July 9
The Fatehgarh Sahib police has booked four people for constructing shops on the forest land and further selling the same after preparing fake documents.

Muktsar, July 9
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today did not rule out a poll alliance with Mayawati’s BSP in the coming assembly elections in Punjab.

Interacting with mediapersons here, Badal said that the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has kept its options open for electoral understanding with any party to defeat the Congress. However, he clarified that the SAD had everlasting ties with the BJP which would remain intact in the future also.

The Chief Minister said the People’s Party of Punjab neither had an election manifesto nor any policy. The PPP did not have any base in Punjab.

In an effort to understand the problems of the rural folk of the area, the Chief Minister during his Sangat Darshan spent the night in the Adarsh School at Kot Bhai. He listened to the Gurbani kirtan and had langar at Gurdwara Sri Guptsar in Chhateana village where Manpreet had held his first rally after breaking away from the SAD.

Badal warned the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre would be responsible for any loss in Punjab due to flash floods caused by the wall being built by Haryana in the Hansi-Butana canal.

Badal said that he had already written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his personal intervention, but no action has been initiated so far. “This is an indication of the Centre’s indifferent and anti-Punjab attitude”.

The Chief Minister said that the Centre has also not responded to Punjab’s demand for sending a special central team to assess the ground situation about the construction of the “illegal and unjustified wall”.

Ludhiana, July 9
With posts of women Medical Officer and Gynaecologist lying vacant in several primary health centres (PHSs) and community health centres (CHSs), the state health department has decided to take the services of private doctors at these centres.

Sources say the department has invited applications from private practitioners to outsource obstetrics.The doctors have been asked to provide OPD and delivery services whenever required at selected PHCs/CHCs.

Applications have been invited for part-time women medical officers at PHCs and part-time gynaecologists at CHCs. Krishan Kumar, Managing Director, National Rural Health Mission, Punjab, said they had already started receiving applications. He said through this endeavour, they would be able to bring down mother and infant mortality rate.

New Delhi, July 9
Devender Pal Singh Bhullar’s wife has moved the Supreme Court, seeking quashing of the recent Presidential order rejecting his mercy petition. Bhullar has been sentenced to death for the 1993 bomb attack on the then Youth Congress leader MS Bitta.

In a PIL, filed jointly with the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), Navneet Kaur has pleaded for sparing her husband’s life on 50 grounds. The primary ground is the fact that Bhullar “has become mentally retarded on account of more than 5,700 days of delay in deciding the mercy petition” and his consequent solitary confinement in Tihar Jail.

The “execution of a mentally retarded prisoner is considered to be cruel and inhuman and should be prohibited under Article 21 (fundamental right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution,” the PIL said. Navneet Kaur moved a separate petition seeking a stay on the May 25, 2001 Presidential orders, rejecting the mercy plea of Bhullar. The petitions have been listed for hearing on Monday by a Bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi.

The government had itself admitted that Bhullar was admitted to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) near Delhi, the petition said. Further, his was the first case in the country in which death sentence had been awarded despite a split verdict by the SC. Also, the Law Commission had in its 187th report in October 2003 recommended that death sentences should be given only by a five-member Constitution Bench. She said her husband’s mental condition had continued to deteriorate since his conviction in 2003. The petition further said that “waiting for the sentence to be executed results in inhuman suffering and great mental torture which is in clear breach of the fundamental rights ordained under Articles 14, 19 and 21 which contemplate a fair and expeditious procedure at all stages.”

Jalandhar, July 9
The counter-intelligence (CI) last night arrested three notorious smugglers and recovered 8 kg of heroin from their possession. A case under various Sections of the NDPS Act has been registered against them.

The contraband, valued at Rs 50 crore in the international market, was smuggled from Pakistan by a gang operating in Tarn Taran district.

The AIG, CI, Opinderjit Singh Ghuman, said they laid a trap near near Amanatpur village on the Bidhipur-Maqsoodan road following a tip-off and nabbed Bhag Singh of Amritsar and Jaskaran Singh and Gurwant Singh of Tarn Taran. The trio were carrying the contraband in a car (Tata Safari PB-46-F-1515).

