Amritsar, July 27
With the Gurdwara Election Commission hinting at the possibility of the SGPC polls in September, political activity among panthic outfits is likely to gain momentum in the coming days.

While the SAD has been ruling the roost in the SGPC ever since its inception, this time some political outfits led by the chief of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) and SAD (Delhi), Paramjit Singh Sarna, are trying to consolidate opposition groups under a single front. Moderate groups like the SAD (Longowal) and the SAD (1920) have already forged an alliance with the SAD (Delhi) for the SGPC elections. These outfits are now looking forward to further strengthening their front by roping in hardliners. It would not be an easy task as the hardliners are already a house divided. On the one hand there are radical Sikh outfits like the Khalsa Action Committee (KAC), the Dal Khalsa and the SAD (Panch Pardhani), while on the other is SAD (Amritsar) led by Simranjit Singh Mann.

Talking to The Tribune, Sarna said they would not enter into a poll agreement with any group that talked about Khalistan. “We have been in touch with other groups in the past and now we will initiate a fresh round of talks to reach an electoral understanding with them”, he said. Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh did not rule out the possibility of their group aligning with the moderates. “We may come together to form a formidable front against the SAD and if we cannot enter into a tie-up with them we might go for a seat-sharing arrangement with them,” he added. According to him, the ruling SAD would like to see a triangular fight in the SGPC polls as it would work to its advantage. “The SAD would do everything possible to ensure that a consolidated front is not formed against it,” he averred.

The All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) Chief Karnail Singh Peermohammed said they will join the front formed by the SAD (Delhi) only if the SAD (Amritsar) is also brought into it. He said he will act as a bridge between the moderates and the hardliners..

SAD leader Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema said, “As always, we know the Congress will be contesting the SGPC elections indirectly. However, we are not concerned, as the Sikhs have always rejected those having Congress support.” He alleged that the Congress first tried to delay the SGPC polls and now it would contest the elections through proxy groups. “The people will vote for SAD as they have faith in us,” he said.

The SAD had swept the last SGPC elections held in July 2004, by winning 134 seats out of the 167 on which polling was conducted. There are a total of 170 SGPC members. Apart from them, 15 members are nominated to the committee, while five Sikh highpriests and the head priest of the Golden Temple are ex-officio members.

Chandigarh, July 27
Dubai-based Punjabi businessmen today bailed out 17 Punjabi youth facing the gallows by paying Rs 4.25 crore in blood money to the family of a Pakistani national who was killed in a gang fight in 2009. The Appeals Court in Sharjah today accepted the ‘tanazul’ (release document) signed by a representative of Mishri Khan, the Pakistani national for whose murder the youth had earlier been awarded the death sentence.

The Counsel General of India in Dubai, in a written communiqué, said Dubai-based businessmen SP Singh Oberoi handed over AED 3.39 million (Rs 4.25 crore) on behalf of the Indian community as compensation to Mishri Khan’s representative in the court today. It said, following this Mishri’s representative Ramadan gave a statement agreeing to the compensation and signed the release document, which was accepted by judge Abdullah Al Shamsi.

The judge would deliver his formal order granting pardon to the 17 youth on the next date of hearing on September 20. The Counsel General’s office also made it clear that it had no objection to the compromise and that it had gone ahead with it keeping in mind the interest of the accused as well as local judicial practices.

Meanwhile, S P Singh Oberoi, who handed over the blood money to Mishri Khan’s relative said that he had contributed Rs 2.25 crore to the blood money. The remaining Rs 2 crore has been donated by three Punjabi businessmen from Dubai following an appeal by former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

The former CM, while speaking about the issue said a lot of behind-the-scenes activity led by Pak journalist Khalid Mehmood Khalid had sealed the deal with Mishri Khan’s family. He said the journalist had conducted negotiations for four days with Mishri’s family at Sargodha to persuade the family members to accept the blood money.