During preliminary investigations it was found that the contraband was smuggled from across the Indo-Pakistan border. Ghuman said more arrests were likely.

This is the second such catch in a week. Earlier, the CIA staff of the Jalandhar (Rural) police had recovered 1.5 km heroin from a brother-sister duo near Adampur.

Chandigarh, July 9
This news may send shock waves, it is true. Punjab had to bear losses for more than two decades by not accepting rent for nearly 45 acres in Muktsar, leased out between 1968 and 1973.

For 22 years, the state was in a catch-22 situation. To accept or not to accept the rent was the seminal question.

Refusal to accept amounted to colossal financial loss. Acceptance meant continuance of possession by the lessees or their representatives even after the expiry of lease. The state chose not to pocket the rent.

But finally, after 21 years of a protracted legal battle before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the state has won the case against the “representatives of the persons, who were erstwhile lessees, to whom properties had been offered on lease for a specified period through the manager, Government Seed Farm”.

Deciding a bunch of three petitions, Justice K Kannan has ordered the ejection of the “lessees in each one of the cases”. Justice Kannan fixed August 8 as the date for the parties to appear before the Muktsar Collector for inquiry on mesne profits - money to be paid for occupation of land to a person with right of immediate occupation.

Chandigarh, July 9
Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh today said it was strange that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had yet to got a feel of villages even after spending seven decades in politics and he “wants to sleep in the villages now to get to know them better.”

Capt Amarinder said merely sleeping in villages by the Chief Minister would not solve the villagers’ problems. Calling it a political gimmick, he said the functioning of village schools was being disturbed with classrooms being converted into air-conditioned bedrooms for the CM’s stay. “It is disgusting and shameful that for his own convenience, Badal does not mind desecrating the sanctity of schools”, he said, adding that he should spend a night in villages like an ordinary man and not a medieval monarch.

The former Chief Minister cautioned against relaxing norms for allowing private universities.

He said, while private universities are welcome, these must adhere to academic standards so that students coming passing out of these universities are accepted worldwide.

“We don’t want teaching shops in the name of private universities”, he warned.

Ludhiana, July 9
Most district presidents of the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) are likely to be shown the door within 15 days, said the newly appointed president of the YAD, Bikram Singh Majithia, who was in the city today to attend a function especially held on the 49th birthday of Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Badal.

At the function, as many as 1100 physically challenged from all over the state were given away tricycles. Majithia said the re-organisation would take place within a month. The first list of new district chiefs would be released in a fortnight. — TNS

Fazilka (Punjab), July 9
Heavy rainfall in parts of Punjab has resulted in breaching of river embankments at various places and an alarming rise in the water level of the Satluj river on Saturday, an official said.

Several acres of agricultural land was inundated near Fazilka town, in Ferozepur district, said an irrigation department official.

“We have reports that hundreds of acres of agricultural land has been flooded near Fazilka. Besides, one village is also flooded in this area. Incessant rainfall, during the last 12 hours, has raised the water level at an alarming pace in Satluj river,” he said.

“We are evaluating the situation and instructions have been issued to district deputy commissioner and police to make rescue arrangements,” he added.

In the neighbouring state Haryana, water level in Yamuna river has also increased in the last 24 hours, posing a flood threat to the adjoining areas.

Met officials predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in most parts of Punjab and Haryana in the coming days.

In July last year, various districts of Punjab and Haryana were flooded due to heavy showers. Several acres of agricultural land was submerged and over 30 people lost their lives.— IANS

Amritsar, July 9
Plans are afoot to shift the Sikh Reference Library, which suffered extensive damage during Operation Bluestar in 1984, to an alternative location in the Golden Temple complex so as to give it proper and adequate space.

The Sikh History Research Board, which looks after the library, has recommended to SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar to facilitate “proper space” to the library that is currently located amid residential quarters in the Golden Temple complex.

At a recent meeting of the board presided over by its Chairman Kirpal Singh Badungar, the board members felt that the current location of the library is not suitable as it does not fulfil its present requirements.