Amarinder Singh claimed that the youth could get a royal pardon during the month of Ramzan. Oberoi also seconded this. After the acceptance of the blood money, the youth are in line for a three-year sentence under normal circumstances for other charges made out against them. They have already served two and a half years in jail.

Meanwhile, Amarinder loyalist Gurjit Singh Jawanda said it was ironical that the Punjabi youth were set for release following an appeal made by Capt Amarinder Singh to the Indian community during his visit to Dubai last year, while the SGPC had failed to mobilise funds from gurdwaras abroad to come to the rescue of the youth.

Chandigarh, July 27
The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, Vinod Rai, today emphasised the need to have regular and timely auditing and accounting of all public expenditure to ensure transparency and good governance in the system on the one hand and judicious utilisation of public funds on the other.

Rai met the Chief Minister at his residence this afternoon and apprised him about the significance and relevance of the auditing and accounting, mandated by the Constitution to ensure proper utilisation of public funds by all stakeholders.

Appreciating the efforts of the Accountant-General of Punjab, which has been entrusted with overseeing budgetary spending by the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and urban local bodies. Badal said that this exercise had proved to be fruitful in inculcating a sense of financial prudence and proper utilisation of public funds. He also asked Rai to arrange a short-duration training programme or workshop for the members of panchayat, especially panchayat secretaries, to equip them with basic norms of the auditing and accounting procedure to ensure proper execution of development works.

Taking part in the deliberations, Principal Secretary Finance K.B.S. Sidhu informed Rai that the Punjab government had already laid emphasis on the development of core sectors of health and education, besides infrastructure and growth.

He said that the state had set up a task force to ensure the use of accrual system of accounting in the government departments as well as in the (PSUs) public sector undertakings.

The funds distributed during the Chief Minister’s Sangat Darshans fall under no budgetary head or any planned expenditure.

Money is distributed totally at the discretion of the Chief Minister after borrowing from various boards and corporations with the sole purpose of buying the people instead of winning them over.

The SAD-BJP Government has borrowed unaccounted sums of money from marketing board, municipal development board, PUNSUP, MARKFED, Rural Development Fund, PIDB, etc.

These boards and corporations have raised the funds by mortgaging their assets for five to 10 years.

Money collected after selling government properties is also distributed in Sangat Darshans.

There is no audit of this account, neither does any report of this goes to the state legislature - it is blatantly illegal.

The CAG had not only objected to the money being distributed during Sangat D rshans in the last SAD-BJP regime but had also called it a misuse of power and asked that the money should be recovered.

Patiala, July 27
Continuing its ongoing drive to ensure clean and green environment in the state, the officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) conducted raids at more than 12 distilleries, which are manufacturing alcohol based on grains and molasses.

“On receiving complaints that some of the distilleries are violating the environmental laws, we decided to raid these distilleries on July 23 and 25,” said the senior board functionaries.

Board chairman KS Pannu said with a view to achieve the norms prescribed under the pollution control laws, all the distilleries were supposed to treat their air and water effluents in a scientific manner. “However, the board has been receiving many complaints with regard to violation of the environmental laws by the distillers. Hence, 12 teams headed by senior environmental engineers were constituted to inspect the above-mentioned 12 distilleries to ascertain that whether these distilleries are adhering to the norms or not,” he said.

“Scrutiny of the visit reports shows that there is a possibility of diversion of waste water to unspecific places, including the drains, in some of the distilleries. Some of the distilleries were found to be emitting black smoke, whereas in some distilleries, the water was found stagnated in the plantation area,” added Pannu.

“Sample of the air and water effluents have been collected and sent for analysis to the laboratory. We are waiting for the report and in case, any distillery is found violating the prescribed pollution norms, strict action will be initiated against the erring distilleries under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act- 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act- 1981,” he said.

In case of violation of the pollution norms, the erring industry/distiller not only faces closer under the relevant laws, but also the respective owners are liable to be prosecuted, leading to imprisonment up to six years.

According to information available with The Tribune, the PPCB team raided AB Sugars Limited, Randhawa village, Dasuya (Hoshiarpur); Jagatjit Industries Limited, Hamira (Kapurthala); Pioneer Industries (Pathankot); Malbros International Private Limited, Zira (Ferozepur); Rana Sugars Limited, Distillery Division (Tarn Taran); Piccadily Sugar, Distillery Division, near Patran (Patiala); Khasa Distillery (Amritsar); Patiala Distillery, Main village (Patiala); AB Grains Spirits, Harchowal, (Gurdaspur); NV Distillery, Rajpura (Patiala); Chandigarh Distillery, Banur (Mohali) and Nuway Organic Naturals, Rajpura (Patiala).

Jalandhar, July 27
The police is baffled at the recovery of high-intensity explosives lying beneath shrubs near the field ammunition depot here late last evening. The explosives, including four 90 mm live bombshells, were noticed by a passerby. Police sources said two of the bombshells were made of a highly explosive compound, white phosphorus and the other contained trinitrotoluene, commonly known as TNT. Such bombshells are used in military warfare.

Gurmit Singh, SP (Detective), said the shells may have fallen into the hands of scrap dealers who may have deliberately dumped the material. Another police officer, pleading anonymity, said:

“The bombshells may have been smuggled out of the Army establishment for use in terror strikes. However, such a possibility is rather bleak.” Brushing aside rumours that the bombshells may have been smuggled out to be sold to scrap dealers, he said no Army man would undertake such a risk for a paltry Rs 3,000 or so.

A team of Army personnel took possession of the explosives this evening. “As the explosives were found in an area that falls in the jurisdiction of the police, the Army could intervene only after a formal request by the district administration,”explained defence spokesperson Naresh Vig. The Police has registered a case.

Chandigarh, July 27
With elections six months away, the age-old issue of who has betrayed the interests of Punjab is centrestage yet again. Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal chose to accuse Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala, who is scheduled to re-enter active politics, of betraying the interests of the state two days back. Today the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Amarinder Singh accused Badal of moral cowardice. Amarinder has joined issue with Badal and has made it clear that he will be wooing the panthic vote to which the CM is appealing by accusing Barnala of playing into the hands of the Congress by supporting the Rajiv-Longowal accord.

The PPCC chief today chose to launch a full-scale attack on Badal, accusing him of moral cowardice since the latter had chosen not to take on the panthic committee for fear of being killed.

Amarinder claimed Badal’s statement that Barnala had bartered away the interests of the state was a reflection on his character. He said Barnala had supported Sant Harchand Singh Longowal who had put his life on line to bring normalcy back to Punjab. “With more than 39,000 lives having been lost at that juncture, this was absolutely essential”, he added. Meanwhile, sources said it was in the interest of the Congress to strengthen Barnala. The Barnala group had earlier sent feelers to the Congress and demanded two tickets for Barnala’s son Gaganjit and close supporter Gobind Singh Kanjla. This, however, has not been acceded to until now. The group could now jump on to Manpreet Badal’s bandwagon. The Barnala group, which is antagonistic to former MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, could cut into the Akali votes in Barnala and Dhuri, besides a few other constituencies. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 27
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh has written to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh requesting him to hold an inquiry into the political activities of Punjab DGP PS Gill and Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister DS Guru.

Capt Amarinder said since the Election Commission could do little till the Model Code of Conduct came into force, the Central Government could look into the issue of violation of service rules by Gill and Guru. — TNS

Chandigarh, July 27
The Majha “brigade”, comprising MLAs, ex-MLAs and other senior Congress leaders, today joined the crusade for the restoration of Punjab Chief Vigilance Commissioner’s post.

A statement, seeking the CVC’s immediate appointment, by at least five Congress leaders from Majha came just two days after The Tribune brought to fore how the Vigilance Bureau was caught napping by the CBI, which arrested two senior police functionaries on the allegations of corruption.

Terming the recent arrests of the police officials and a legislator by the CBI as an indicator of massive corruption prevailing in the state, they also “asked for removal of Punjab Vigilance Bureau head Sumedh Singh Saini for his failure to check corruption”.