“The library should be shifted to a modern and spacious premises fully equipped with all facilities to carry out research work and ensure proper upkeep of the treasure trove of knowledge with the help of modern techniques,” they said.

They have suggested to the SGPC to shift the library to the rooms adjacent to Manji Sahib Diwan Hall which were earlier utilised by Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewa Jatha, Birmingham, while performing kar sewa.

They said the rooms may be renovated as per the needs of the library, adding that it could be a stop-gap arrangement till the new building of the library is raised. They have also recommended that a detailed map of the new library premises should be prepared.

The board has also recommended the recruitment of scholars in Hindi, English, Urdu and Persian, besides other required staff for the library.

Badungar said they don’t have proper space for the library and the common man doesn’t know about its location. “We would like to have suitable premises equipped with all modern facilities,” he said adding that they have submitted their recommendations to the SGPC chief.

The library boasts of around 400 manuscripts of Guru Granth Sahib, over 800 other manuscripts and 21,000 books. The library has manuscripts that are as old as 300 years while the oldest book dates back to 150 years.

Jalandhar, July 9
Having unsuccessfully contested the last parliamentary election as an Akali candidate from Jalandhar constituency about two years ago, renowned Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans has got fed up with politics and has bid adieu to it.

Hans plainly said, “Politics is not my cup of tea. I tried to maintain moral values even during electioneering. I did not even think of distributing liquor to buy votes during campaigning and never indulged in criticising my main rival Congress candidate Mohinder Singh Kaypee. Instead, as Kaypee was elder to him, I touched his feet whenever I met him.”

Hans said, “I just tried to tell voters, while addressing election rallies, what I would do if I got elected MP.”

But he clarified that he had no regrets for remaining in active politics and contesting elections.

Meanwhile, Hans said that a three-day 28th annual function would be organised at the Nakodar situated Lal Badshah Darbar shrine, which he heads nowadays, from July 18.

Well-known singers Nachattar Gill, Harjeet Harman, Amarinder Gill, Lakhwinder Wadali, Durga Rangeela, Lehbar Husainpuri, Feroze Khan, Kaler Kandh and Balraj would perform during the three-day function.

Patiala, July 9
Learning no lessons from the last year floods, the authorities of the district administration have not made proper flood-control arrangements, notwithstanding the fact that the monsoon season has started.

The lack of preparedness could well be gauged from the fact that most of the boats, meant to be used during the floods, are lying in pathetic condition in Dharmheri and nearby villages on the Punjab-Haryana border.

A visit to some of the villages, including Dharmheri, Sassi Gujaran, Sassi Thay and Haripur, brought to light that the boats required to be used during exigency are in non-functional condition. Notably, Dharmheri is one of the worst affected from the floods on account of the fact that this village is just next to the Hansi-Butana canal, where breaches occurred last year too.

Speaking to The Tribune, Jatinder Singh of Dharmheri village said it was surprising that proper flood-control measures were yet to be taken by the authorities concerned.

“The issues of the Hansi-Butana canal is pending in the court, but at least the government can put in place the proper arrangements to make sure that the villagers do not have to suffer major loss in case of the floods. The defunct boats itself exposes the flood preparedness of the district administration,” he rued. Jaswant Singh Grewal, a farmer of Haripur village, said not only a boat, but all the boats in the flood-prone villages were lying in bad condition. “Last week, because of overflowing of the Mirpur seasonal rivulet, half a dozen villages were flooded with water. Due to this some of the boats are under water and could not be spotted,” he added.

Malkiat Singh Cheema, a farmer of Dharmheri, said from the past many years, the Mirpur seasonal rivulet, adjoining the Dharmheri village, has not been cleansed. He further said the district administration has not bothered to get Mirpur seasonal rivulet cleansed, despite the fact that it was responsible for flooding of around six villages.

“The problem of overflowing of the seasonal rivulets and open drains has aggravated during the past few years because of the fact that the authorities concerned have not undertaken the drive to cleanse them,” said Hardeep Singh, a farmer from Sassi Gujaran village. Patiala Deputy ADC-cum-nodal officer for flood control, APS Virk said, “Generally, we get all the boats repaired before the rainy season. If the boats are lying defunct, I will look into the matter and will also instruct the SDM concerned to ensure that all the boats must be operational.” The authorities refuted the allegations that cleansing of the seasonal rivulets and drains was not done.