The Congress leaders from Majha include District Congress Committee (DCC) Gurdaspur president Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, DCC Amritsar (rural) president Harpartap Singh Ajnala, DCC Tarn Taran president Dr Dharambir Agnihotri, MLA SS Sukhsarkaria, Ashok Sharma, Tripat Rajinder Bajwa and others.

They asserted “due to the rising corruption and State Vigilance Bureau’s failure to check it, there was a dire need to appoint State Vigilance Commission headed by a retired High Court judge.

In the statement, Randhawa said each arrest by the CBI in the corruption case reflected the failure of the Vigilance Bureau.

“The spate of arrests by the CBI has proved that Punjab Home Minister Sukhbir Badal is making hollow claims of transparent government. In fact, the Vigilance Bureau has become a puppet of the Badals, who are using it only to settle political scores.

“Otherwise, the Vigilance must tell how many police officers of DSP and above ranks it has arrested and why it has failed to nab the police officials, whom later the CBI arrested.”

He added the Bureau was not checking corruption, but was promoting it. “Many vigilance officers posted in the districts take cut from patwaris, tehsildars and other revenue officials,” he claimed.

He also demanded a probe into the assets of the vigilance officers. He claimed after forming a government, the Congress would launch a massive probe into the assets of the VB officials, who remained on plum posts during the SAD-BJP tenure.

Nangal, July 27
The Congress workers today staged a protest against the Ropar District Planning Board Chairman and BJP leader Madan Mohan Mittal. Led by Nangal MLA Rana KP Singh, they protested Mittal’s stance on statements about Passiwal village’s Congress sarpanch Sandesh Kumari and registration of criminal cases against three youths Mukesh Kumar, Vishal and Mangu.

While addressing the workers, Rana KP Singh said anticipating defeat in the forthcoming Assembly elections, Madan Mohan Mittal has started making statements against the Congress panches and sarpanches. He said all three Congress workers had been falsely booked under Sections 323, 341, 506 and 34 of the IPC. Rana demanded that the falsely registered case should be quashed.

He also demanded that a case be registered against zila parishad member Ram Kumar Sahor who made wrong remarks about sarpanch Sandesh Kumari. He added that if no action was initiated, they would gherao mini secretariat.

Ropar, July 27
Ropar has become the first district of Punjab to issue Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) to 100 per cent voters in the district.

District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner GK Singh informed this during video conferencing with Chief Electoral Officer Kusumjit Kaur Sidhu. He said during photography campaign from June 1 to June 30, around 4,200 voters between the age of 18 and 19 years were registered and duly photographed.

He added the district has a population of around 6,83,349. Of these, till June 30, 4,56,334 voters have been photographed and issued EPICs and the Election Department has been sent complete lists of voters.

Total number of voters in Anandpur Sahib constituency are 1,62,042. In Ropar, the number of voters is 1,39,671 and in Chamkaur Sahib (reserved), total number of voters is 1,62,042.

During last month’s campaign, 12,172 new voters were registered from all three constituencies, while 1,883 votes have been deleted due to death of voters or transfers. Around 1,700 votes were amended after getting Form 8 from respective voters.

There would be 553 polling stations in the district for which the district administration has demanded 647 electronic voting machines (EVMs).

These would include 191 EVMs at Anandpur Sahib, 180 at Ropar and 192 at Chamkaur Sahib polling station.

Around 5,515 persons would be needed to carry out voting peacefully in the district, including 3,147 polling staff and 2,368 police personnel.

Patiala, July 27
In the wake of a complaint by a village sarpanch regarding the purchase of allegedly spurious and sub-standard raw material for the manufacturing of ayurvedic medicines at the Government Ayurvedic Pharmacy in Patiala, Dr JP Singh, Director, Health and Family Welfare, and Civil Surgeon Dr Usha Bansal reached the dispensary at 9 am in the morning.