Patiala, July 9
Minister of State for External Affairs, Preneet Kaur, who is currently on a visit to Italy, has asked the Italian authorities to implement assurances on the Turban issue in letter and spirit.

Giving this information on behalf of Preneet, her additional private secretary MP Singh stated that Preneet interacted with a large number of people from the Indian community at Milan and Rome.

“One of the issues taken up by the Indian diaspora in Italy was that the passengers belonging to the Sikh community are being asked to remove their turbans at the security check at the Italian airports. Despite the categorical assurances from Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna in his bilateral meeting on June 2011 that they will not be asked to remove their turbans unless there is a specific alert, the Sikhs are still facing problems. They also gave examples of several cases when they were asked to remove the turbans at the Milan Airport,” the additional private secretary told The Tribune.

“Italian Minister reiterated the assurances made by the Italian Foreign Minister. They were categorical that the suitable instructions in the matter had already been issued by their interior ministry,” said MP Singh.

MP Singh also said pertaining to the matter of the work permit for the Indian students and the visa problems for the spouses of the Indian students coming on long-term courses/professionals working in the Indian companies in Italy, the Italian minister assured that they were ready to initiate the process for signing suitable bilateral agreements to resolve the matter.

Chandigarh, July 9
If allegations in a petition filed in public interest against “demolishing or tampering with heritage buildings of the Amritsar Municipal Corporation complex are to be believed, the government under the “Chief Minister and his son Deputy Chief Minister has made up its mind to give away prime heritage public property into private hands”.

The petitioner, the National Welfare Society, has alleged “it has further decided to make hotel/shops etc by ruining the heritage of the State of Punjab”. Elaborating, the petitioner has said: “On February 4 last a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the present Deputy Chief Minister, wherein it was decided that the Town Hall complex which houses the offices of the Municipal Corporation, Amritsar, be shifted. Further plans to reuse the town hall complex were materialised. It was decided that the feasibility of re-using the Town Hall complex as a hotel under public/private partnership be considered.

“It was further decided that the entire project which would include hotels, shops, museums etc should be undertaken by private partners for running and maintaining the same”. Arguing on the petitioner’s behalf, counsel Deepak Sibal said the building was built 143 years ago.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice of motion to the State of Punjab and other respondents. In its petition before the Acting Chief Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice AK Mittal, the society also sought directions for prohibiting the state and other respondents “from shifting the Municipal Corporation offices and other police offices from the Town Hall heritage complex”.

Fatehgarh Sahib, July 9
The Fatehgarh Sahib police has booked four people for constructing shops on the forest land and further selling the same after preparing fake documents.

In their complaint to the police, Jaswinderpal Singh, Bhagwant Singh, Kabir Singh and Kirpal Singh, all the residents of Sirhind alleged that Bachan Lal, Lachhman Singh, his father Swarup Singh and Atma Ram encroached upon a piece of the forest land and got three shops constructed on it. They further sold the shops after preparing “fake” documents, the complainant alleged.

The police has booked the foursome under Section 420 and 120 B of the IPC. The police investigated the case and arrested Bachan Lal, who has been sent to judicial custody, while hunt for the others is on.

The complainants alleged that despite informing the Forest Department and the PWD B&R officials they did not initiate concrete steps to remove the encroachments.

While the PWD B&R Department looks into the maintenance work, the Forest Department officials look after plantation and care of trees over the land.

The complainants had also procured information under the RTI about the area under forest land near ward number 7 of the city.

The information reveals that a portion of 66-feet road between Sirhind Mandi and Sirhind city was encroached upon by them and shops were also being built.

Initially the encroachers built temporary sheds, but later they built permanent shops. Complainants said accused in this case had lodged a complaint with various authorities and the Deputy Commissioner that the Sirhind Municipal Council was trying to build shops on the forest land in 2002.

However, they themselves got the shops built the very next year. The police officials said they were looking into the matter.