Interestingly, store in charge Preetinder Kaur and all other concerned officials were on leave when the officers reached the dispensary for inspection of the medicines. Therefore, the officials sealed five rooms filled with medicines.

Talking to the mediapersons, Dr JP Singh said they would visit the pharmacy again and the rooms would be opened for collecting samples of medicines. He also said they would ensure that all concerned officers were present on their next visit so that proper inquiry could be conducted.

It is worth mentioning that Punjab Health Minister Satpal Gosain had constituted a four-member committee to investigate all charges levelled in the complaint and had asked the committee to submit the report within 15 days. The committee had taken the samples of materials purchased under the NRHM scheme worth Rs 81.5 lakh and sent them for tests but they could not take the samples for the second grant of Rs 98.7 lakh as the store in charge Preetinder Kaur had been on medical leave since long and the stores were locked.

Patiala, July 27
Power capacity addition of just 500 MW in a decade. Sounds strange, but true. This is what Punjab has achieved on the power front in the past 10 years. The startling figure came to light when the PSEB Engineers’ Association, the largest body of engineers working with the Power Corporation, released “White Paper” on the present state of affairs of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) — the two power utilities of Punjab.

A thorough perusal of the “White Paper” shows that till 1995, Punjab was comfortable on power front, with availability of more power than demand. “Punjab started suffering the brunt of power shortage after 2000. After the commissioning of 600 MW Ranjit Sagar Dam in 2000 and 420 MW Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant in 1998, the state augmented the power capacity of the Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant by 500 MW in 2008. Addition of mere 500 MW of power in a decade itself speaks of the non-seriousness of the successive state governments towards the most important power sector,” reads the “White Paper”.

Expressing his views on the matter, the president of the PSEB Engineers’ Association, H.S.Bedi, said with no power generation likely to be added in another at least one-and-half years, the gap between the demand and supply is bound to increase in future. “The power purchase bill increased from Rs 2,405 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 6,020 crore in 2007-08. The costliest component of power purchase that is short-term power purchase bill increased from Rs 542 crore in 2005-06 to Rs 2,285 crore in 2007-08.

Precious funds, which could have been utilised for setting up new generation capacity, were instead utilised to buy power at high cost from the market, which resulted in putting the Power Corporation into a debt trap,” he argued.

The “White Paper” also highlighted that power engineers and the PSPCL management had been requesting the state government to set up at least one thermal plant under the state sector but to no avail. The “White Paper” is also critical about the new power generation policy announced by the Punjab Government last year. “The new policy is bound to increase the power tariff. Considering the policy in totality, the Power Generation Policy 2010 should be withdrawn immediately,” demanded the association members.

Meanwhile, under the banner of the PSEB Engineers’ Association, the power engineers in various offices of the Power Corporation, across the state, observed a two-hour “pen-down and tool- down” strike.

Ropar, July 27
Member of Parliament Ravneet Singh Bittu has asked the SAD-BJP government to make the affidavit public, which was filed in the Supreme Court pertaining to the case of Prof Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar.

He said the Punjabis have a right to know whether they should trust statements of Akali leaders pertaining to mercy for Prof Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar or should trust affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court.

Bittu said while the ruling Akali government had submitted in an affidavit before the Supreme Court earlier that Bhullar is a hardcore criminal, on the other hand, its members are shedding crocodile tears and seeking mercy for him keeping in view the forthcoming Assembly and the SGPC elections.

Patiala, July 27
In a drive against anti-social elements that are active at various railway stations in Punjab, the Government Railway Police (GRP) has arrested numerous gangs involved in drugging commuters and later robbing them of their valuables. In the past one week, the GRP registered more than 56 cases against such criminals.

According to information, one such gang was arrested in Ludhiana. The modus operandi of the gang was to offer drug-laced eatables to fellow commuters in trains and then flee with their goods.

IG (GRP) Rohit Choudhary confirmed that one such gang was apprehended near the sheds in the Sangrur railway station and five members who were planning a robbery inside the train, were arrested on the spot.